Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Expression Web 2 in 24 Hours

Morten Rand-Hendriksen is the owner and creative director of Pink & Yellow Media, a design company that provides digital media creations for small businesses and television. Through the years he has had many different titles: photographer, studio musician, composer, politician, writer, jeweler, philosopher, artist, and university senate member. But it is in the role of a designer he feels truly at home (at least for the moment).   Morten started designing websites back in 1997, but it wasn’t until he moved to Canada in 2002 that he really started to focus on web design as a possible career (surprisingly there were few job listings for Norwegian philosophy majors in Vancouver at the time). Over the years he has worked with many different technologies, but after being introduced to Expression Web 2 he has shifted the focus of the web part of his business almost exclusively to the art of CSS and blog design. Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Expression Web 2 in 24 Hours is his first published book. You can also find his tutorials and other design-related musings on his blog at http://blog.pinkandyellow.com and in many different forums and newsgroups throughout the Web. If you have any questions relating to the book, you can contact Morten by writing to book@pinkandyellow.com.    

Introduction      1

Hour 1: Get to Know Microsoft Expression Web 2  3

    Introducing Expression Web 2    3

    Getting and Installing Expression Web 2     5

    Getting Acquainted with the Workspace 6

    Changing and Customizing the Workspace      15

    Summary 20

    Q&A     20

    Workshop      20

    Quiz    21

    Answers 21

Hour 2: Beginning at the End: A Walkthrough of the Finished Project     23

    Introduction  23

    Working With a Completed Website      24

    Previewing the Site in Your Browser   27

    Exploring the Website in Expression Web 2   34

    Keeping Your Pages Functional   36

    Summary 38

    Q&A     38

    Workshop      39

    Exercise      39

Hour 3: A Website Is Really Just Text-Build One in 5 Minutes      41

    Introduction  41

    Creating a New Website    41

    Creating Your First Web Page    44

    Testing Your Web Page in Multiple Browsers  47

    Summary 50

    Q&A     50

    Workshop      51

    Quiz    51

    Answers 51

Hour 4: Building the Home Page-A Look Behind the Curtain    53

    Introduction  53

    Opening and Editing an Existing File Using Code View    53

    Importing Styled Text from a Document 57

    Cleaning Up Imported Text 60

    Summary 63

    Q&A     64

    Workshop      64

    Quiz    65

    Answers 65

    Exercise      65

Hour 5: Get Connected-Building Hyperlinks for Navigation and Further Exploration    67

    Introduction  67

    Importing a New Page      68

    Creating an Internal Hyperlink  69

    Creating External Links and New Windows     73

    Creating Links Within Documents Using Bookmarks   76

    Creating an Email Hyperlink     78

    Summary 79

    Q&A     79

    Workshop      80

    Quiz    80

    Answers 80

    Exercise      81

Hour 6: Get Visual, Part 1: Adding Images to Your Page      83

    Introduction  83

    Images on the Web: Three File Types for Three Uses      84

    Importing and Inserting an Image      85

    Using Picture Properties to Change the Appearance of an Image 89

    Summary 94

    Q&A     94

    Workshop      95

    Quiz    95

    Answers 95

    Exercise      96

Hour 7: Get Visual, Part 2: Advanced Image Editing, Thumbnails, and Hotspots  97

    Introduction  97

    Exploring the Pictures Toolbar  97

    Using the Pictures Toolbar to Add and Change an Image   100

    Creating Hotspots   106

    Summary 107

    Q&A     108

    Workshop      108

    Quiz    109

    Answers 109

    Exercise      109

Hour 8: Cracking the Code-Working in Code View  111

    Introduction  111

    Using Code View as a Learning Tool    111

    Tools in Code View  116

    Summary 121

    Q&A     122

    Workshop      123

    Quiz    123

    Answers 123

    Exercise      124

Hour 9: Get Boxed In, Part 1: Using Tables for Content      125

    Introduction  125

    Five-Minute History of Tables in Web Pages  126

    Creating a Table from Scratch   127

    Changing the Appearance of a Table    129

    Using the Table Layout Tool to Make Nonstandard Tables  138

    Summary 140

    Q&A     140

    Workshop      141

    Quiz    141

    Answers 141

    Exercise      142

Hour 10: Bringing Style to the Substance with Cascading Style Sheets    143

    Introduction  143

    CSS Sans Code 144

    Setting the Font Family for the Entire Document   149

    Using the Cascade to Override Styles  151

    Summary 159

    Q&A     159

    Workshop      160

    Quiz    160

    Answers 160

    Exercise      161

Hour 11: Get Boxed In, Part 2: Knee Deep in CSS 163

    Introduction  163

    CSS Classes-Because Not All Content Should Be Treated Equally 164

    Introducing ID-Classes Almost Identical Twin      169

    Classes Within Classes: Micromanaging the Content 172

    Pseudoclasses 173

    Understanding the Box Model     176

    Summary 179

    Q&A     180

    Workshop      180

    Quiz    180

    Answers 181

    Exercise      181

Hour 12: Styling with Code: Fully Immersed in CSS     183

    Introduction  183

    Introducing CSS: The Code Version     184

    Applying Classes to Tags in Code View 189

    Using Divs and Spans to Separate Content    190

    Creating External Style Sheets  193

    Summary 201

    Q&A     202

    Workshop      202

    Quiz    203

    Answers 203

    Exercise      203

Hour 13: Get Visual, Part 3: Images as Design Elements with CSS   205

    Introduction  205

    Images as Backgrounds: A Crash Course 206

    Using Images as List Bullets    214

    Importing Adobe Photoshop Files 216

    Summary 220

    Q&A     221

    Workshop      221

    Quiz    222

    Answers 222

    Exercise      222

Hour 14: Building the Framework     223

    Introduction  223

    Starting with Pen and Paper     224

    Building the Framework from Boxed Parts     225

    Styling the Layout Boxes  227

    Understanding Positioning 230

    Applying the Framework to Existing Pages    233

    Building the Framework Using Eric MeyerÕs CSS Sculptor  240

    Summary 247

    Q&A     248

    Workshop      249

    Quiz    249

    Answers 250

    Exercise      250

Hour 15: Buttons, Buttons, Buttons  251

    Introduction  251

    Buttons: A Brief Definition     252

    Creating Interactive Buttons Using Expression Web 252

    Creating Buttons from Scratch Using CSS     256

    Summary 264

    Q&A     265

    Workshop      266

    Quiz    266

    Answers 266

    Exercise      266

Hour 16: Using Behaviors      267

    Introduction  267

    Behaviors: An Introduction      267

    Modifying Behaviors 270

    The Many Behaviors of Expression Web 2      272

    Summary 287

    Q&A     287

    Workshop      288

    Quiz    288

    Answers 288

    Exercise      288

Hour 17: Frames and Layers    289

    Introduction  289

    Frames: An Introduction   289

    Editing Individual Frames 293

    Making Framed Navigation  297

    Creating and Modifying Inline Frames  298

    Set Text of Frame Behavior      301

    Creating Advanced Functionality Using Layers      304

    Summary 310

    Q&A     311

    Workshop      312

    Quiz    312

    Answers 312

    Exercise      313

Hour 18: Building a Functional Menu 315

    Introduction  315

    The Layers Based Menu     316

    Pure CSS Drop-Down Menus: A Clean Alternative     324

    Summary 333

    Q&A     334

    Workshop      335

    Quiz    335

    Answers 335

    Exercise      336

Hour 19: Dynamic Web Templates      337

    Introduction  337

    Dynamic Web Templates     338

    Understanding Dynamic Web Templates   345

    Summary 354

    Q&A     355

    Workshop      355

    Quiz    355

    Answers 356

    Exercise      356

Hour 20: Get Interactive with Forms 357

    Introduction  357

    Creating Forms in Expression Web 2    358

    Making Use of Form Results      365

    Other Uses for Form Results     370

    Forms in Code View  371

    Summary 373

    Q&A     374

    Workshop      374

    Quiz    374

    Answers 374

Hour 21: Working with Flash and Silverlight     375

    Introduction  375

    Flash: An Introduction    376

    Adding the Tag for Full Cross-Browser Compatibility   381

    Silverlight: An Introduction    382

    Placing Silverlight Applications in Your Page     383

    Bonus: Making the Galleries Your Own  390

    Summary 391

    Q&A     392

    Workshop      393

    Quiz    394

    Answers 394

    Exercise      394

Hour 22: Beyond the Basics: PHP in Expression Web 2   395

    Introduction  395

    PHP: An Introduction      396

    Installing PHP on Your Computer to Test PHP Scripts     397

    Using PHP and HTML to Create a Contact Page 400

    Creating an Email Form Using PHP      403

    Added Functionality 409

    Summary 412

    Q&A     413

    Workshop      413

    Quiz    413

    Answers 414

Hour 23: Beyond the Basics, Part 2: Building a Site with ASP.NET  415

    Introduction  415

    Getting a Jump Start by Using a Starter Kit 416

    The ASP.NET Master Page   418

    The Master Page in Code View    421

    ASP.NET Content Pages     423

    Content Pages in Code View      423

    Getting Data from External Sources    426

    Personalizing and Styling an ASP.NET Site   429

    Summary 433

    Q&A     434

    Workshop      434

    Quiz    435

    Answers 435

    Exercise      435

Hour 24: Publishing Your Website    437

    Introduction  437

    A Word on Domains and Web Hosting     438

    Four Different Publishing Options     439

    Example: Publishing Content Using FTP 445

    Advanced Publishing Settings    447

    Summary 451

    Q&A     452

    Workshop      453

    Exercise      453

    Index   455

0672330296, TOC, 9/3/08