Expression Web 3, the latest version of Microsoft’s excellent web designing tool has just received a Service Pack 1 update. If you have Expression Web 3 installed and have enabled Windows Update, then it should appear as an important update. This update brings both bug fixes as well as improvements to Expression Web and SuperPreview.
Here’s a list of some significant improvements in Expression Web 3 Service Pack 1:
Extensibility
Supports add-ins that use the Expression Web object model.
Root-relative links
Supports root-relative hyperlinks.
PHP files that do not use the *.php file name extension
Adds support for Drupal and CakePHP template files. Expression Web 3 SP1 now recognizes .module, .install, .inc, and .ctp as valid PHP extensions.
Application color scheme
Provides an improved black and gray color scheme that better reflects the appearance of the Microsoft Expression Studio 3 family of products. Expression Web 3 SP1 also provides a new Application Options setting that lets you select the Windows color scheme instead of the default color scheme.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 META tag and Web Slice support
Contains new code examples to support features that are specific to Internet Explorer 8. The new code examples include META tags specific to Internet Explorer 8, plus a new Web Slice code example. You can access the code examples by pressing Ctrl+Enter in Code view.
If you want to directly download the Service Pack, it’s available from Microsoft Download center here and is just 7.9 MB in size.
This is the only application in Expression Studio 3 to have received a Service Pack 1 update so far. If you’re a developer and want to work with Silverlight 4, Microsoft Expression Blend Preview for .NET 4 is available as well, which can be downloaded here.
