New in 2.0

Microsoft Expression Media 2 is the professional asset management tool to organize, optimize, and share virtually all of your digital files.

Improved integration with Phase One Capture One (Service Pack 2 only)

New features in Microsoft Expression Media now make it possible for you to work in tandem with the Phase One Capture One raw image processing program. You can process your images in Capture One, and then import them directly into an Expression Media catalog. Conversely, you can catalog your raw images in Expression Media and then export them to Capture One for further processing.

Recover damaged catalogs (Service Pack 2 only)

Expression Media can now partially or fully restore damaged and corrupt catalogs. Upon failing to open a catalog, Expression Media will scan the catalog in order to locate salvageable catalog content. If any undamaged content is available, Expression Media will create a new catalog containing the restored elements.

Improved viewing and management of GPS information in your images

The Global Positioning System (GPS) features in Expression Media allow you to read GPS information, or "geotags," in your images, and locate your images on the included Microsoft Virtual Earth map. Expression Media has enhanced geotag handling options that include the ability to enter and alter your geotag information, export your geotag information, and to manually, and precisely, plot your image directly on the Virtual Earth map.

Import from WebDAV-enabled network site

Expression Media now supports importing files or folders from WebDAV-enabled network locations, such as Microsoft SharePoint sites.

Support of new file formats

Expression Media now supports the Microsoft Office 2007 and 2008 file formats DOCX, DOTX, PPTX, POTX, XLSX, and XLTX. Expression Media also now supports XAML, Design, XEJ (Expression Encoder Job), CSS, JS, and VBS file formats.

Improved network performance

Expression Media now performs much more quickly across networks. It also enables catalog locking so multiple users can access and view a catalog from a shared location when someone has it open and is editing it.

Updates to the Info and Organize panels

Each panel contains new menus in annotation fields that include options for sorting images using either a union or an intersection of keywords.

Hierarchical keywords

With the new Hierarchical Keywords section in the Organize panel, you can create and view hierarchies of keywords for your media files. For example, you can describe all the layers in a photograph file. Instead of just tagging your photograph "Europe," you can create a keyword hierarchy that specifies the country, the city, the street, and even the physical location of the scene (for example, "upstairs and to the right"). Or, instead of tagging a photograph "dogs," your keyword hierarchy could specify animals, mammals, and even specific breeds. The Hierarchical Keywords section works in tandem with your flat keywords to give you many options for clearly and accurately categorizing your media files.

Improved performance

Common tasks such as importing media, building catalogs, and creating thumbnails are now faster. Also, smart importing functionality prevents corrupted files from hindering import. Expression Media will continue the import process even when it encounters corrupted files and will report any problematic files when the import is finished.

Multimonitor Light Table

You can increase your productivity by having the Light Table open on one monitor when your catalog and tools are open on another. You no longer have to switch back and forth between views.

Silverlight web galleries

You can present your image collections in dynamic, rich, cross-platform Silverlight web galleries by using the templates included in Expression Media.

Quick Look support on Leopard

With Expression Media, you can use Quick Look to see thumbnails and previews of documents without opening the document in its original application. You can preview images from a catalog without having to open the catalog.