Expression Studio 2 Release and Training

keiths — Fri, 09 May 2008 07:08:00 GMT

Without much fanfare, I’m back.

What brings me from my blogging hiatus? Last week’s Expression Studio 2 launch, of course. My team and I have been working on this release at a breakneck pace this past year and have been deeply focused on launch since MIX 08. Accordingly, it is great to see the fruits of our labor being praised by customers, partners and the press.

You can start using the tools today. Fully-functional, 30-day trials for the Expression product family are available for download today and thousands of designers and enthusiasts are exchanging ideas on the Expression Community site.

One thing I am really excited about with this release is the in-the-box video tutorials provided by Total Training. More than four hours of content is available to help Expression users get started with the latest features. But wait, there’s more. Total Training has also produced a full series of tutorials that build on the in-the-box tutorials. These materials will be available as part of Total Training Online in June. In the interim, you can access a free 7-day guest pass to Total Training Online to review the Expression Studio v1 content already there. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, the training is available in English only.

Last, but certainly not least, I encourage you to read about the Expression Professional Subscription. It is the most convenient, most economical way of getting access to all the products professional designers need to create, test and deploy on the Microsoft platform. With a $999 estimated retail price for the first year and $649 annual renewal you get access to the latest versions of each of the following:

Expression® Studio

Visual Studio® Standard

Office Standard

Office Visio® Professional

Windows® XP

Windows Vista® Business Edition

Virtual PC

Parallels Desktop for Mac

Pre-configured virtualized server environments

Other vendors charge more for suites that only include design tools. With the Expression Professional Subscription you get design, development and productivity tools in addition to the latest client & server operating systems and virtualized environments to really put the tools to the test. Even better, the subscription includes a snazzy Welcome Kit.

Keith Smith's Blog : Expression

Expression Studio 2 Release and Training