After you’ve read some reviews news and tutorials you might wan’t to try Microsoft Sliverlight in action. Naturally, you’ll need some special tools to start your own expierence and that is what this article about. So we are going to talk about Microsoft’s new suite of tools for designing and building web and Windows client applications and rich digital media contents – Microsoft Expression studio 3.
So let’s see what we get in the box. Expression studio suit consists of:
1. Microsoft Expression Web 3
2. Expression Blend™ 3 + SketchFlow
3. Microsoft Expression Design 3
4. Microsoft Expression Encoder
Now let’s find out what is what:
Microsoft Expression Web3 – is a WYSIWYG HTML editor and general web design program.With Expression Web you’ll find an easier and faster way to process or create standards-driven websites.
The product’s main features are:
Professional Code Editor
Professional Design Surface
Visual diagnostics
Broad support for Industry-Standard Technologies
Broad Web Standards Support
Build Dynamic Interactive Sites
Create Professional Graphics for Your Site
Encode Silverlight video for Web streaming
Publishing Flexibility
Import Photoshop files
Expression Blend™ 3 + SketchFlow – is a tool for developing interactive elements for Silverlight and. NET. It also allows you to convey the concept of user experiences accurately. It supports the WPF text engine with advanced OpenType typography and Clear Type, vector-based 2D widgets, and 3D widgets with hardware acceleration via DirectX.
SketchFlow- is a prototyping tool that allows you to create, review and compare several ideas before a final decision.
Its main features are:
Possibility to create quickly a prototype vision for an application with Sketchflow.
Enabling interactivity without writing code
Accelerates the design of effective UI with design time data
Extensive and flexible import capabilitie
A full code editor with XAML, C# and VB IntelliSense
Powerful template editing capabilities
Support for Silverlight and WPF
Improved UI
Integrate with Team Foundation Server
Workflow
Microsoft Expression Design 3 – professional illustration vector and raster graphic design tool for web images based on Creature House Expression, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2003. This tool is more oriented towards editing XAML and web graphics.
The main features are:
Incorporates graphics from other applications
Work with advanced and flexible vector manipulation tools, path operators
Places and aligns your graphic elements precisely
Powerful Tools
Editable Effects
Expansive Options
Powerful new export and slicing tools
Creates assets such as buttons or backgrounds that you can use in any authoring tool
Microsoft Expression Encoder 3- is a Windows-based program for encoding digital video for Silverlight-based web video. So to say, it’s just simple and accessible interface that simplifies the process of preparing video material for use in a variety of purposes.
The main features are:
Smart encoding/smart recompression
Decoding/import format support
Smooth streaming (720p+ video using HTTP) with optimized client (Silverlight)
WebDAV publishing
JavaScript trigger events
Windows Media 11 SDK and VC-1 SDK integration, native MPEG-2 decoder
Adding captions to videos using SAMI or W3C Timed Text format
Previewing and comparing encoding settings in real time
Object model for the encoding engine, SDK downloadable separately
Encode content to the industry standard H.264 format
To use Microsoft Expression Studio 3 you need:
Operating system Microsoft Windows ® XP with Service Pack 2, Windows Vista ™ and Windows 7
Windows ® Media Player 11 (only Windows XP)
PC with a processor 1 GHz or higher
1 GB or more RAM
2 GB or more hard disk space
. NET Framework 3.5 with Service Pack 1
Graphics support Microsoft DirectX ® 9.0 driver Windows Vista Display Driver Model (WDDM), 128 MB or more video memory,
hardware support for Pixel Shader 2.0, 32 bits per pixel
DVD-ROM drive
Monitor with a resolution of 1024 x 768 or higher and 24 bit color depth
Internet access (for work in the Internet may need to make a charge)
Some features require Silverlight 2.0, Firefox 3.0, Internet Explorer 7 and AJAX Suite
The actual requirements and product functionality may vary depending on the configuration of your computer and operating system and does not involve the simultaneous use of multiple copies of the product.