by Chris Leeds and Elena Kosinska

As some of you know I had been teaching Expression Blend at a local community college this summer. Since these were continuing education classes they were not very long folks taking the class were asking me which text they should buy for learning Expression Blend and XAML. I send them here to this book.

I have to tell you right now, that even if you are just diving into XAML (even with Windows 8 looming) this is probably the best book out there on the market today. It is up-to-date, fresh with great examples and step-by-step how to get into Expression Blend. Even if you are thinking about getting into Expression Blend because of Microsoft HTML “METRO” apps this is the book for you. Even though it doesn’t cover HTML and the things still in development, it’s probably the best text out there to get you into the product and productive quickly.

The examples and code provided are well documented, the flow is very quick and no matter where you are with learning Blend there is something here for everyone.. You are quickly inside the tool and productive. There is great design and editing in the book, which is authored by two creative people who know both the web and rich internet application development and design well. They are also current Microsoft MVPs..

Thank you Elena and Chris for doing such a thorough job covering the topics and making a book that (unlike other Microsoft Step-by-Step books) anyone can find useful topics and learn something just picking up the book.. My students who purchased the book as a recommendation really loved it as well too..

Blend has always been covered by developers, it’s great to see a remarkably good book finally that still keeps the designer developer workflow and the designer first in the picture. I do not believe anyone could cover these topics better right now in this book format anywhere.

You can buy it at Amazon.com at over 30% off..

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Expression-Blend-Step/dp/0735639019