Xpressive App Reviews
Software has very incomplete video tutorials that are narrated by a guy with creepy voice backed by annoying music. I’ve used a ton of software and pick up most very quickly. Wasted an hour screwing around with this and finally quit. Never got it to work. Purchased it to SAVE time, but I finally gave up and went back to the old way of editing. Wish I could get my money back… Don’t waste your time of money on this one. This is the first bad review I’ve ever given.
I was looking for an app that would replace the simplicity of CSSedit 2 (which I really liked until it was folded into Espresso…). I came across Xpressive and decided to give it a try. It turned out that it was much more than a simple CSS editor, it is designed to give designers complete front-end creation capabilities in real time. It is a dream to work in and although it is still in Version 1, I feel like it is well hashed out.
Like the Yosemite look, this app is really a well made Mac style developer tool. The CSS design options are pretty impressive, the timeline system is incredible. If you’re serious about web design you should add this one in you toolkit (I wouldn’t say it’s an alternative to Espresso or Coda, it’s just something else, a more advanced tool, where Espresso/Coda are more for beginners IMO). Keep up the good work!
Wow, this application is truly amazing. It reminds me of Xcode. Although there is not an enromous amount of documentation out there, and although the application is not as robust as Xcode, it is built with the same principiles in mind. As a novice web developer (like 1 week old web developer at the time of the post), this application made managing and maintaing the CSS and the HTML, reduculiously easy. PROS: -live content rendering (as soon as you change a margin or backgorund color, the changes appear immediately) -organized CSS -drag and drop HTML -organized IDE… like Xcode… drop and drop features… etc CONS: -learning curve is kinda steep… like 1-3 days or playing around with the IDE (steeper if you’re new to web developement) -the IDE is kinda hard to control sometimes, like the scripts don’t load if they aren’t properly referenced in the DOM… the CSS won’t properly load if it isn’t referenced properly within the DOM… sometimes it leaves you confused. -the drag and drop interface get’s kinda clunky and cumbersome at times… but you can always directly edit the HTML directly from the finder… (which will be reformatted when the document is opened… not so sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing) - … ummm The IDE generates some sample CSS and HTML. As a beginner this kinda confused me, but I got the hang of it after a while. overall.. great product 5/5, happy with my purchase !!!
I agree with people ascribing a steep-ish learning curve and a few quirks to this app. But the more I use it, the more I like it and the more valuable it is to my workflow. Those of us who don’t normally use static web pages can still profitably develop in Xpressive. Great tool. Well worth it.
It combines the best of many OS X apps (Expresso, CSSEdit and TextMate) with a rich XCode IDE like user interface. Great job and many thanks to Modulay for making this app! Keep up the updates and the great work.
Xpressive is a good app for webdesign that relies heavily on the DOM structure of a page. If you are comfortable designing from the DOM up, you’ll probably like this software. There are, however, some odd layout quirks in the editor. For example, I see scroll bars that obscure some of the information in the editor. These sorts of layout oversights make the app appear underpolished.