Joe Rohn, Microsoft MVP - Visual Developer - Expression

Name: Joe Rohn
Country: USA
WebSite: https://timeforweb.com/
Focus: Expression Web

Expression Web Interview with Joe Rohn

Q 1. Do you own and maintain your own FrontPage/Expression Web resource(s)?

A. Yes. My Expression/FrontPage portal main page is located here:
https://timeforweb.com/

Q 2. Do you have a special tip for Expression Web you can share with our readers?

A. This is for folks that were using FrontPage prior to changing to Expression. Do not uninstall FrontPage whether you are using what is called an upgrade path (which really is a misnomer) or are doing a full fresh install of Expression Web. While many upgrades tend to write over previous versions, Expression is not truly a FrontPage upgrade. It is a brand new web authoring package from Microsoft. FrontPage and Expression can co-exist very nicely on the same machine. People may find it convenient to be able to continue to use FrontPage at times, while they are learning Expression.

Q 3. What feature would you most like to see available within the next version of Expression Web and why?

A. A Navigation Feature similar to FrontPage and SharePoint. Having a feature like this makes organizing files and folders much easier.

Q 4. What Expression Web Add-on would you most like to see available and why?

A. Actually there would be several but they would all fall under a category of interactivity. Many web sites today are not simply static informational type sites. They offer viewers and authors ways to interact. Things like blogs, forums, wikis, etc. are different formats that help with this. I would hope that more add-ons will be developed that will allow easy plug-in to Expression for these types of systems to be created.

Q 5. As a MVP you participate online and answer many questions on (FrontPage) Expression Web. What started you down this road and why?

A. Well a vast amount of the knowledge I have was gained from using various online communities. Knowing how important learning from other peoples experiences was to me, I try and give some of that back to other folks as they are going down that path.

Q 6. What Expression Web or Web design good practices do you recommend our readers follow?

A. Learn about CSS! Expression web handles CSS in a wonderful manner. Just like anything else though it is important to understand some of the basics. I am not sure why but there still appears to me to be a large number of people out there that feel that CSS is some type of mysterious process to be avoided. They seem to think it will be difficult to learn and take volumes of training manuals to accomplish simple tasks. It simply isn't so! Learning and using CSS in Expression in place of things like deprecated <font> tags (along many other advantages) will allow you to create clean, easy to follow, and easy to change, standards compliant code.

Q 7. What five sites do you recommend should be in our readers web design arsenal?

A .
a/ W3 Schools - https://www.w3schools.com/
b/ 4 Guys from Rolla http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/
c/ Dynamic Drive http://tools.dynamicdrive.com/
d/ Open Source Web Design http://www.oswd.org/
e/ RSS Specifications http://www.rss-specifications.com/

Q 8. Do you have any luminaries within Expression Web and the Web Design industry in general and who do you model your practices after?

A. Actually it is a continuous learning process as methods and technologies evolve, develop, and change. There are many people and sites that I admire greatly.

Q 9. What advice would you give to readers who are used to using the wizards and bots of FrontPage and want to move to Expression Web and a more user friendly site?

A. FrontPage is a wonderful tool for folks to begin with for creating web sites. Unfortunately however at some point there are limitations with it. If all you do is to use FrontPage Bots for your site, basically you are only learning and memorizing key strokes. Expression Web on the other hand helps you to go through a thought process for developing or enhancing your site. It really will allow you to think through what you want to do and learn more about it. It is evolutionary from FrontPage.

Q 10. Can you tell our readers of any upcoming Expression Web activities or just launched projects you have planned?

A. In addition to the FrontPage forums that I have had (and intend to keep) for years, Expression Forums have now been added as well. Due to the relative newness of Expression Web, the forums do not have the volumes of posts that the FrontPage sections have, however I hope those of you reading this will consider coming over and helping us all learn more together as we go. The Expression forums section is located here:
https://timeforweb.com/