Microsoft Expression Blend 2 - December Preview

Microsoft Expression Blend 2 - December Preview

The Microsoft Expression Blend 2 December Preview Free Trial is available for download. For those who don't know about Expression Blend,  Expression Blend lets you create Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) applications as well as Microsoft Silverlight -based applications.

One of the major updates to this version is the fact that you can export content from Microsoft Expression Design in a format that you can use in Silverlight-based applications created in the Expression Blend 2 December Preview.

Among know issues that were dealt in the Blend 2 is:

• Visual Studio 2008 support :The Expression Blend 2 December Preview can open and work with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 projects and solutions. By default, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) projects that are created in the Expression Blend 2 December Preview are now Visual Studio 2008 solutions, whether targeting the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 or the .NET Framework 3.5.
  
• Silverlight Support: Silverlight 1.0 projects created in Expression Blend 2 December Preview are now created as website projects instead of application projects, improving interoperability with Visual Studio 2008. Additionally, the Expression Blend user interface has been changed so that only Silverlight 1.0 properties are available.
  
• Synchronized File Changes: When editing a Silverlight site project in Expression Blend 2 December Preview and Visual Studio at the same time, any changes that you make in Visual Studio are immediately applied in Expression Blend.
  
• Making Controls from Existing Objects: The Expression Blend 2 December Preview contains new functionality that lets you refactor existing content into a control that you can reuse.
  
• Split View and XAML Editor Improvements: The Expression Blend 2 December Preview lets you view an open document in both Design view and XAML view at the same time by selecting the new Split tab on the right side of the artboard.
  
• Storyboard Picker: The Storyboard picker replaces the old Storyboard box. The picker consists of a label to indicate the name of the selected Storyboard, a shortcut menu, a pop-up button, and a Close button to close all Storyboards and exit recording mode. Both the shortcut menu and the pop-up menu let you create a New Storyboard, and if a Storyboard is already selected, you can now Duplicate, Reverse, or Delete the selected Storyboard.
  
• Storyboard and Keyframe Properties: The Expression Blend 2 December Preview contains new functionality for setting properties on Storyboards and on keyframes in the Properties panel.
  
• Key Spline Editor: When you have one or more keyframes selected in a Storyboard, you can change the easing behavior between keyframes by using the new key spline graphical editor under Easing in the Properties panel.
  
• Vertex Animation: The Expression Blend 2 December Preview contains new functionality for animating individual vertices on a line.
  
• Clip Path Editing and Animating: Expression Blend 2 December Preview now enables you to modify clipping paths on the artboard after you create them.
  
• Breadcrumb Bar: The Expression Blend 2 December Preview now displays a breadcrumb bar above the artboard, which helps you keep track of where you are in a template hierarchy as you navigate through it.
  
• Font Embedding: The Expression Blend 2 December Preview contains new functionality for embedding fonts in your project. Embedding makes sure that the font that you select for your application is the font that users will see when they run your application.
  
• Build Options: When building inside the Expression Blend 2 December Preview, the property $(BuildingInsideExpressionBlend) is set to true. You can use this property in your project or .targets files to change how the project builds when in Expression Blend.
  
• Copying Projects: You can now create copies of your projects and sites in Expression Blend 2 December Preview by clicking Save Solution Copy on the File menu.
  
• Adding Multiple Projects to a Single Solution: When you create a WPF project in Expression Blend 2 December Preview, a solution file is automatically created for you. This solution file is compatible with Visual Studio 2008. In Expression Blend 2 December Preview, you can now add multiple projects to your solution by right-clicking the name of the solution in the Project panel and then clicking Add New Project or Add Existing Project. You can also add references to existing projects (without copying them to your solution) by right-clicking the References folder in the Project panel and then clicking Add Project Reference.
  
• Drag and Drop: It is now possible to incorporate media into your projects by dragging media files from outside Expression Blend 2 December preview and dropping them onto the artboard when a document is open.
  
• Support for New 3D Objects: The .NET Framework 3.5 introduces new 3D objects. Expression Blend 2 December Preview does not include the new 3D objects in the Asset Library.
  
• Object Manipulation: In Expression Blend 2 December Preview, you can duplicate objects by dragging them while holding the CTRL key. You can also resize, scale, and rotate multiple objects at the same time by selecting them and then using the resizing handles on the artboard. You can also rotate multiple selected objects around any center of rotation.
  
• Keyboard Shortcuts: A number of keyboard shortcuts in Expression Blend 2 December Preview have been updated to be more consistent with the keyboard shortcuts in Microsoft Expression Design.
  
• Close Buttons on Panels: The Project, Properties, and Resources panels now include a close button in the upper-right corner, whether they are floating or fixed.
  
• Search Text Boxes: The Search label that typically appears next to the search text box in the Properties panel, the Asset Library window, and the new Storyboard picker, now appears inside the search text box.