One of the things that took me the longest to do when I was prepping for my OzFox Session was also one of the simplest - enabling the Developer tab in the Word 2007 ribbon. The Developer tab looks like this:
and it allows you to do things that a Word developer might need to do, including adding content controls. By default though, it's not enabled. To switch it on, choose Word Options from the Word Menu:
Make sure you've got the Popular group highlighted, and check the box that says "Show Developer Tab in the Ribbon".
Yeah, I guess I should have found that sooner.
I'm sitting down with Tania, the event owner for TechEd Australia and we're puzzling over what should go on a TechEd attendee badge. Last year we had your Name, a choice of 4 "Classifications" (ITPro, Developer, etc) and an option for a one line "Passion", be it technical or otherwise.
What would you like to see this year?
[Update - Fixed link to presentation. Thanks yag]
Last night I delivered my session at OzFox - Creating Office OpenXML Documents in VFP.
Recently adopted as an ECMA standard, and currently undergoing the approval process for ISO adoption, the new Office Open XML document formats are the native format for Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2007. The huge advantage that this format has over the previous ones is that it is completely documented and allows programmatic creation of Office documents without requiring the Office client applications. In this session, Andrew will introduce the structure of an Office Open XML document and will demonstrate how to create and modify documents from within VFP, all without ever having to run any of the Office apps in the process.
Recently adopted as an ECMA standard, and currently undergoing the approval process for ISO adoption, the new Office Open XML document formats are the native format for Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2007.
The huge advantage that this format has over the previous ones is that it is completely documented and allows programmatic creation of Office documents without requiring the Office client applications.
In this session, Andrew will introduce the structure of an Office Open XML document and will demonstrate how to create and modify documents from within VFP, all without ever having to run any of the Office apps in the process.
As promised, the slides for the session are here, and the (tiny amount of) code is here.
One of the things that came up in the session that wasn't covered in the slides was the enhancements to the =rand() function in Word2007 ;)
=rand()
For a long time now, I've used the Ctrl+Enter shortcut in Internet Explorer (and many other browsers I've used) to surround a website name with www. and .com, so typing microsoft into the address bar and pressing Ctrl+Enter will take you to www.microsoft.com. Very neat, very efficient, saved me heaps of keystrokes over the years.
It's always been a bit of a pain that there wasn't a way to go to other top level domains as efficiently. Up to now.
Hidden away in the language settings in IE7 is the ability to add another domain suffix to the Ctrl+Shift+Enter shortcut. I've added .com.au, but you might want to add .org, or .co.uk or something else that's relevant to you. The only problem is that it's a real pain now when I go to someone else's machine and this shortcut's not set up (a bit like using a mouse without a wheel, or an operating system without a search bar in the start menu).
In IE 7, go to Tools|Internet Options.
Click the Languages button and set the suffix to the domain of your choice.
Now the Internet's your oyster (if it wasn't already).
I'm sitting in the keynote of OzFox, Australia's FoxPro Conference. Craig's kicking things off and is about to introduce Rick Schummer and Doug Hennig. The keynote's called "The Future of VFP", and here are my raw notes from the session.
I've been at a couple of sessions this week where this has come up (ISV Innovation Day and OzFox). Microsoft have a program whereby partners can create virtual images of their applications for users to download and evaluate inside a virtual machine. You can do all of the tricky configuration etc and let potential customers jump straight in.
From the web page:
VHD Test Drive Program The Microsoft VHD Test Drive Program provides Microsoft’s partners a convenient and simplified process for creation of application images, facilitates its widespread distribution by making it available as a free download and enables accelerated evaluation and testing of these applications by customers. If you are Microsoft partner and would like to be able to distribute your applications in a VHD, you will have to sign the VHD redistribution agreement. To participate in this program, send an email to vhdinfo@microsoft.com and ask for a copy of the agreement to be signed and returned to Microsoft.
VHD Test Drive Program
The Microsoft VHD Test Drive Program provides Microsoft’s partners a convenient and simplified process for creation of application images, facilitates its widespread distribution by making it available as a free download and enables accelerated evaluation and testing of these applications by customers. If you are Microsoft partner and would like to be able to distribute your applications in a VHD, you will have to sign the VHD redistribution agreement. To participate in this program, send an email to vhdinfo@microsoft.com and ask for a copy of the agreement to be signed and returned to Microsoft.
As Frank posted, Australia's Gadget Guy, Peter Blasina, now has a Vista Sidebar Gadget. The guys at Wiliam, along with Paul Stovell and Scotty Barnes have done a great job. Download it today and have a look.
I've had some great comments on yesterday's post about the TechEd Badge. As well as his comments Rob's pinged me offline and suggested including your certification, and perhaps any user groups you belong to. What about whether you're an MCT or MVP? I can see a whole range of possibilities. What if we were to provide an area at the bottom of your badge for stickers (let's call them, oh, say, tags). Frank's might look something like this:
I had some great questions after my session at the ISV Innovation Day in Melbourne yesterday. One was around using ASP.NET AJAX functionality in SharePoint. Completely coincidentally, Darren posted about this yesterday. He pointed to Mike Ammerlaan's great post. There was also discussion on this topic internally recently and it turns out that Eric Schoonover posted on the topic and that there's a relevant CodePlex project. Scott Guthrie also blogged about it (he also gives Darren's book a big plug in that post).
Via Brian Goldfarb.
Microsoft Learning have just released Clinic 5230: Developing Enhanced Web Experiences with Microsoft® ASP.NET AJAX Extensions. From the course description:
In this 2-hour clinic you will learn about the rich functionality that ASP.NET AJAX Extensions provides for building highly responsive and enhanced web applications. In addition to learning about the different server and client components of ASP.NET AJAX, you will also learn how to build new ASP.NET AJAX applications and how to upgrade existing ASP.NET applications to take advantage of ASP.NET AJAX.
Enjoy!