Microsoft expressions ... How its different from visual studio ?

Question

I just heard Microsoft Expressions studio from my project manager and he told me to explore on it and find out if we can do development faster using it as compared to vs2008, I started downloading trial version and started googling about it, but I couldn't find answers to following questions

• Why Microsoft came out with new IDE when they already have very successful one i.e. the visual studio ?
• How its different that visual studio ?
• Does it offer advantages over visual studio ?

Can somebody please help me find out these answers ?

Answer 1

The Expression line of products are intended for visual designers and primarily are concerned with designing XAML layouts. So a developer will use Visual Studio to code the logic of the app while an artist will use Expression Blend and the like to design the look and feel of the app.

Both Silverlight and WPF are designed to allow this division between designer and developer (if you follow best practices).

Answer 2

Expression Studio is targeted at designers not coders. It meets a completely different need from that of Visual Studio.

Expression Studio is is many ways pretty close to the Adobe Creative Suite series of products (Expression Web is similar to Dreamweaver, Expression Blend is similar to Flash, Expression Design is similar to Illustrator)