Microsoft talks up Silverlight, Expressions updates

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 19 August 2009 13:01

IT Industry - Development

The suite also includes tools to mock up the interactive features of a site, collect stakeholder feedback, insert sample data (that can easily be replaced by live data sources later in development) and generate C# code that can be used by the web developers.

Also included is a new version of Expression Encoder that can automatically produce the multiple versions of video content needed to support Silverlight's adaptive streaming feature.

The graphic design tools included in the suite now provide 'slice and dice' tools that export the segments in different formats.

Silverlight 3 is a free download from Microsoft's web site.

The complete Expression Studio 3 costs $A1044 ($A611 for upgrades from any previous Expression product, any version of Adobe Creative Suite, or Visual Studio 2005 or later), and includes Expression Web, Blend plus SketchFlow, Design, and Encoder.

Expression Web 3 (Expression Web, Design, and Encoder) costs $A263. Upgrades from any Expression, Creative Suite, or Microsoft Office product are $A142.

And there's the $A1745 Expression Professional Subscription, which gets you the latest versions of Expression Studio, Windows, and Office.

If you just want to kick Expression 3's tyres, a free trial version is available.