Graphicalwonder - Shane Perran's SharePoint Customization Blog
April 05, 2006
Boot Camp: Mac + Windows
More and more people are buying and loving Macs. To make this choice simply irresistible, Apple will include technology in the next major release of Mac OS X, Leopard, that lets you install and run the Windows XP operating system on your Mac. Called Boot Camp (for now), you can download a public beta today.
As elegant as it gets
Boot Camp lets you install Windows XP without moving your Mac data, though you will need to bring your own copy to the table, as Apple Computer does not sell or support Microsoft Windows.(1) Boot Camp will burn a CD of all the required drivers for Windows so you don't have to scrounge around the Internet looking for them.(2)
Read the Boot Camp Mac + Windows Article
April 01, 2006
SharePoint Designer 2007 Features
It should come as no suprise to anyone that I was never against using FrontPage 2003 as long as it was used properly, for example - data views were/are one of the best custmoization options available for content.
The problem with FrontPage was it had been misused alot and it really made itself a nasty little reputation, a reputation so bad that Microsoft decided to rework the application and then rebrand it to breathe new life into it.
The result is "SharePoint Designer 2007". Mike Fitz said awhile back "It's time to show some FrontPage love" and now I know why, they have really put a lot of great effort into this application to make it a viable SharePoint customization tool.
Now that it seems people are allowed to post screenshots I wanted to post a few screenshots of the great new features that I think the designer types will really love. To view the screenshot just click a link below. Big thanks to Amanda for helping me get these screenshots together!
10 Screenshots of the great new features in SharePoint Designer 2007
(X)HTML and CSS Color Coding & Intellisense - The code is now much easier to look at.
The Common Tasks Menu - Now when you add a data-view web part for example you have an untuative and useful common tasks panel presented to you. The same as in Visual Studio 2005
A great new Toolbox filled with things like ASP.NET controls
Much nicer CSS control and editing. It is a lot of the dreamweaver way of dealing with CSS.
The slow movement toward a mindset for more semantic markup and CSS versus tables for layout is becoming evident with the inclusion of CSS Layout Templates.
For those that followed my site template tutorials or those that have done much importing of FWP files there are now more features in the Import Menu.
To elaborate a little more on how much better they've made this tool for CSS customization, this new "Jump to Code" feature is great. Select a class name and go straight to the page and part of the code for editing.
Of course what would a "new wave" editor be without Master Pages support.
New - "New" Menu where you can now select to create SharePoint Content
In case my other examples didn't convince you, check out this super cool and useful CSS editing feature which allows you to display only styles used in the current page.
http://www.graphicalwonder.com/images/stylemanagement.jpg
March 24, 2006
SharePoint 2007 and Internet Explorer 7
Obviously anticipating the PNG Alpha Transparency support in Internet Explorer 7 it seems the SharePoint team has already been busy implementing some PNG's.
A sign of good things to come!
Eric Meyer and others on Internet Explorer 7
With Internet Explorer 7 now "Rendering Behaviour" complete the information is coming in fast and furious. Eric Meyer has a great IE7 post with his thoughts.
The IE Blog of course has plenty of information as well as a CSS Zen Garden inspired layout showing off things like fixed positioning, PNG Alpha Channels and Arbitrary Element:hover as well as others. See more about Internet Explorer and it's CSS rendering on the IE Blog.
Dave Shea over at Mezzoblue has some details about IE 7 as well.
A couple of great quotes from the posts that should bring a smile to your face:
In the Explorer Exposed section on Position is Everything, there’s a big list of bugs exclusive to IE running down the left hand side of the page. With one exception, consider that entire list fixed. The exception is the escaping floats bug, which apparently will take a major code re-architecturing that they simply couldn’t do in IE7; it’ll come in a later release. - Dave Shea
No, I don’t think IE will wipe everyone else off the map, but I do think the browser space is getting a lot more interesting. What makes it particularly interesting is that the competition is not going to be over who can add the coolest non-standard geegaws, but who can deliver the best product based on the same standards as everyone else. - Eric Meyer
Talking at Microsoft’s current Mix 06 conference conversation Bill Gates mentioned that IE could see a refresh every 9 to 12 months. Don't forget that the reason MSN Messenger is so widely adopted is due to the update-attention it gets every few months. This is great news!
I'm looking forward to hearing comments from people like Jeffrey Zeldman, Molly Holzshlag and Jakob Nielson.
March 23, 2006
Spam-tastic
I have been bombarded for months with more spam than I can manage on my blog. I find myself on a daily basis delting 100's of spam trackbacks and comments.
Unfortunately I'm sure I lose many 'legit" ones during the delete process as well. My apologies if your comments don't make it from time to time.
I have recently moved hosting providers (well I'm in the process) because I was not happy with my current. I am going back to Media Temple whom I used for several years prior.
I am also pondering changing Blogging Engines as well, the one I have in my sights is Word Press. I would love to hear from people using this engine (both good and bad). After researching several I am just happy with the structure and templating available in WordPress.
My big concern is the RSS switch - I don't want people to have to change anything if I can help it so I have been researching several solutions for Wordpress to make this transition seamless. This is another big thing I would love to hear more on so if anyone reading this has made that change, or knows much on these topics please feel free to leave a comment (I'll try not to delete it), or drop me an email. shane at graphicalwonder dot com.
Bon Echo
So I just downloaded the Firefox 2.0 Alpha to give it a whirl. The only things I noticed other than the alpha-name was the fact that the tabs have reverted back to the old "X" on the tab. This was something I had read was coming. Other than that I seems to be slightly quicker but I have not had a chance to get into it in much detail so I have not seen a lot of change. I guess I should read the build notes for more.
March 22, 2006
SharePoint Designer 2007
Most of us by now realize that the FrontPage reputation was quite tarnished. Sometimes for good reason while others it was just a "follow suit" type situation.
FrontPage 2003 allowed you to do some fantastic things with SharePoint. I guess that's part of the reason that Microsoft went as far as to completely rebrand it to the now "SharePoint Designer 2007". Expression will pick up the slack for (X)HTML/CSS design. In my opinion this move is simply brilliant.
On that note: Goodbye FrontPage, Hello SharePoint Designer 2007
I have been using SharePoint Designer 2007 for a few months now and I have noticed some really great improvements for SharePoint design/development.
I am not certain on what I am allowed to post screenshot wise so I will refrain until I am certain that I am allowed to post screens of the UI and instead touch on a couple of great improvements I have noticed:
1) My personal favorites from the CSS department: Much better CSS management. Better CSS Editing. CSS Templates available from the "new" menu. Much nicer CSS management, classes are exposed in a list - you can break apart (grouped) selectors, jump-to the stylesheet and line to edit the code by right clicking on a selector as well as many other great additions.
2) Color Coding, Intellisense and Margin Managment!
3) Great ASP.NET Controls built in for menus, web parts etc.
4) Common Tasks - If you add a data-view for example you are presented with a panel of common tasks which are likely to be used, great addition.
There are a tonne of great new featuers these are just a few. I have screenshots of about 10 great things I have uncovered but unless I hear that I can definately post UI shots I will hold off for now.
March 21, 2006
Internet Explorer 7 - Beta 2 Preview
At MIX 06 the IE Team mentioned there is now available for download a preview of Beta 2. This version of IE7 is "Rendering Behaviour" complete. This basically means that the additions will be more on fixes/security but in regard to how your pages will render in Internet Explorer 7 you are now free to test your CSS sites and find out. Eric Meyer had some words on IE 7 and Expression on his website.
Get Internet Explorer 7 (Beta 2 Preview)
February 26, 2006
Got the Origami Bug?
More details on Origami emerge, it looks mobile and tablet PC related.
February 16, 2006
Internet Explorer 7: Clear Type
Is it just me or is the clear type being used in IE7 different?
I always hated clear type to be perfectly honest and now since IE7 I absolutely love it. Things are just so, so well yeah clear.
I know the IE team released some information about it but I have not yet had the time to sift through it but it seems as though it's been changed to me.
It's a beautiful thing this Internet Explorer 7
February 15, 2006
Bill Gates on SharePoint, Office 2007
I just watched the new Bill Gates video on Channel 9 and one quote about SharePoint stood out:
Bill Gate: "SharePoint will become on the Server what Office has become on the Client". That is promising news in my opinion.
Watch the video:
Bill Gates talks about Office 2007, SharePoint and his Internet habits
Microsoft Antispyware -vrs- The Rest
One thing is certain, we live in a world filled with spam and people with entirely to much time on their hands that wish to create malicious code simply for the sake of doing so.
In such a world we need to protect our computers and of course the data on them. Next question; What software/technology gets the job done best?
Why don't you be the judge after reading Microsoft's - Comparing Microsoft Antispyware and other Antispyware Technologies
February 09, 2006
Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar Beta 2
From the IE Blog
IE Developer Toolbar Beta 2
Beta 2 of the developer toolbar is now available. Beta 2 includes numerous fixes to improve stability, usability and performance along with a couple of additional features such as the ability to enable and disable CSS on the page.
The developer toolbar has become an essential tool for us in diagnosing issues with web pages. Being able to click on an element in the page and find out where it is in the element hierarchy is just one of the invaluable facilities it provides.
Let us know if you have any feedback either here or at the Wiki on Channel 9 about the toolbar. We’d certainly like to hear of issues and suggestions for further improvements.
We did hear one report that the previous preview of the developer toolbar did not work with the recently released preview of beta 2 of IE7. However we have been unable to reproduce the issue. Do let us know if you have any issues with either IE6 or the IE7 preview so that we can thoroughly investigate them for final release.
Get the IE Developer Toolbar Beta 2
February 08, 2006
Open Source iTunes Killer?
Self dubbed "iTunes Killer" Songbird makes a debut.
February 07, 2006
The Art of the Start - Guy Kawasaki
To anyone that does any amount of presenting or those that are just interested in learning more about what makes a good presentation/presenter I cannot recommend highly enough Guy Kawasaki's blog.
Listen to chapter 3 of his recent book "The Art of the Start"
The Art of Pitching by Guy Kawasaki
February 05, 2006
Internet Explorer 7: Asa Dotzler from Mozilla/Firefox talks about IE 7
Asa Dotzler is an original Firefox team member. He recently put up a fairly detailed post on the IE7 Beta2 Preview.
One thing that really stood out for me was (IE7 Search - Using text instead of a distinct icon for your search provider) That should be on the IE teams TO-DO list no doubt.
Read Asa Dotzker's IE 7 Beta2 Preview Article
February 01, 2006
Internet Explorer 7: IE 7 (Preview 2) Frequently Asked Questions
If you find you have questions about the public preview the best place to start is here the IE 7 Public Preview Frequently asked Questions list.
If you still cannot find what you are looking for ask a question over at the IE Blog.
If you develop for SharePoint or anything web related this Blog is a must-watch!
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/
January 31, 2006
Internet Explorer 7: Public Preview
Great News! - Internet Explorer 7 is now available for everyone to download. Microsoft wants you to start testing your sites in Internet Explorer 7.
Via The IE Blog:
I’m very excited we’ve released a public preview of beta2 that everyone can download. I’m also very happy that we’ve opened up a couple of different avenues to take your feedback. As Dean mentioned, there is a great checklist for site developers on the IE7 preview site; I wanted to call out a specific item on that list.
Download Internet Explorer 7 Public Preview
What do SharePoint, Office 12, Biztalk, VS2005 Addins and Xbox have in common?
Well other than Microsoft they are all talked about on the latest podcast by the plumbers.
Why are you still here? Go listen to the plumbers latest podcast on O12, Xbox and more.
January 25, 2006
Blogs: Community Server 2, Beta 3
I absolutely love the way Community Server is done, I love the look of it and the usability. I have been thinking of ways I could use it myself as I'd love to give it a test drive.
With all the recent talk of the UK SharePoint User Group you may recognize the look.
If you have not yet checked it out:
Community Server Beta 3 is available.
January 05, 2006
Windows Vista and Microsoft: Congrats Microsoft
I just noticed the refresh on the VISTA site. I have two things to say about it.
1) WOW - it's absolutely beautiful.
2) I see no tables. (Note: I have not gone through it much I quickly glanced at the code and seen none so I'm happy to shut my eyes and live in my ignorant oblivia that they've stopped using tables.)
ok 3 things - I hate to say anything negative about this because it just looks so good but the background has the very well known "flicker" when it changes. This is quite fixable using an off-set image (one example: http://www.fivesevensix.com/studies/ie6flicker/) ... Just an idea.
Great job and if this is any indication of what we're in for aesthetically with the product then it's going to be a real interesting end-of-year.
Atlas: Interesting new direction in the December CTP
This post outlines the focus of the December '05 release of Atlas CTP bits, and walks through the key integration points with ASP.NET server controls to enable incremental enrichment of ASP.NET server-centric applications with scenarios such as incremental page refreshes, auto-complete, draggable panels etc.
Read the entire December Atlas CTP article
December 22, 2005
VISTA: December Build - Covers are off
Setup and User Interface
A teaser from the full Paul Thurrott article on the win supersite:
I think people are going to be surprised by how good the Windows Vista December 2005 Community Technical Preview (CTP, or build 5270) really is. After years of painful delays and an uncertain couple of months since the last CTP, Microsoft shipped a near-feature-complete Vista build to testers this week, and the prognosis is extremely positive. From what I can see, Vista has turned the corner. The December CTP is an exciting release, stable and full of new features. In this review, I'll examine those new features, and the features that have changed since the previous CTP.
Read the full Windows Vista (December Build) article by Paul Thurrott
December 16, 2005
Office 12 Training Anyone?
Just noticed that Patrick Tisseghem and Ted Pattison are doing a little training tour for Office 12. Looks promising! While I have never had the pleasure of attending one of Patricks functions based on his general manner I'm certain they would be fantastic.
I have had the chance to attend sessions with Ted Pattison and he too is a great speaker, very hands on. It's invite only but should you get a chance to sit in I'm sure they will be great!
The ascend training is a 4-day workshop (on invitation only) targeted towards ISV developers touching all aspects of Office'12' solution development. So we have client-side development with Office '12', WSS 'v3' with Web parts and the other exciting extensibility points, and then moving over to the Office '12' server added-values such as InfoPath, Workflow, Excel Services and more. Four days fully packed with exciting material if you ask me.
Ted wil be doing the following cities: Toronto (Canada), Las Colinas (TX), Charlotte (NC), Redmond (WA), San Paulo (Brazil) and Sidney (Australia).
Patrick will be hitting the following cities in the next three months: Chertsey (UK), Paris (France), Munich (Germany), Vedbaek (Denmark), Milan (Italy), Beijing (China), Bangalore (India) and Warshaw (Poland).
December 15, 2005
Internet Explorer 7: IE adopting the firefox RSS icon
News from the RSS team blog
I’m excited to announce that we’re adopting the icon used in Firefox. John and Chris were very enthusiastic about allowing us (and anyone in the community) to use their icon. This isn’t the first time that we’ve worked with the Mozilla team to exchange ideas and encourage consistency between browsers, and we’re sure it won’t be the last.
We’ll be using the icon in the IE7 command bar whenever a page has a feed associated with it, and we’ll also use it in other places in the browser whenever we need a visual to represent RSS and feeds. Look for more details on the look and feel of IE7 when we post the public pre-release build next year.
Thanks again to the Mozilla team for making the icon available and helping us do the right thing for all browser users. Many thanks to everyone who gave feedback on our earlier post; your comments and thoughts were very valuable!
December 14, 2005
Visual Studio 2005 Team System
Couple of interesting tidbits about Team System.
Getting even closer to the enterprise - Teams of up to 2000 users
We're officially changing the guidance from "Teams of up to 500 users" to "Teams of up to 2000 users"! I'm really thrilled to be able to announce this and proud of the work we have done that has made it possible. This is going to significantly increase the breadth of customers who can adopt Team Foundation Server as an enterprise wide development platform.
Learn more about TFS scalability here
TeamPrise:
Connect to Visual Studio 2005 Team System from "outside" Visual Studio.
Teamprise is a suite of client applications for accessing Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System from outside the Visual Studio environment. Previously codenamed "Allerton", Teamprise enables developers to use the source control and item tracking features of Team Foundation Server from other platforms, including Linux and Mac OS X, and from within the Eclipse IDE.
December 10, 2005
Yahoo aquires del.icio.us
As of today, del.icio.us is part of the Yahoo! family."
As Joshua writes, the del.icio.us team will soon be working in close proximity to their fraternal twin, Flickr. And just like we've done with Flickr, we plan to give del.icio.us the resources, support, and room it needs to continue growing the service and community. Finally, don't be surprised if you see My Web and del.icio.us borrow a few ideas from each other in the future.
Read the Yahoo Aquires De..icio.us article here.
December 08, 2005
Windows Live: MSN Search Toolbar (New Add-ons!)
I just noticed this on the "unofficial microsoft blog".
Windows Live Favorites for MSN Search Toolbar (Beta)
Created by Microsoft
With Windows Live Favorites for MSN Search Toolbar (Beta) you'll be able to access your favorites from any PC, add new sites easily, find your favorites quickly, and manage them even when you are away from your home PC.
Get Live Favorites for MSN Search Toolbar (beta)
Search Preview Add-in for MSN Search Toolbar (Beta)
Created by Microsoft
Find precisely what you're looking for in less time with Search Preview Add-in!
"Click-free" : Preview a thumbnail of each MSN Search result
Productive : Mouse over thumbnails to magnify search results and save time
Fast: No need to Click (the link), Look (at the result page), and hit your Back button to see the next result
Get the Search Preview Add-in for MSN Search Toolbar (beta)
December 05, 2005
It's official - Macromedia + Adobe
Formerly Macromedia, now Adobe. The merger is complete.
It is fairly evident by the former Macromedia website.
In case there was ever any doubt:
Take a look at the best web designers bundle EVER
December 03, 2005
XBOX 360 Preview Videos
If you have not yet had a chance to scoop up a 360 but are curious about it Amanda has posted a pretty good video detailing the cooler features on her blog.
Head on over and check out the XBOX 360 Preview Videos
December 01, 2005
Windows OneCare Beta Now Live!
Overview
The things you should have to help protect your PC, but probably don't because they're such a hassle—stuff like virus scanning, firewall settings, tune-ups, and file backups—all delivered to you in a friendly, easy-to-use package that runs quietly in the background.
Check out the Windows OneCare Beta Here
November 29, 2005
For those that were at TechED, You can now get your SQL 2005 copy
Thank you for attending Microsoft TechEd 2005 and for registering for your complimentary* copy of SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition. To place your order, just go to the SQL Server 2005 Customer and Partner Order Web site and complete the order form.
November 22, 2005
Congrats to Sourceforge.net for going tableless
Like the topic states sourceforge, the worlds largest open source development site has gone tableless and adopted a CSS based layout.
Take a look at sourceforge.net for yourself
Got XBOX 360?
One might question their priorities if they were to wake at 5am only to stand in the freezing cold at Wal-Mart waiting for a shot at 1 of 13 Xbox 360 Platinum Consoles. Then again, Nahhhh ....
Lucky #13 just happened to go to Amanda and I. We got the last of the platinum consoles at 6am - 2 hours before the store even opens.
November 17, 2005
Office 12 Screenshots
I wonder how many of these screenshots we will be seeing over the next little while? :)
Take a look at some Office 12 shots here
Office 12 Beta 1
Office 12 Beta 1 has been released. For those that don't get in this round you can always poke around and sign-up for future O12 betas here.
November 16, 2005
Is Microsoft's Sparkle the new Flash?
A little insight for those that have been wondering about Microsofts "Sparkle/Accrylic" initiative:
Microsoft recently announced a new product called Expression Sparkle Interactive Designer, which is one of three products in the upcoming Expression family. The other two are Expression Acrylic Graphics Designer (an illustration and graphics design tool) and Expression Quartz Web Designer (a tool for designing Web sites).
Acrylic Product Manager Forest Kay describes Sparkle this way: "Sparkle Interactive Designer is a bridge product between the graphics illustrator, creating drawings with Expression Graphics Designer, and the application developer using Visual Studio 2005." Through Sparkle, designers can create graphically pleasing interactive experiences in a common format shared with the programmers.
At a recent conference, Microsoft Senior Vice President Jim Allchin delivered something unexpected and exciting—a version of Microsoft's new Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) running in Apple's Safari on a Mac. Next, he took the presentation and ran it in Internet Explorer 7, and then he wrapped up the presentation running WPF on a mobile phone.
Microsoft's Sparkle takes the designer to a new level of creativity. Many of the tools built into Sparkle will be recognizable to Flash designers from Macromedia's Flash 8: animation timelines, vector and bitmap image support, drawing tools, event-driven interactivity, support for video and audio, and so on. What separates Sparkle from Flash is real support for 3D. Flash has loosely supported 3D through complex and program-bogging scripts, or sequences of animation tools created with products such as eRain's Swift 3D, but it doesn't have the capability to directly support 3D models. Sparkle provides this ability.
Flash has become well known for the cool effects written in Macromedia's programming language, ActionScript. Sparkle gives developers the full breadth of programming languages, such as C#, to add interactivity to their tools. In addition, Sparkle provides strong support for development tools such as IntelliSense and debugging.
Finally, Sparkle finally delivers a tool to the interactive design community that adequately links the designer and the software engineer. Through a common language, XAML, software will have the ability to look and feel significantly more engaging than it does today.
Read the entire Sparkle article here
November 14, 2005
Introducing Google Analytics
Google Analytics tells you everything you want to know about how your visitors found you and how they interact with your site. You'll be able to focus your marketing resources on campaigns and initiatives that deliver ROI, and improve your site to convert more visitors.
Learn more about google analytics
Blog Software Review
If you have not experimented with the different blogging packages there is a pretty good review of the top 3 on SitePoint.
They give you the low down on, Moveable Type, Word Press and Text Pattern.
View the Blog Package Comparisons here
November 10, 2005
XPS in Office 12
Thanks to Patrick for pointing to this:
Office “12” will support a native Save as XPS feature in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher, Visio, OneNote and InfoPath.
What is XPS?
XPS, or the XML Paper Specification, is Microsoft’s new electronic paper format for exchanging documents in their final forms. This Office feature provides a one-way export from Office client applications to an application- and platform-independent, paginated format.
Unlike the Office Open XML Formats, XPS does not attempt to capture the full structured richness of an Office document. As an electronic paper format, it is all about a high fidelity representation of the output only.
Read More on Jeff Bells Site
http://blogs.msdn.com/jeff_bell/archive/2005/10/27.aspx
November 09, 2005
Edit your CSS live in the browser using CSS VISTA
CSSVista is a free Windows application for web developers which lets you edit your CSS code live in both Internet Explorer and Firefox simultaneously.
Download CSS Vista here
November 04, 2005
A colleague featured on TechTV (MAC Product: Awaken)
Jerry Brace, a colleague of mine had one of his MAC applications featuerd on TechTV recently. It's a great little alarm clock for the MAC that integrates well with iTunes and offers a lot of nifty features.
Jerry is a .NET developer at Infotech but is also an avid MAC user and developer in his spare time.
You can check out his product Awaken on a TechTV feature here.
You can visit the awaken website here.
November 03, 2005
IE Tab for Firefox
If you use Firefox and Internet Explorer you will love this nifty new extension.
Overview
IE Tab, an extension from Taiwan, features embedding Internet Explorer in tabs of Mozilla/Firefox. This extension is derived from the famous extension IE View, but they are quite different.
While IE View always open IE-only pages in newly launched windows of Internet Explorer, IE Tab can open them in tabs of Mozilla/Firefox.
*NOTICE*: If you're using Firefox 1.0.x, you have to install an additional package from the following link to make it work.
This is *NOT* needed by Firefox 1.5. http://downloads.mozdev.org/ietab/ietab_plugin-1.0.3.xpi
Download the IE TAB extension here.
October 11, 2005
VSTO Video
Patrick points us to a VSTO video on advanced programming and deployment. It has a 1 hour running time so grab some popcorn :)
October 03, 2005
Native PDF Support in Office 12
I just noticed this on Patricks Blog
Native PDF support in Office "12"
Today's another exciting day as we move closer to Beta 1. We are just wrapping up the MVP summit here in Redmond and we've finally announced another piece of functionality I've wanted to talk about for a long time now. This afternoon Steven Sinofsky announced to our MVPs that we will build in native support for the PDF format in Office "12". I constantly get asked by customers if we can build in this support for publishing documents as PDF files, and now I can thankfully say "yes!" It's something we've been hearing about for years, and earlier in this project we decided that while there were already existing third party tools for doing this, we should do the work to build the functionality natively into the product.
The PDF support will be built into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher, OneNote, Visio, and InfoPath! I love how well this new functionality will work in combination with the new Open XML formats in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. We've really heard the feedback that sharing documents across multiple platforms and long term archiving are really important. People now have a couple options here, with the existing support for HTML and RTF, and now the new support for Open XML formats and PDF!
This really all comes down to the basic theme of content sharing. We realize that this is a really important scenario, and that's why we're making the move to default XML formats that are fully documented. Now we've moved to the files being in open, redistributable, and archivable formats; and we can focus more of our innovations around ways to act on those formats. This is true on the client and the server.
September 01, 2005
VSTO Demo Videos on Channel 9
I just noticed Patrick posted a link to the demo videos of VSTO on Channel 9.
For those of you following the Adobe, Macromedia Merger
Skip all this and read the Forbes article
I'll be the first to admit that the Adobe/Macromedia merger has excited me to no end, the merger of a suite of products from these two groups is a dream for almost all professional web designers.
However ...
Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver? They are the top tools 90% of the web designers use, I know this because I myself use them all on a daily basis.
I don't know what your version of monopoly is but to me if that's not a monopoly on 'web design' then I really don't know what is.
That's why comments like "" We're not taking anything for granted, especially when the competition is a $40 billion monopoly. " from the CEO's of Macromedia and Adobe annoy me slightly. They are in regards to Microsoft and their views on them as a monopoly and as competition.
It's all fine and good to say we want to become stronger by merging so that we reduce the threat of competition from companies like Microsoft but I mean c'mon, don't make your case based on another companies strategy if what you are doing is exactly the same on a different scale.
That's my 2c.
August 31, 2005
Microsoft Business Scorecard Manager (Beta 2)
Microsoft Office Business Scorecard Manager 2005 Beta 2 program
I just noticed this on both Mark and Igor's blogs.
Go to http://beta.microsoft.com and sign-in with your Microsoft Passport Network credentials.
When prompted, enter the Guest ID “MaestroTester” (one word) and follow the instructions.
In case you are wondering what Business Scorecard Manager is, read this.
