Posts Tagged ‘Microsoft’
Windows Internet Explorer Platform Preview (IE9)
The Windows Internet Explorer Platform Preview is a Microsoft application which allows developers to test websites in the next version of Microsoft’s browser – Internet Explorer 9. The download is free and available from ie.microsoft.com/testdrive
The website itself outlines some of the improvements to the rendering engine which is designed to deliver better comptability with excisting and newer web technologies. There are speed and graphic demos explaining some of the improved features. The HTML 5 demos explain some of the newer HTML+CSS feature of IE9 which are commonplace in most modern browsers but general lacking in IE.
The Platform Preview only works on Windows 7 and Vista (SP2) and will not overwrite the excising current version of Internet Explorer. It’s important to note that the application is not designed to be a complete browser. It simply renders pages as IE9 will, as such there are no browser basics like favourites, back/forward, address bar etc. This is strictly for testing purposes, and helps ensure sites are ready for the big IE update later this year.
Introducing Microsoft Expression Web 3
Expression Web 3 is the latest version of Microsoft’s web development application.
Writing code in Expression Web 3 is a pleasure weather it’s XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP or any of the other built in web development languages. Intelligence effectively checks your code on the fly like a spell checker (which is also included) underlining code or sections which have been entered incorrectly. You can also save a list of commonly used snippets which can be inserted by perssing CTRL+Enter, or if you’re looking for PHP/CSS press CTRL+L for all the various functions and properties.
And don’t worry about the rendering engine, it doesn’t use Trident. The smart people in the Expression Web development team have used a completely different, and standard complient. But just to be safe the SuperPreview is included to allow you to check rendering on IE6, IE7, IE8 and Firefox. The application looks good, is really easy to use, even if like me you get rid of most of the toolbars. The application loads much faster you’d expect from a Microsoft Application.
Like many other people have said, even if Adobe DreamWeaver didn’t cost like a million pounds, Expression Web (£6o-£70) is most certainly the one for me.
PS if you’re looking for a replacement for Microsoft Frontpage, you might be better looking at Office SharePoint Designer. It retains more of the more popular FrontPage features like as pre-built web components, database, marquee, hit counter, navigation bars, insert maps etc.
