Forum FAQ and Guidelines - Start Here

Question

The following information is designed to help you get help faster from the forum. You'll also find valuable resource links and information about the forum.

Forum Guidelines
Microsoft expects all forum participants to be respectful of others. Personal attacks, rude and abusive posts, and any other posts that Microsoft feels detract from the spirit of the forum will be removed. Microsoft reserves the right to delete posts that do not fall within the guidelines for forum usage.

Are you new to Microsoft Expression Web?
This article (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-US;2511858) outlines the prerequisites for using Expression Web effectively, along with a list of useful resources you can use to get up to speed on modern Web design. The bottom line is that you do need to have some knowledge of Web design before you’ll be comfortable or effective using Microsoft Expression Web.

Is this forum a Microsoft technical support forum?
No. This forum is a peer-to-peer forum for Web designers and users of Microsoft Expression Web. The users who post on this forum are volunteers who are helping other Expression Web users out of an interest in helping the community of Web designers.

Some Microsoft employees visit the forum as well, but their purpose is not to provide official technical support in the forum. If you do require technical support from Microsoft, you should visit http://support.microsoft.com. You can find many technical support resources there, and you’ll also find a link at the bottom of the page that says "Contact a Support Professional by Email, Online or Phone." Clicking that link will allow you to contact Microsoft technical support should that be necessary.

I see that Expression Web 4 and Expression Design 4 are now available as a free download. Can I get technical support from Microsoft on those products?
If you purchased a retail version of Expression Web, you are entitled to support from Microsoft on that product as long as the version you are using is within its current support lifecycle. If you are using the free version and you do not have a purchased license, you can ask questions in the forum. Microsoft does not support the free versions of Expression Web or Expression Design.

When I open a case with Microsoft Consumer Technical Support using the information above, it requires a credit card and says that the case will cost either $99 or $259. Is that true?
If your issue is not caused by a problem with Microsoft software, the case will cost you $99 for an email case and $259 for a phone case. If your problem is caused by Microsoft software, there will be no charge. No charges are made against your credit card until a case is closed, and if we determine that your issue is caused by a bug in our software, we mark the case so that no charges are applied to your card.

If you are having a problem with Expression Web activation or if the product will not accept your product key, you may have a corrupt license store. That problem often cannot be resolved without the assistance of Microsoft Consumer Technical Support. For these issues, you can open a case with us using the steps outlined above. There will be no charge for these cases. Using any other method to contact Microsoft will not get you to the right group. Please contact us using the method outlined above.

I see some people in the forum called MVPs. Do they work for Microsoft?
Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) are not Microsoft employees. Microsoft awards the MVP designation to community leaders who share real-world technical expertise with the community and with Microsoft. The MVP award is Microsoft’s way of rewarding and thanking individuals for contributions that help Microsoft customers realize the full potential of their software.

You can find out more about the MVP program at http://mvp.support.microsoft.com.

What are the points that appear next to users in the forums?
Points are used as recognition for people who have answered posts and have been helpful to other users.

Guidelines for the Forum

1. If you have a question about your website, please post a link to the page about which you have a question. Without being able to actually see the page and all related files that are involved with your issue, it’s often impossible for anyone to help you.
   
   If you haven’t published the page you’re having a problem with, you can publish it to the free site that many Internet service providers offer or you can publish it to a subfolder of your existing site. You will then want to include a link to the specific page in your post.
2. Try to make the title of your post as informative as possible. In other words, instead of using “Expression Web 4” as your post’s title, use something like “Access Denied Error When Publishing” instead. This will increase the likelihood of your post being answered more quickly.
3. Provide as much information as possible in your post. There’s no such thing as too much detail. If you are having a problem while carrying out some task in Expression Web, please provide details not only on what you are doing, but exactly what the result is and what you expect to see that you’re not seeing. The more detail you can provide, the easier it will be for others to help you!
   
   Here are some examples of detail that is helpful when asking a question.
   
   * Expression Web version (with service pack level.)
   * What browser you're using if the issue is how a page looks in the browser.
   * What version of Windows you are using.
4. Use the forum’s search feature to look for your answer before you post. That’s the fastest way to get help. If someone else has already experienced the problem you’re having, it’s likely that there is information in the forum that can help you.
5. Remember that the forum is a peer-to-peer forum and you might not get an answer right away. If you aren’t getting an answer to your post, don’t post again with the same question. You can certainly post a reply to your existing question. For example, you might post a response to your original question asking if you’ve provided the right kind of information to allow others to help you.
6. If someone posts a response that answers your question or resolves a problem you’re having, mark their post as the answer. This will make it easier for others to find this solution later on. Only the post that actually contains the answer should be marked as the answer.
7. If you find an answer helpful, click the green, upward facing arrow above "Vote as Helpful" in the post to show other people that this helped you. We want to make sure we are recognizing people who are providing helpful information!
8. Don’t post your e-mail address, telephone number, or other such personal information in the forums. Forums are frequently visited by people looking for this kind of information so that they can send spam to your email address and so forth.
9. When you ask a question here, expect that the answer will be posted here so that others can benefit from the answer. Users of the forum will not send replies to your email address. However, if you click the My Settings link in the My Forum Links section of the forum, you can configure an email address for thread alerts so that you are emailed when someone responds to you.
   
   More information on how to use alerts and other forum features can be found in the Forum Help page at http://social.expression.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/help.

Common Questions and Problems

General

1. In Expression Web 3 and later, use the Site menu to open a site, not the File menu as in previous versions.
2. If Expression Web is acting strangely, cleaning the Expression Web cache may help. You can use Steve Easton’s FP Cleaner to do this.
   
   FP Cleaner for Expression Web 4 (http://www.95isalive.com/fixes/ew4.htm)
   FP Cleaner for Expression Web 3 (http://www.95isalive.com/fixes/ew3.htm)
   FP Cleaner for Expression Web 1, 2, and FrontPage (FP Cleaner for Expression Web 1, 2, and FrontPage)
3. If you are having problems typing accented characters, see this thread (http://social.expression.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/web/thread/94f3c9c4-1bd9-44b8-97ae-f4b02f8c157f.)
4. If you’re experiencing problems with Expression Web, update your mouse and video card drivers with the latest drivers from the manufacturer (not standard Windows drivers).
5. If you are encountering errors during setup of Expression Web 3 or 4, you may want to ensure that your .NET Framework installation is not corrupt. See this thread (http://social.expression.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/web/thread/2bded56e-a98c-4742-bf47-5fae6308e5fe) for more information.

Expression Web 4

1. Expression Web 4 Service Pack 2 is now available from the Microsoft Download Center at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=87d98075-a40b-40b8-86bc-38e7a7606ca4. All users of Expression Web 4 are encouraged to download the service pack. More information on the service pack is available in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2571841.
   
   Here are some links to additional information about the service pack.
   
   Steve Guttman's article about the SP:
   Expression Web 4 Service Pack 2 Now Available
   Link: http://bit.ly/qd5IMd
   
   Code Editing Demo:
   Expression Web 4 SP2 Code Editing Demo
   Link: http://bit.ly/pZzAza
   
   Workspaces Demo:
   Expression Web 4 SP2 Workspaces Demo
   Link: http://bit.ly/nKX9zH 
   
   Note: Expression Web 4 SP2 cannot be uninstalled separately. To remove Expression Web 4 SP2, you must uninstall Expression Web 4. The uninstall option for SP2 was intentionally not made available in order to avoid interoperability issues that were discovered with patch uninstallation during testing.
   
   
2. Owners of a retail version of Expression Studio 3 can upgrade to Expression Studio 4 free. To determine if you are running a retail version (and eligible for the free upgrade, click on Help, and then About Microsoft Expression Web. The second group of digits in the code must be one of the following in order to be eligible for the free upgrade.
   
   617
   618
   
   To upgrade to Expression Web 4 at no charge, download the appropriate trial version of Expression Studio 4 from http://www.microsoft.com/expression/try-it/ and activate it using the product key from your copy of version 3.
3. If you are attempting to activate Expression Web 4 and you see the error "The licensing didn't start properly (c004E01E)", run the FixIt in the Microsoft Knowledge Base at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960480#FixItForMe. After you run the FixIt, reboot your computer. You can then launch Expression Web 4 and activate it.
4. Earlier versions of Kaspersky Internet Security can cause a crash in Expression Web 4 at launch. If you are running Kaspersky Internet Security and Expression Web 4 crashes on launch, download the critical fix issued on July 20, 2010, by Kaspersky or upgrade to the latest version. (http://www.kaspersky.com/kis_latest_versions.)
5. On Sept. 27, 2010, Microsoft released the Custom Toolbars add-in for Expression Web 4 RTM. (This version is not compatible with Expression Web 4 SP1.) You can download the Custom Toolbar add-in from the Expression Gallery at no charge from http://gallery.expression.microsoft.com/en-us/CustomToolbars.
   
   If you have Expression Web 4 SP1, you can download the SP1 version of the Custom Toolbar add-in from http://gallery.expression.microsoft.com/CustomToolbars2.
   
   If you have Expression Web 4 SP2, the Custom Toolbar add-in is now built-in and no further installation is required.

Expression Web 3

1. Expression Web 3 Service Pack 1 was released on Nov. 20, 2009. For details, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976594.
2. Expression Web 3 Service Pack 2 was released on April 5, 2010. It fixed a number of problems including PHP code corruption/deletion, PDF file corruption, crashes when using the list-style-image property, and updates to SuperPreview. For more information, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976594.
3. If you’re running the release version (no service packs) of Expression Web 3 and it crashes when you start it, you may have a problem with corrupt fonts. The solution is to install the latest service pack.
4. If Expression Web 3 crashes when you start it on Windows XP SP3, it may be caused by this problem.
   (http://blogs.msdn.com/xwebsupport/archive/2009/12/10/expression-web-3-crashes-while-starting-up-on-windows-xp-sp3.aspx.)
5. If Expression Web 3 crashes when you open a site or a page in a site, it may be because of a style that uses the list-style-image property. The solution is to install Service Pack 2.

Installation FAQs

1. The trial period for Expression Web is 60 days. The trial version is identical to the retail version. If you decide to purchase a full version of Expression Web, you can use the product key provided to you in the purchased version to activate the installed trial version.
2. Make sure your computer meets the minimum configuration requirements as listed on the download page. In November 2009 Microsoft found a problem that affected some Windows XP installations, causing a blue screen of death. The solution to this problem is to install Service Pack 3 for Windows XP. See this blog post (http://blogs.msdn.com/xwebsupport/archive/2009/11/06/blue-screen-after-installing-expression-web-3-on-windows-xp-sp2.aspx) for more information.
3. If installation on a Windows XP computer is incredibly slow or seems to have stopped, minimize the setup screen. There is a problem with one graphic on the installation screen that effects certain Windows XP computers and minimizing the setup screen will allow the installation to proceed at normal speed.
4. If you get an error message during setup warning of a missing file that includes “HRESULT: 0x80070002,” disable your antivirus and antispyware software while you install the product.
5. If you're running Windows XP and get a System.OutOfMemoryException, the problem may be your video card driver. See this blog post (http://blogs.msdn.com/xwebsupport/archive/2010/01/13/expression-web-3-crashes-during-install-system-outofmemoryexception.aspx) for more information.
6. If you're running Windows XP and you get the error message, “Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation. Cannot convert string '0' in attribute 'ShadowDepth' to object of type 'System.Double'. 0 is not a valid value for Double. Error at object 'DropShadowEffect_1' in markup file 'XSetupUI;component/initializationwindow.xaml',” see this thread (http://social.expression.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/web/thread/a811d5cb-3e44-419b-85c0-c9238a0fa19d.)
7. If you need to download the trial version for Expression Web 2 or Expression Web 3, here are the links.
   Expression Web 2 (http://social.expression.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/web/thread/694ecb0a-b9f4-4b69-ae41-4dfd6546cb1d)
   Expression Web 3 (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0a73a3a7-3e06-4125-b3c6-f9c10387e9cc&displaylang=en)

More Microsoft Resources for Installation Problems 

1. Review the blog post at http://blogs.msdn.com/xwebsupport/archive/2009/04/21/known-causes-for-expression-web-2-installation-crashes.aspx for help with specific error messages.
   “Known causes for Expression Web 2 installation crashes” 
2. See the blog post at http://blogs.msdn.com/xwebsupport/archive/2009/09/28/expression-web-3-setup-crashes-immediately-after-launching-not-the-fonts-issue.aspx and the one at http://blogs.msdn.com/xwebsupport/archive/2009/09/29/expression-web-studio-2-crashes-on-setup-exception-has-been-thrown-by-the-target-of-an-invocation-cannot-convert-string-pack-application.aspx for other install failures.
3. If you see the error “Cannot Find DependencyProperty or PropertyInfo for Property named ‘Effect’ ” during Expression Web 3 setup, see this post (http://blogs.msdn.com/xwebsupport/archive/2010/01/06/cannot-find-dependencyproperty-or-propertyinfo-property-error-during-xweb3-setup.aspx.)
4. If the information above doesn't resolve your problem, read this thread (http://social.expression.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/web/thread/fe2efc01-cd77-48ec-829a-bff808f3222c.)

Suggestions, Comments, Bug Fix Requests

If you have a reproducible problem that you think Microsoft should know about, or if you have a suggestion for the Expression Web product group, post it on Microsoft's Connect site at https://connect.microsoft.com/Expression/Feedback. Include all of the steps to reproduce the problem if possible. Paste a direct link to your Connect post in this forum and users here can vote for it to add their support.


Learning Resources and Reference Sites

If you are new to Expression Web or web design, or if you are moving to Expression Web from Microsoft FrontPage, here are links that are often posted in response to questions.
· Microsoft's Expression Web 4 Orientation (http://expression.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff728357.aspx.)
· By-Expression.com (http://by-expression.com/page/EW-Video-Basic-Website-tutorial.) Download the asset file and work through the Basic Website tutorial.
· More tutorials on HTML, CSS, and on using Expression Web at http://by-expression.com/page/Tutorials.aspx.
· Any Expression Web Designs by Tina Clarke at http://any-expression.com.
· Expression Web tutorials by Pat Geary at http://www.expression-web-tutorials.com.
· Expression Web Blog by Tina Clarke at http://www.expression-web.net.
· Expression Web tips by Pat Geary at http://www.expression-web-tips.com.
· w3schools tutorials on HTML and CSS at http://www.w3schools.com/.
· Microsoft’s official ASP.NET site for learning about ASP.NET at http://www.asp.net.
· Maxdesign tutorials that explain the workings of CSS at http://css.maxdesign.com.au/index.htm.
· A List Apart "From Pixels to Prose, Coding to Content"--all about web design at http://www.alistapart.com/.
· Ampsoft Web design Web-safe fonts and font families and how they display at http://www.ampsoft.net/webdesign-l/WindowsMacFonts.html.
· Position Is Everything for information on browser differences when rendering CSS at http://positioniseverything.net/.
· 456 Berea Street offers tips on design, layout, CSS tricks and accessibility at http://www.456bereastreet.com/.

Answer 1

Bumping.

---

Jim Cheshire -- Microsoft

Answer 2

Bump.

---

Jim Cheshire -- Microsoft

Answer 3

Bump.

Answer 4

Bump.

Answer 5

Bump

---

Jim Cheshire | Microsoft

Answer 6

Bump.

---

Jim Cheshire | Microsoft

Answer 7

Bump

---

Jim Cheshire | Microsoft