February 2008

Upgrade to Expression Web

I've gotten about a zillion emails over the past year with people asking questions about Expression Web. This seems to go hand in hand with the emails from those in a panic who have heard that FrontPage is being discontinued. This will hopefully give you some straight information that will put things right in your world once again.....

FrontPage 2003 is alive and well...but only until 1/13/2009 when Microsoft mainstream support ends. Extended product support will last until 1/14/2014. For the devoted FrontPage users out there, time is running out.

If you have been using a computer for more than a year or two, you know that the technology that drives the web is always changing. The push is on for better web sites that are more standards compliant. If your current web site is over 24 months old, you should start to think about updating code that is probably a bit behind the times.

This is where Expression Web really shines. It offers exceptionally clean code, great "doctype" support, and some automatic CSS magic. While Expression Web is not all that different from FrontPage on the surface, the job just gets done better in Expression Web.

Cool Tools:

Pixtivity: Cool slideshows and photo galleries seem to always be a popular topic and I get quite a bit of email asking for information on how to add these features into templates. Recently I found a really great program that was too good to resist. Pixtivity creates Flash-based slideshows and is incredibly fast, extremely easy to use and learn, and is very affordable. It's fast and easy. For more information, visit the Tivity.Com web site.

Icon Workshop: I really enjoy finding new, cool software to add to my tool box. My latest addition is IconWorkshop 6.0 by Axialis. This is a nifty little program that makes great icons, has PNG support, free "icon packs" you can download, and lots of extras. In fact, the icon-styled images on this page were made in the program in just a few minutes (without having to wade through a lot of help files first). I do love fast and easy. For inquiring minds, they do have a 30-day free trial download if you want to take it out for a test drive first.

Hot Tips: Your Domain Name

You thought long and hard to come up with the perfect domain name. Did you register the name yourself, or did someone else do it for you? If you did not actually register your web site name yourself, you may want to check to make sure you are indeed the owner of your name. (Hint: your name should be listed as the "administrative" contact!)

Case Study 1: Mary got a great offer from a web host who said they would register her new domain name as part of the hosting fees. Mary was relieved that this would be one less thing to worry about. A year later, she wanted to change web hosts. She found that the domain name was actually under the host's name and not hers. If she changed to another web host, she would lose her own name.

Case Study 2: Jane hired a designer to create her small web site. Her designer arranged for hosting and also purchased the domain name. After a few years, Jane discovered another designer who could do more. When Jane went to give her new designer all of her domain name information, she discovered that her site name was actually registered in the name of her original designer.

Case Study 3: Bob hired a designer to create his web site. One day Bob checked his site online and discovered it was no longer there. In a panic, he contacted his designer. She asked if he had renewed his domain name. Bob did not know that the email he had received several months ago was important information letting him know that his domain name was about to expire. He had deleted it. Bob learned the hard way that you can be at risk of losing your domain name.

The moral of the story is to be on the lookout for a renewal notice email from your domain registrar a few months before your domain expires. It is always a good idea to mark your domain name renewal date in your calendar 90 days before the expiration date and renew it a few weeks early. Most registrars will also allow you to renew for more than a year at a time, or to have your credit card on file so your name can be renewed automatically.