ASP.NET Tips: Expression Web vs Visual Studio

So there are now two different editors that are out from Microsoft. There is Visual Studio which has been around for a long time and now a new tool called Expression Web. So which should you use?

Well it all comes down to what you are going to be doing.

Expression

If you are creating a lot of HTML pages and designing them and working with client-side scripting, then Expression Web is the tool for you. The entire Expression Suite is geared towards Graphic Designers. It has tools for everything from creating images, to creating web pages and even Silverlight or Videos.

Visual Studio

If, on the other hand, you are doing a lot of work that involves code-behind (connecting to databases, calling web services and things like that, then Visual Studio is the tool for you. It can do the same stuff that Expression does, but since it isn’t focused on it as much, we can separate the two.

Hope that helps to clear up the story between these two. Please keep in mind that these tools are designed to be used with each other. So both can open the same files and make changes. This allows the Graphic Designers and the Web Developers to work together on the site at the same time which can really help enable your developers.

Published 23 May 08 06:00 by Tom

Filed under: Visual Studio, Microsoft, Silverlight, Expression

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# ASP.NET Tips: Expression Web vs Visual Studio said on May 23, 2008 6:27 AM:

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# Narayana said on May 23, 2008 8:45 AM:

So. You mean to say both complement each other..

# Wayne said on May 23, 2008 2:10 PM:

Funny. I use VS normally and I installed Expression to do all my classic ASP work. There doesn't seem to be any good IDE's for working with the numerous classic ASP sites out there.

While I try to promote migrating these application to .Net, that is not always something that is possible. What would you recommend to use for Classic ASP apps?

I feel like we've (developers) been left in a lurch with all the great progress that has been made with .Net, and that MS has completely ignored the fact that there are thousands of classic ASP sites still out there that need to be maintained, and perhaps cannot move to .Net without a huge investment and a complete re-write.

Thoughts?

# Steve said on May 23, 2008 8:31 PM:

As always MS has a crappy view of what developers do - it's 2008, we tend to do much off everything.

This is just another excuse to find a reason to charge us beyond the licenses we pay to have Visual Studio.

Blend is the worse example of this yet.

# Mojtaba said on May 24, 2008 2:20 AM:

i always use visual studio designer.i think that microsoft has borrowed so many features from expression web in vs2008

# Randy said on May 25, 2008 5:23 PM:

It may help some people to differentiate Expression Web and Expression Blend. My understanding is that Expression Web is a replacement for Frontpage. I opended an ASP.NET website in Expression Web and was not pleased with the rendering. I believe that Expression Blend is the tool for WPF design. I hope that Expression Blend is a better tool for ASP.NET UI design.

# Grant said on May 26, 2008 2:04 AM:

I've tried to move my designers to start using Expressions Web.

The major problem i'm experiencing is the fact that expressiosn web assumes your are working with a virtual directory. Like a Visual Studio "Web site".

Except i am using a web application.

So all my images now don't show up in the design view and the product is unusable.

I have not found a way to change that setting and because my web site is so large, everytime i try view properties for the whole site in expressions web, the application crashes.

I've tried this in both expressions web 1 and 2.

Unfortunate!!

# Tom said on May 28, 2008 10:03 AM:

Narayana,

Yes, exactly..

# Tom said on May 28, 2008 10:09 AM:

Wayne,

While I agree that there are a lot of sites that are on ASP, generally the best advice is to continue to use the same software that you have been using. Upgrading when you move to .NET

# Tom said on May 28, 2008 10:10 AM:

Steve,

What do you mean? Can you give me examples of why you don't like Blend? Maybe we can do something to get it changed for the better for you.

# Bob said on May 28, 2008 11:39 PM:

@Wayne check out the sp1 beta for VS, classic asp support returns!

# Andy said on July 5, 2008 9:18 AM:

Check out Inetword, forget expression web!

# TG said on September 7, 2008 9:40 PM:

Its all rubbish if you ask me,, different applications to do the same thing??? then call it a different name with new advertising, design and marketing !! there is no real difference,, just the illusion of something new to compete with more popular better industry applications that are already offered by other establishments!!

As has already been said!! "Microsoft days are numbered"

Technology has to move on instead of offering the same thing over and over and over again!!

Microsoft already offer the same tools Visual Studio now Expression Studio?? how confusing is that?? What next?? (Expression Studio .Net C# 2009) ???

What do you think???

Another (Windows Me) if you ask me!!

check out www.Adobe.com

# Tom said on September 7, 2008 11:35 PM:

TG,

I appreciate your opinion, even if I don't share in it. If you look at and use the Expression suite, you will notice that is completely different. The expression suite is a very different experience from Visual Studio, Expression is geared towards designers and layout and design (it is very comparable to Adobe Dreamweaver). Visual Studio is all about coding.

# Jay1b said on September 18, 2008 5:45 AM:

Now Classic ASP support has been added to VS2008, it would be nice to have it added to Expression Web 2 as well. I'm really surprised that MS supports PHP but not Classic ASP.

Also the colour coding for the text within VS2008 isnt as indepth as Dreamweavers, which is highly annoying as I absolutely hate Adobe with a vengence. Things like document really do deserve its own colour. Also VS2008 does seem to get a bit more confused as well... for example if you paste the following code in the body element of a classic ASP in both Dreamweaver and VS2008, it looks 10 times better in Dreamweaver.

<label id=<% If TRIM(rs("Type")) = "Unique" Then

response.Write("lblMandrgAnswers" & rs("QuestionID"))

Elseif TRIM(rs("Type")) = "Multiple" Then

response.Write("lblMandchkAnswers" & rs("QuestionID"))

End If %>

name=<% If TRIM(rs("Type")) = "Unique" Then

response.Write("lblMandrgAnswers" & rs("QuestionID"))

Elseif TRIM(rs("Type")) = "Multiple" Then

response.Write("lblMandchkAnswers" & rs("QuestionID"))

End If %> style="visibility:hidden; color:#FF3333">Please select an option.</label>

# Priya Jain said on October 1, 2008 3:54 AM:

how to write the Asp.net code without visual studio

# Tom said on October 1, 2008 9:10 AM:

Priya,

There are lots of ways to do that. You can even write asp.net code in notepad if you like. It is just that Visual Studio gives you a lot of helpful features like intellisense.

# Ian said on February 5, 2009 8:04 AM:

Lot of negative reponses here that I don't understand. I originally came from a design background and then became a reasonably good developer. I now use expression web in place of dreamweaver for my design elements, layout and client-side scripting and then take over with VS 2008 to crack on with the coding. Once coding is underway there is no need to use expression web to open the application. This works very well as a workflow and is how I believe these products were intended to be used.

I personally believe that microsoft is going from strength to srength and that these products are finally giving us what we need.

# Tom said on February 8, 2009 11:04 PM:

Thanks Ian, I appreciate your comments and thoughts. Hopefully others will also use these tools and see the benefit of them.

# Abdulelah Dandachi said on July 11, 2009 5:04 PM:

Thanks for clearing up the difference between Visual Studio and Expression Web. Version 3 of the latter was just released, and an app focusing on design is exactly what I need right now.

# Jeremy said on July 29, 2009 3:08 PM:

I think it is good idea to split up the design and coding. For smaller projects, it seems like one person ends up doing the design work and coding but for larger projects you can have a team do the design work in expression, then have another team do the coding in studio.

# 813coder said on October 21, 2009 4:30 PM:

As a do-it-all web guy, I handle the whole site from Photoshop to Flash to JQuery to Visual Studio. I think for past 8 years Microsoft and its developer have given the big "FU" to anyone that hints about touching the front end of a web site [you left the peons Frontpage and walked away]. This attitude that "designers" are some inferior vermin or vile pond scum in your "agile" world of development, is silly. So, too little late folks. There's a reason people Dreamweaver and have for many years. I think the whole attitude in the Microsoft community needs to change. No matter how much you want to belittle the front end and those who design it; it's all your user sees no matter how good a coder you are. And I suspect you will see that many people will start jumping ship to other platforms because of this second-class citizen label MS developers have assigned to the front-end. Just ask your Marketing department if you don't believe me.

# CSSteve said on November 17, 2009 5:55 PM:

I think Expression Web is absolutely superior to Dreamweaver because it is far more intuitive. Everything Adobe does, including their tutorials, seems like they are from another planet to me.

It did not take me much time at all on both Expression Web and Visual Web Developer to see the difference. Expression Web is quick and easy for basic HTML and Master Page .Net website while VWD is obviously for back end features.