Name:
Anna Ullrich
Title/Product:
Product Evangelist, Microsoft Expression Web
What inspires you?
Beauty, nature, and natural disasters
How did you choose to work on this team with this product?
I love the web and the egalitarianism of web publishing, and so I was naturally drawn to the Expression Web program. Although we’re part of Microsoft, our team has the great qualities and energy of a start-up company.
What’s your favorite feature? Why?
It’s a tossup between the quick tag selector bar (the tag tree that runs along the top of the editing window) and the CSS Properties task pane. The quick tag selector bar is simply indispensible for selecting elements in the page and efficiently working with them. For example, I can use it to remove both the start and end tag of an element, or to wrap an existing element with a set of new tags. I use it most often to select a particular element before editing the element’s properties. I love the CSS Properties task pane for safe CSS editing and for tracking down and diagnosing problems in my CSS.
How long have you been a Microsoftie?
Since January 2006. Well actually, that’s the month that I was hired as a contractor at Microsoft, serving as a technical writer for the Expression Web team. They hired me on as a regular employee at the end of July 2006, which is the date some Microsofties would say really counts.
What does your typical workday look like. What is it that you do?
Ever since I moved from being a technical writer on the team to product evangelist earlier this year, no day has been typical. I’m often pulled into this and that initiative as needed. But often I arrange for members of the team to meet with web developers so that we can learn how folks are working in the industry and improve Expression Web, I review feedback from Expression Web users and respond to it, jump into the forums for Expression Web now and then, harangue team members to blog on the team blog, review messaging that is going out to the public, advise others on the team about our users, and serve as a passionate advocate for our users in many discussions around the development of Expression Web.
How do you like to spend your time outside of work?
Doing creative things on my computers, such as making artwork and developing websites.
Anything else you'd like to share with the community?
I heart tofu.
Links
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