Over the next few weeks, I’m traveling around the world spending time with friends and family. I plan to stay unplugged from work the entire time. But unplugged from work doesn’t mean unplugged from technology. :-) Here’s how I’m balancing the art of staying unplugged from work and still remaining connected...

I am a big fan of SharePoint Workspace. I’ve been using SharePoint Workspace for the last few weeks, and I can honestly say that my experience has been fantastic! I thought I’d write a short note to share my own experiences and how I’ve been using it to improve my own personal productivity. As background...

Robert Foster, a SharePoint MVP, informally interviewed me a few weeks ago in Redmond.  Rob asked me very interesting questions ranging from SharePoint in the cloud to SharePoint "14". You can listen to the podcast @ http://www.sharepointpodshow.com/archive/2008/11/24/sharepoint-in-the...

It's been a really busy few weeks for me. I've been working with Paul Andrew on our PDC plans. For a quick look at the SharePoint sessions @ PDC, take a look here . In between PDC planning, I've also been meeting customers & partners at several events such as the Microsoft BI Conference , CIO Summit...

I was in Orlando this week presenting at an internal Microsoft conference. I had an opportunity to meet & talk to different people WW about SharePoint. A couple folks I chatted with had customers who wanted to create Enterprise Wiki solutions. It turned out that what they were looking for was an...

Stefan is back! J Stefan is in Redmond this week, and we had a chance to catch up! In fact, I had dinner with Stefan Gossner and Andrew Connell just yesterday. Here are pointers to some recent posts that Stefan authored on SharePoint Content Deployment and the SharePoint Migration API. Incidentally,...

If you haven't been to http://www.live.com , created your own personal dashboard and used the search - you must check it out. It's great!

PJ Hough, GPM for WSS, has started blogging! Check it out here.

I've been meaning to blog about this for some time, but just getting around to do so. Recently, we released a report pack for SPS that leverages SQL Reporting Services. You can download this at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=49159368-544B-4B09-8EED-4844B4E33D3D&displaylang...

Stewart Frey has posted search customizations tip at http://spaces.msn.com/members/bagels911/ . Check it out if you get a chance - it's a quick way to enable boolean searches.

Many customers ask for a recycle bin. If you're looking to develop your own recycle bin vs. using one of the available partner solutions, take a look at this article: http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/05/02/RecycleBinforWSS/default.aspx . This article gives you guidance on how you can implement...

Yes. You can deploy SharePoint solutions on the Extranet. I know several small and large customers who either have deployed a SharePoint solution externally or are in the process of doing so. A few months ago, we released a whitepaper relevant to partners and customers who want to deploy WSS on the Extranet...

We hosted an Architect Portals Bootcamp last week in the Seattle area. I was impressed with the different projects the architects were involved with. However, one thing that I did notice, based on comments and questions some of the attendees had when I spoke to them, is that many folks out there are...

If you say SharePoint 2003, my respected colleague down the hall from me, Mike Fitzmaurice, won't be very happy. You see, SharePoint 2003 really doesn't make sense; it doesn't mean anything. Tell that to the authors of Microsoft SharePoint 2003 Unleashed - incidentally, a good book. When people use the...

I just spent some time adding links to my blog to some of the SharePoint resources. Take a look on the left hand side. There are a lot of resources, downloads, whitepapers and samples available out there... I'll continue adding more links over time. Here's a list of some of the whitepapers: General SPS...

If you're looking to manipulate URLs with an ISAPI filter, check out http://www.isapirewrite.com/

At TechEd, in one of my sessions, I developed a custom placeholder server control. Here's the sample code that I promised. Custom placeholder server controls empower developers to provide a richer publishing experience. The placeholder framework in MCMS 2002 is one of the best things about the product...

At TechEd 2004 in Amsterdam this year, I presented a couple sessions covering MCMS and SPS topics. In one of my sessions, I demonstrated how InfoPath Forms could be used to allow users to publish content to MCMS. Some customers want this functionality for a the following reasons: The Authoring...

I've met several SPS and MCMS partners and customers over the last few days in Denmark. Denmark is a beautiful country with very nice people. However, to my dismay, it is rainy and cloudy at this very moment - reminds me of good ol' Seattle. Anyway, one of the most frequently asked questions this...

I just met the guys at Barrcuda.NET in LA this week: Jason Masterman and Ted Pattison. They are excellent trainers and very knowledgeable in SharePoint Products and Technologies. I highly encourage you to contact them/attend their training if you and/or your customer is looking for technical SharePoint...

For those of you who haven't tried it yet, I highly recommend customizing and creating Data View Web Parts with Frontpage 2003. There's an entire whitepaper on the topic at http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/odc_fp2003_ta/html/odc_fpbldgxmlwebs.asp . You can create web parts...

Developers ask me very often how they can change MCMS user role security rights using the MCMS Publishing API. The reality is that the publishing API does not allow you to change user rights. Depending on the business requirements, one approach is to take advantage of Active Directory groups. Therefore...

If you are looking to make nicer looking navigation with little effort, check out this article.  This was pointed out by Mark Harrison  who's a MSFT Portal technologies expert and lives in the UK. He has written some books on the subject (one around Commerce Server 2000...

I have a Samsung 8500. I was really tempted to get a new phone with imbedded Bluetooth technology and a camera yesterday, but decided against it. Though people in the US are getting better and better cell phones, the average consumer doesn't have a powerful PDA/smartphone/cell phone as consumers in...