Microsoft Shows Off Its Expression at NY Internet Week

Are you a small business casting the line for potential customers? It’s pretty much a given that a website is a must if you want to cast the widest net. But it can’t be any rinky-dink D.I.Y deal (unless you’re a website designer of course). A truly successful website grabs the viewer’s attention with both its content and its aesthetics. So how do you create this perfect storm of branding? Usually, the answer is you find a designer and fork out the dough and try to convey your vision and hope for the best. Thanks to Microsoft, you might be able to cut out the middle man.

During a NY Internet Week press conference, Product Management Wayne Smith announced the launch of Microsoft Expression Studio 4. The new software is comprised of a number of easy to use tools that can make any website an unforgettable experience. Microsoft Expression Encoder, which allows users to encode video for a number of devices including a web browser, a mobile phone, a Zune, and even a PSP.

Microsoft Web 4 allows professional and novice designers to create websites minus all the messy code. One of the cooler features of Web 4 is the ability to test whether or not the newly created site will work in all the various browsers. Using an overlay function, Web 4 quickly shows inconsistencies and can help users narrow down the problem. Another notable feature is the SEO optimization. There is a function that calls attention to SEO no-no, like using general terms. The help menu walks users through proper SEO user, creating content that will appear higher on the search engine.

Microsoft Blend 4 is an easy way to map potential users’ navigation on a website using a feature called Sketchflow. After the logging the navigation, instead of trying to graph it out yourself, Sketchflow will create an easy to follow log in a Word document. Want to make your site do something cool? Blend has a set of drag and drop codes that control behaviors. So if you wanted a certain action to perform when a user clicks on a budget, this is your feature.

The biggest plus of this new software is that it uses Microsoft Silverlight. Once you master the ins and outs of Expression 4, there’s no reason why someone couldn’t create a website or program for any device currently on the market.

About the Author
Sherri is a freelance writer that has a love of all things fun and geeky including gadgets, gaming, anime, and comics. When she isn't writing or out on the town living it up, she loves doing 10-12 hour marathon sessions on her Xbox 360 or one of her older consoles. It's not an addiction, it's a way of life!
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