Hello. I received Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition upgrade. Given that the Mac came with iPhoto and nice OS, is there any point to install Media Expression? Are there any good features that are available only from Expression Media?
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Is it worth to install Microsoft Expression Media?
- Thread starter hajime
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thewhitehart
macrumors 65816
I was wondering this too. Has anyone used this product yet? Is it worth installing when we already have iPhoto?
Can someone post a review? 🙂
Can someone post a review? 🙂
thewhitehart
macrumors 65816
I think I'm going to avoid installing it, then. iPhoto suits my needs, and I don't like the idea of having another program duplicating all of my media files into its own database. Does it do that? I'd hate to have spotlight index 45 different copies of the same file.
EricNau
Moderator emeritus
I was going to ask this question as well (now that I've finally received my package from Microsoft), but instead of starting a new thread I thought I'd try and get this one an answer.
So... Has anyone figured out what MS Expression Media is for yet, and did you find it worthwhile to install?
So... Has anyone figured out what MS Expression Media is for yet, and did you find it worthwhile to install?
I got my free office yesterday, I installed it, but have not used it yet.
So that is pretty much no help to you I guess... hahahha
So that is pretty much no help to you I guess... hahahha
has anyone figured this out yet? I still can't figure out what purpose it serves...
it seems pretty useless.
it seems pretty useless.
tmelvin
macrumors 6502
It's a direct replacement for FrontPage. I've used the Windows version, and this is supposed to be similar. I prefer iWeb because it's easier. I'm not an HTML editor, don't claim to be, nor do I want to be. Expressions has some of that capability where you can do it all in a GUI format, HTML coding/tagging, or a combination.
I guess if you're a hardcore MS person, and create a lot of sites using ASP, etc. then it's probably a huge benefit.
I guess if you're a hardcore MS person, and create a lot of sites using ASP, etc. then it's probably a huge benefit.
ohhh I see. thanks for clearing that up!
I agree with you too. I personally think iweb is the best app for getting a quick and easy website up that looks decent (remember all those awful geocities pages people used to put up??). I know all the hard core coders are tearing their hair out at that sentence, but at the end of the day most people don't want/need a website any more fancy than a simple iWeb template.
hahah I mean let's face it, any "noob" iWeb page > all those geocities-esque pages anyday 🙂
convergent
macrumors 68040
I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to correct this post. Expression Media is not a replacement for FrontPage and has nothing to do with web development. There is a family of products under the Expression brand that might be that, but Expression Media is not. A few years ago Microsoft bought out one of the top digital asset management (DAM) products called iView Media Pro. It was highly regarded in the photography world at the time... but that was before Aperture and Lightroom existed. I believe that Microsoft intends this product to compete with them, except that as far as I can tell it doesn't really do a good job of it. Most of the avid supporters of iView Media Pro bailed when Microsoft bought it. And it also really doesn't compare well. One one hand, it can handle many more kinds of assets than just images, like Aperture and Lightroom. On the other hand, it lacks most of the image processing features of those two. I think that Microsoft took something that was doing fairly well on its own, and has now kind of stifled it and not really moved it along.
Basically its a workflow tool to help you deal with large numbers of digital assets (images, documents, etc.) and index them with keywords, etc. I just got it as part of a "deal" at the Apple store on Office 2008, and I think I'll see if I can find someone that will buy that part of it since it had a separate install disk and serial number. I use Lightroom and don't intend to switch.