An Impressive Free HTML WYSIWYG editor

English: M in blue square (similar to seen on ) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Microsoft surprises me again. Since I do web design as a hobby (at the moment), I am constantly on the lookout for legitimate freebies (as in, not “pirated” software). Enter Microsoft Expression Web 4 and Microsoft Expression design 4.

Expression Design 4 is a basic vector graphics editor. I typically use SWiSHmax as it does export to PNG but ED4 does have some interesting features. Because I haven’t use it much except to make a logo for my husband’s website, I don’t have much to say about it, except that it’s free and seems easy to use. Maybe I’ll be able to get into more depth in another post.

I wouldn’t exactly say that it’s comparable to Dreamweaver, but it is the best free WYSIWYG out there so far and unlike FrontPage or Word (both from Microsoft that can do webpages) it doesn’t add useless code.
It’s also not that difficult to learn as I figured it out pretty quickly without looking anything up or checking the help files. I did have get a little confused when adding styles to objects. The odd thing is, you right click on the CSS properties box on the left-hand side, and create a style, but then, the right-click no longer works and you have to click on “New style” on the right to create a new style.

It wouldn’t hurt to brush up on your HTML and CSS as there were a few times I gave up on using the design mode and switched to code, but it does have an instant code feature. Just start typing and the list of tags, objects, or properties show up.

Overall, it’s an impressive freebie and I would recommend it for the not-so-beginner web designer. If you want to learn HTML and/or CSS, you might want to check out W3Schools.com.
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Free Microsoft Office Stuff?

Windows Live SkyDrive (Photo credit: 阿國)

My mother's computer is old and probably could not handle Microsoft Word 2010, which is unfortunate, since some of the writing contests that she really wants to enter require a Microsoft Word compatible document. OpenOffice is a great program, but sometimes converting it to MS Word does not work out so well.


So, I decided to look into SkyDrive, again.

The last time I was on SkyDrive, I could not edit my documents online. So I had decided just to use it as a backup drive only. Handy, as I know full well what happens when you don't have a backup. I was fortunate enough that my husband had bought an adapter for laptop hard drives, allowing me to move my documents to the desktop. So when I heard of "SkyDrive" from Microsoft and how at the very least, OneNote can synchronize with the drive, I was elated.

I've switch computers twice since then (once from a netbook to the desktop, then from the desktop to my new laptop) and it was nice that I didn't not have to worry about my office documents.

After I had the discussion with my mother, I thought about trying SkyDrive again because I heard that they added new features that allow you to not only view your documents, but to edit them.  I was not disappointed.

Now, you can create (or edit) a Word document, Excel workbook, PowerPoint presentation, One Note (my favorite), and an excel survey. The web version is missing some features, but for basic Word documents (such as typing up the next American Novel) or a paper that's due tomorrow.

For the purpose of the blog, I did a "test" word document and just typed up a paragraph. I was surprised on the fact that the look and feel was similar to Word 2010, it didn't lag at all, in spite of the fact that I have a lot of background programs running.  Typically, I have to shut a few down to go onto Facebook.

I haven't used it enough to give a decent review, but I thought it was good enough to mention now as I do know there are plenty of people who cannot afford to shell out  $100 for Microsoft Office, especially, in this economy. You will be hearing from me on SkyDrive again.


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