February, 2011

What's happening on Career Factor? Read on to find out... Caroline – The Office Competition Contender, Canada Goal: Compete at the 2011 Certiport Worldwide Competition on Office This week: Caroline received encouragement and congratulations from Certiport . She also celebrated her 21 st birthday on February 21. Happy birthday, Caroline!   Steve – The Job Seeker, Australia Goal: Update skills and certifications to find a new job This week: Steve explains in a video blog post that he’s finding it difficult to make time to study , but he’s learning a lot as he updates his server knowledge from Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008 R2. Audience question: How do you find time to learn?   Eddie – The Do-It-Yourself IT Pro, California Goal: Transition back into the IT industry, obtain...

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We’re happy to report that MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-511): Windows Applications Development with Microsoft .NET Framework 4 (ISBN: 9780735627420; 672 pages) is available to purchase. This self-paced training kit is designed to help maximize your performance on 70-511, the required exam for the MCTS certification: Windows Application Development with Microsoft .NET Framework 4. This 2-in-1 kit includes the official Microsoft study guide, plus practice tests on CD to help you assess your skills. It comes packed with the tools and features exam candidates want most—including in-depth, self-paced training based on final exam content; rigorous, objective-by-objective review; exam tips from expert, exam-certified authors; and customizable testing options. It also provides...

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We’re excited to announce that Ted Pattison, Andrew Connell, Scot Hillier, and David Mann’s Inside Microsoft SharePoint 2010 (ISBN 9780735627468; 620 pages) is now available for purchase!   You can find the book’s introduction in this previous post . In today’s post, please enjoy an excerpt from Chapter 11, “Creating and Developing Workflows,” which shows you how Microsoft SharePoint 2010 supports automating business processes using workflows. Chapter 11 Creating and Developing Workflows This chapter explains how Microsoft SharePoint 2010 supports automating business processes using workflows. SharePoint Server 2010 provides several standard workflows that can be used in a variety of business scenarios. SharePoint 2010 also provides you with the ability to create custom workflows...

Rabeb is in love with her brand-new Windows Phone . Neil needs your advice as he brainstorms ideas for an app showcasing Azure technology. Eddie shares his (early) morning routine as he heads off to his day job at Starbucks . Who are you rooting for to get that certification , land a great job , win that competition , and open doors to a new range of career opportunities? Check out Career Factor to follow these and other stories as these real people work toward their goals.

Greetings. Although we strive for perfect books (yes, elusive perfection!), we know we make mistakes. And if you follow this blog, you know we take customer feedback very seriously, always requesting it, regularly reviewing it, and acting on it almost weekly in terms of discussions we have and decisions we make about titles we’re creating. We’ve heard from many of you about errata for MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-680): Configuring Windows 7 . (Click the View/Submit Errata link on the book’s catalog page and you’ll find the errata.) Today we’d like to offer you an 85-page PDF (4.38 MB) containing updated book pages for all the errata we gathered as of February 11, 2011. In other words, any book page requiring a change has been changed and those pages have...

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Greetings! We’re happy to announce that Dino Esposito’s newest book, Programming Microsoft ASP.NET 4 (ISBN: 9780735643383; 992 pages), has shipped to the printer. Here’s the book’s Introduction, which describes the book’s contents and intended audience: Introduction In the fall of 2004, at a popular software conference I realized how all major component vendors were advertising their ASP.NET products using a new word—Ajax. Only a few weeks later, a brand new module in my popular ASP.NET master class made its debut—using Ajax to improve the user experience. At its core, Ajax is a little thing and fairly old too—as I presented the engine of it (XmlHttpRequest) to a C++ audience at TechEd 2000, only four weeks before the public announcement of the .NET platform. As emphatic as it may sound, that...

We are excited to announce that Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 Step by Step , by Olga Londer and Penelope Coventry (ISBN 9780735627260; 512 pages) is now available for purchase! Please enjoy an excerpt from Chapter 6, Working with Web Pages. 6 Working with Web Pages In this chapter, you will learn how to Edit a page. Change the layout of a page. Create a new page. Add links. Work with page history and versions. Use alerts. Add a Web Part from the Web Part pane. Remove a Web Part. Customize a Web Part by using the Web Part tool pane. Edit Web Part pages. Move Web Parts. In Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010, a website is a collection of web pages. You will find this approach...

We’re excited to announce that Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Step by Step , by Mike Snyder, Jim Steger, and Brendan Landers, (ISBN 9780735648906; 448 pages) is now available for purchase! In today’s post, please enjoy an excerpt from Chapter 14, “Working with Contracts and Queues,” which describes how to create a contract template, create a service contract, and activate and renew a contract. Chapter 14 - Working with Contracts and Queues In this chapter, you will learn how to: · Create a contract template. · Create a service contract with a contract line. · Activate and renew a contract. · Create a queue and assign a case to it. · Accept a case from a queue. In the previous chapters, you learned about cases...

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We’re excited to announce that Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Service Resource Kit , by Christa Anderson and Kristin L. Griffin (ISBN 9780735627376; 720 pages) is now available for purchase! In today’s post, please read an excerpt from Chapter 5, “Managing User Data in a Remote Desktop Services Deployment,” which describes how profiles work. A profile is a collection of settings and documents that define a user’s work environment, sometimes referred to as a user’s “personality”. A user’s profile includes both configuration data and personal data such as documents and pictures. Chapter 5 - Managing User Data in a Remote Desktop Services Deployment · How Profiles Work · How Virtualization Complicates Profiles...

We’re excited to announce that Microsoft Windows Exchange Server 2010 Inside Out , written by Tony Redmond (ISBN 9780735640610; 1248 pages) is now available for purchase! In today’s post, please read an excerpt from Chapter 6, “Managing Mail-Enabled Recipients,” which describes how to create mailboxes, groups, and contacts and discusses how to name mailboxes so that administrators and users alike can find the people with whom they want to communicate. Chapter 6 - Managing Mail-Enabled Recipients Now that we have mastered the tools that are available to manage Exchange, we can proceed to create some mailboxes, groups, and contacts and discuss how we might successfully manage these objects. A reasonable amount of change takes place in Microsoft Exchange Server...

For one day only, you can Save 50% on these SharePoint ebooks. Use discount code DDSDX in the shopping cart. O'Reilly ebooks are DRM-free. You get free lifetime access, multiple file formats, free updates. Managing and Implementing Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Projects Was: $15.99 Now: $7.99 (Save 50%) Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Administrator's Pocket Consultant Was: $27.99 Now: $13.99 (Save 50%) Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Administrator's Companion Was: $47.99 Now: $23.99 (Save 50%) Designing Solutions for Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Was: $27.99 Now: $13.99 (Save 50%) Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010 Step by Step Was: $31.99 Now: $15.99 (Save 50%) Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Plain & Simple Was: $19.99 Now: $9.99 (Save 50%)

7 of 7 titles entered honored, 4 earned top awards at the Chapter competition   Excellence Excellence Excellence Distinguished Every year, Microsoft Press enters our highest quality titles into the Technical Publications competition hosted by our local chapter of the Society for Technical Communications (STC). Entries are evaluated on rigorous standards for production, design and typography, content and organization, copy editing, graphics, and how well the publication meets the needs of the intended audience. Microsoft Press submitted seven entries this year. All seven were honored with awards! Four titles received high enough honors to qualify for the STC International Competition. 2010 Competition Results Exchange Server 2010 Best Practices , Siegfried Jagott and Joel Stidley: Distinguished...

We’re very pleased to announce that Ted Pattison, Andrew Connell, Scot Hillier, and David Mann’s book, Inside Microsoft SharePoint 2010 (ISBN 9780735627468) has shipped to the printer! Guided by an author team with in-depth knowledge of SharePoint architecture, you’ll gain task-oriented guidance and extensive code samples to help you build robust business solutions that leverage the features of SharePoint Foundation and SharePoint Server 2010. Learn to build complete SharePoint 2010 solutions using deep architectural insights from the experts. Get a detailed look at SharePoint 2010—and master the intricacies of developing intranets, extranets, and Web-based applications. Master the fundamentals of developing in terms of features and solutions. Learn the architectural...