July, 2010

Kenyon Brown here, editor of this title. We’re very pleased to announce that Jim Boyce’s latest book, Microsoft Outlook 2010 Inside Out (ISBN: 9780735626867), has shipped to the printer! Covering Outlook 2010, Jim’s book offers hundreds of timesaving solutions, troubleshooting tips, and workarounds. You’ll discover how the experts manage Outlook 2010—to arrange your schedule, manage tasks, and organize contacts easily; sort e-mail messages by conversation, category, and with search folders; collaborate with colleagues by linking to Microsoft SharePoint 2010; make use of virus protection, encryption, spam filters, and other security features; take Outlook 2010 with you, using it on the Web and with your mobile device, use workgroups, instant messaging, and more with Microsoft Exchange Server;...

Rob Miles, who a couple of weeks ago presented in the Windows Phone 7 Jump Start sessions and who is the author of Microsoft XNA Game Studio 3.0: Learn Programming Now! (which we’re updating with Rob for XNA Game Studio 4.0 and Windows Phone 7), has just released a great free offering for those interested in learning C# programming. Here’s Rob’s description from his website : The new version of my famous C# Yellow Book is now available for download. This free 197 page book is the basis of our programming course and has a whole bunch of new content, along with reorganised layout and proper sections. Get yours today from here: http://www.csharpcourse.com/ The C# Yellow Book is used by the Department of Computer Science in the University of Hull as the basis of the First Year programming course...

This has been posted for a while, but you might have missed it. It’s a great interview Scott Hanselman did with Charles Petzold about his past books (15 books, including Programming Windows and Code and The Annotated Turing ), his upcoming book Programming Windows Phone 7 , WPF, XAML, development for Windows Phone 7, and many other topics. Check it out here .

Carl Chatfield here. In previous posts (including here and here ) I've explored some of my favorite new features in Project 2010. This week, I look at a nice improvement to one of the more mundane features of desktop apps: Copy and Paste. Not Glamorous, But Still a Great 2010 Improvement Copy and Paste via the Windows Clipboard is such a basic, unglamorous feature that I was surprised to see some improvements in this area. Yet in 2010 you'll find better pasting of structured, tabular data from Project to Word and Excel. Let's start with the Copy and Paste experience in Office 2007 applications (and indeed what I describe here is what you'd experience in all versions prior to 2010). Let's start first with Excel. Tables and Chairs I'll start in the Resource Sheet view in Project. I have the Cost...

Good morning. This video has been on Channel 9 for a couple of months, but users of Access might find it interesting. Jeff Conrad, one of the authors of the upcoming Microsoft Access 2010 Inside Out (ISBN: 978-0-7356-2685-0), “talks about his upcoming book…discusses how he built a completely web-based restaurant management system using Access, and walks us through the system's features, including data macros, custom reports, filtering, and client functionality.” Access Services is a new feature of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise Edition that supports close integration with Microsoft Access 2010. This integration enables users to extend the ease of Access application development to the creation of Web forms and reports, and it enables IT managers to extend the ease of SharePoint...

The 12 hours of Windows Phone 7 Jump Start sessions—four virtual sessions to provide developers a jump start for developing Windows Phone 7 applications, presented this week by Microsoft Press authors Rob Miles and Andy Wigley—have concluded. If you missed the sessions, you can watch them via the links below. (Please note that higher quality videos of the sessions will be available in August, after some production work.) Recording Links: July 20 – 8am (PST): Session One: Getting Started with Microsoft Windows Phone and Silverlight AM: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/view?id=Win7072010&pw=webcast AM: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/view?id=Win7072010-1&pw=webcast AM: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/view?id=Win7072010-2&pw...

The Society for Technical Communications (STC) is a professional association dedicated to advancing the art and science of technical communications. In January, three Microsoft Press books qualified for STC’s International Technical Publications competition, based on winning the highest honors at the local, chapter level. I’m thrilled to announce two of our books won international recognition – making them truly world-class. A huge congratulations to our planners, editorial team, brand and design team, operations team, and authors !! Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Resource Kit STC International: EXCELLENCE STC Puget Sound Chapter: Distinguished, Best in Show Judge’s comments: Superb organization. Everything you’d expect...

As you might know, Rob Miles and Andy Wigley have been talking Windows Phone 7 development in Live Meeting sessions. They've been covering how you write Silverlight applications, how you write games in XNA, how you sell them, and what makes this new platform so special and shiny. There were two sessions on Tuesday, July 20th and there will be two more on Thursday, July 22nd: Session Three: Advanced Windows Phone Development Session Four: Selling Your Windows Phone Solutions & Wrap Up Today Rob and Andy answered loads of questions in an “Office Hours” session in the Windows Phone 7 Jump Start forum. Take a look.

We have been busy at Microsoft Press! We’re pleased to announce that another Office 2010 book has hit the shelves! Microsoft Access 2010 Step by Step (ISBN 978-07356-2692-8, 448 pages) is available for purchase. Like the other Office 2010 Step by Step books we’ve recently published, you can expect an improved experience by accessing the practice files online rather than on a CD. You can review the table of contents and the Introduction in this previous post . Here is an excerpt from Chapter 2, “Create Databases and Simple Tables.” Chapter 2 Create Databases and Simple Tables In this chapter, you will learn how to ✔ Create databases from templates. ✔ Create databases and tables manually. ✔ Manipulate table columns and...

Download LCDS v2.5 now! The Microsoft Learning Content Development System (LCDS) is a free tool that enables you to create high-quality, interactive, online courses. The LCDS allows anyone to build e-learning courses by completing the easy-to-use LCDS forms that seamlessly generate highly customized content, including interactive activities, quizzes, games, assessments, animations, demos, and other instructionally engaging elements. Highlights of this release New v2.5 features include: LCDS authoring is 64 bit–compatible E-learning created is compatible with Firefox 3.5.9 and Firefox 3.6.3 New Silverlight 4 Media Player for animations that includes closed captioning and full screen option Enhanced keyboard accessibility for the sort and tile games, adventure interactivity, and Voice of the...

We’re eager to announce that Microsoft Office Home and Student 2010 Step by Step (ISBN 978-07356-2721-5; 672 pages) is available for purchase. Check out this previous post for the table of contents and an excerpt from the Introduction. Here is an excerpt from Chapter 11, “Change Workbook Appearance.” Chapter 11 Change Workbook Appearance In this chapter, you will learn how to ✔ Format cells. ✔ Define styles. ✔ Apply workbook themes and Excel table styles. ✔ Make numbers easier to read. ✔ Change the appearance of data based on its value. ✔ Add images to worksheets. Entering data into a workbook efficiently saves you time, but you must also ensure that your data is easy to read. Microsoft Excel 2010 gives you a wide variety of ways to make...

Rob Miles here. Next week Andy Wigley and I will be talking Windows Phone 7 development. For six hours. We are going to be covering how you write Silverlight applications, how you write games in XNA (that’s my favourite bit), how you sell them, and what makes this new platform so special and shiny. There will be four three-hour sessions: two on Tuesday, July 20 th and two on Thursday, July 22 nd . On the Wednesday in-between Andy and I will be online giving help to anyone getting started. We are doing all this live from downtown Bellevue, as a Windows Live event with video so that you can actually watch us play with all the toys. There will be quizzes, prizes, and labs along with some truly appalling jokes (sorry about that). You can find out more, and sign up, here: https://msevents.microsoft...

We’re happy to announce that Microsoft Outlook 2010 Step by Step (ISBN 9780735626904; 576 pages) is now available for purchase!  In this book, veteran authors Joan Lambert and Joyce Cox use the popular step-by-step approach to teach you how to manage e-mail messages; organize your inbox, contacts, and task lists; manage and share your calendar; and much more. View this previous post for a chapter-level table of contents and excerpt from the Introduction. In this post, we offer an excerpt from this book’s Chapter 7, “Organize Your Inbox.” 7 Organize Your Inbox In this chapter, you will learn how to ✔ Work with Conversation view. ✔ Arrange messages in different ways. ✔ Organize Outlook items by using color categories. ✔ Organize messages in folders. ✔ Manage messages by using Quick Steps...

Hello again. We’re happy to announce that Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 Step by Step (448 pages; Print ISBN: 978-0-7356-2691-1), by Joyce Cox and Joan Lambert, is now also available. You can find the book’s outline and a description of its coverage here . And following is an excerpt from the book. Enjoy!                 Chapter 11 Add Sound and Movies In this chapter, you will learn how to Insert and play sounds. Insert and play videos. A Microsoft PowerPoint presentation is usually created to convey a lot of information in a short time. That information can be in the form of text, graphics, charts, and tables, but it might also consist of audio content. And sometimes the best way to ensure that your audience understands your message is to show a video. For...

We’re happy to announce that Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Administrator’s Pocket Consultant is available for purchase! Ben Curry has written another stellar book for Microsoft Press. Please take a look at this excerpt from Chapter 3, Configuring Core Operations. You can find more information about this book and other Microsoft Press offerings at the book’s catalog page . You can see the table of contents and Introduction in this previous post . CHAPTER 3 Configuring Core Operations ■ Introducing Central Administration ■ System Settings ■ Database Management ■ Configuring Send To Connections Core operations refers to farm-level settings and applications such as Central Administration, server services settings, and e-mail configuration. There are items—such as...

We’re happy to announce that Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Best Practices (ISBN 9780735627192; 912 pages) is now available for purchase! Written by Exchange experts Siegfried Jagott and Joel Stidley, this book has already received raves from customers for pulling in candid advice and field-tested recommendations from industry experts around the world. You can find the book’s Contents at a Glance and an excerpt from the Introduction in this previous post . We’ve already heard from a couple of customers who had trouble locating the companion content for this book. The files are located here ; you’ll need to click on the Examples link on the left-hand side of the page. (And yes, we’re actively working to make the companion files easier to find.) In this post we offer an excerpt from this book...

Microsoft Word 2010 Step by Step is now available for purchase! You can view the book’s chapter-level table of contents as well as read the Introduction in this previous post . After you purchase this lovely new book, you’ll have access to an electronic copy as well as to online practice files. Through our ongoing anonymous customer survey ( http://www.microsoft.com/learning/booksurvey ) we received many comments saying that accessing the practice files on the companion disc that came along with Microsoft Office Word 2007 Step by Step was difficult. So we’ve moved the practice files to the Web. Simply click the “Practice Files” link in the left margin at the book’s catalog page . Another improvement we made to our 2010 Step by Step books is to include...