One of my visitors wrote to say, "Somehow the window for Expression Web 4 DESIGN side is not as wide as it was before. Is there a way to [return] back to the nice wide default Design side?" This article addresses that issue, as well as problems where you resized any other panels (or removed them) and now want to reset everything back to its original state.
For those who are wondering, Expression Web is a free web editor from Microsoft that anyone can use to create and design a website. Information on how to get it and use it can be found in the Expression Web Tutorial.
Before you reset the panels to their original widths and positions, first make sure that you are actually using the layout that you think you are using. Expression Web comes with a 4 different preset layouts, called "workspaces" in the editor, each of have different panels open with different default widths.
Click "Panels" from the menu, followed by "Workspaces" in the drop-down menu that appears. Check that there is a tick beside the "Designer" entry. If not, click "Designer" to enable it.
If the layout still does not have the appearance you expect, click "Panels" again, followed by "Reset Current Workspace". This will cause everything to go back to the condition it was in when you first ran Expression Web.
Incidentally, as you may have noticed as you clicked the various menus, Expression Web also allows you to create a bespoke (custom) workspace. You can do this by resizing the various panels to your satisfaction, then clicking "Panels", "Workspaces" and finally "Save as New Workspace...". This brings up a dialog box where you can name that new workspace and save it.
If you merely want to resize the Design section, another way is to move your mouse cursor to the edge of that panel (either the left or right edges), click the left mouse button, and move the mouse while holding down the button. This allows you to drag the edges outwards or inwards to widen or shrink the panel (at the expense of the width of the panel on the other side).
(If the above paragraph seems too difficult, or you just can't seem to find the exact spot to click, simply use the first method, that is, reset the workspace.)
Now that you know you can easily restore everything back to its default condition, feel free to resize the panels as and when you need to. The editor was designed to be sufficiently flexible so that users can customize its appearance (within limits) to suit the way they work, and to reset everything back if they no longer need those changes.
Copyright © 2021 Christopher Heng. All rights reserved.
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How to Restore Expression Web's Design Panel and Layout to its Initial Default State
