Microsoft Press

Windows Dev Center: Updates to the game portal

Devon Musgrave — Mon, 20 May 2013 20:00:00 GMT

Greetings. I’m John Osborne; I work on content for the Windows Dev Center. Today I’m happy to announce a new series of posts here on the Microsoft Press blog. Each time guidance in the Windows Dev Center is updated or added, we’ll blog about it here so that you know what’s new. And, going forward, you can use the “Windows Dev Center” tag to see only these posts and find our updates more easily.

In our first post in this series, we’d like to alert you to significant updates we’ve made to the game portal in the Windows Dev Center. You can get tips on how to port a game from another platform or program a new game for Windows 8 using our free tools. Then, distribute the game through the Windows Store and start making money. (In case you’re unfamiliar with it, the Windows Dev Center can help you through the whole process of making games or apps, from start to finish, including UX design, app development, and selling.)

Doc updates

Our game portal has a new look and lots of new information that we showcased in time for GDC 2013 in March. If you haven’t seen the docs recently, you’ll be happy to find new coverage in these areas:

Porting Look for information on how to port to the Windows Store platform from other platforms:

Port from DirectX 9 to the Windows Store: for developers who are familiar with game programming for PC, learn how to use Direct3D 11.1, the unified shader models, Windows Store APIs, XAudio2, touch input, C++/CX and more.
Port from OpenGL ES 2.0 to Direct3D 11.1: for Android and iOS game developers, we help you plan your port strategy and the API changes required to move your graphics processing to Direct3D.

DirectX If you’re new to DirectX, the high-performance technology at the core of most Windows Store games, we’ve got new information to get you started:

DirectX basics: Learn the basics of DirectX in “Get started with DirectX game development.”
Tutorials for using DirectX with C++: See a set of tutorials for creating a basic Windows Store game with DirectX and C++ in “Walkthrough: create a simple Windows Store game with DirectX.”
Full walkthrough: See how we developed a sample game, Marble Maze, from start to finish and made it ready for the Windows Store, in the article on “Developing Marble Maze, a Windows Store game in C++ and DirectX.”

Improved APIs We cover newly added APIs for Windows 8 that support games:

Working with audio in your DirectX game: new APIs for audio and sound mixing with XAudio2.
DirectXMath Programming Guide: new APIs for simplified math functions and types.

By the way, you might have noticed “build dates” on the pages we linked to above. As you probably guessed, a build date does indeed indicate the date on which the page was last updated.

Have fun making games, and watch this space for more updates as the Windows Dev Center’s guidance evolves.

Jump Starts: Two new Visual Studio events coming up at the end of May

KimSpilker — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:45:00 GMT

May 28:

Testing with Visual Studio 2012 (exam 70-497) Jump Start

Join us on May 28^th from 8AM – 5PM for our second live Jump Start about Application Lifecycle Management (ALM). Learn more about software testing with Visual Studio 2012 while you study for exam 70-497.

Register here: http://aka.ms/ALM497JS

May 29:

Administering Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012 (exam 70-496) Jump Start

Join experts Anthony Borton and Steven Borg on May 29^th for a MVA Jump Start about administering Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012.

Register here: http://aka.ms/ALM496JS

Quick news: More capacity added to Build 2013!

Devon Musgrave — Tue, 14 May 2013 19:40:05 GMT

Per http://www.buildwindows.com/, a limited number of additional tickets will go on sale Wednesday May 15 at 9am PDT.

You can follow @bldwin for more news about the conference over the coming weeks.

New book: Microsoft OneNote 2013 Plain & Simple

KimSpilker — Sat, 11 May 2013 21:51:00 GMT

We’re happy to announce that Microsoft OneNote 2013 Plain & Simple is available for purchase.

Here’s WHAT you’ll learn:

Take notes, organize, and share them
Bookmark and tag notes for easier searching
Add pictures, drawings, and spreadsheets
Handwrite notes and convert them to text
Record audio and video notes
Access notes from the web or mobile device

Here’s HOW you’ll learn it:

Jump in wherever you need answers
Follow easy STEPS and SCREENSHOTS to see exactly what to do
Get handy TIPS for new techniques and shortcuts
Use TRY THIS! exercises to apply what you learn right away

NOTE: O'Reilly Media is the official distributor of Microsoft Press books. By clicking the link, you will be taken to O'Reilly's website. View O'Reilly's terms of service for use of their services (including payment services) and the privacy policy applicable to how O'Reilly handles your data.

You can also purchase this book from other resellers, such as Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and many others.

New book: Exam Ref 70-687: Configuring Windows 8

KimSpilker — Fri, 10 May 2013 21:37:00 GMT

We’re pleased to announce that Exam Ref 70-687: Configuring Windows 8 is available for purchase.

Prepare for Exam 70-687—and help demonstrate your real-world mastery of Windows 8 setup and support. Designed for experienced IT Professionals ready to advance their status—Exam Ref focuses on the critical-thinking and decision-making acumen needed for success at the MCSA level.

Focus on the expertise measured by these objectives:

-Install and upgrade to Windows 8
-Configure hardware and applications
-Configure network connectivity
-Configure access to resources
-Configure remote access and mobility
-Monitor and maintain Windows clients
-Configure backup and recovery options

NOTE: O'Reilly Media is the official distributor of Microsoft Press books. By clicking the link, you will be taken to O'Reilly's website. View O'Reilly's terms of service for use of their services (including payment services) and the privacy policy applicable to how O'Reilly handles your data.

You can also purchase this book from other resellers, such as Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and many others.

New book: Microsoft Excel 2013 Plain & Simple

KimSpilker — Fri, 10 May 2013 21:29:00 GMT

We’re happy to announce that Microsoft Excel 2013 Plain & Simple is available for purchase.

Here’s WHAT You’ll Learn

· Manage your data quickly and efficiently

· Filter, sort, summarize, and crunch your numbers

· Use formulas and functions to do the heavy lifting

· Bring data to life with charts and graphics

· Share data between Microsoft Office documents

· Work as a team, online and in the cloud

Here’s HOW You’ll Learn It

· Jump in wherever you need answers

· Follow easy STEPS and SCREENSHOTS to see exactly what to do

· Get handy TIPS for new techniques and shortcuts

· Use TRY THIS! exercises to apply what you learn right away

You can also purchase this book from other resellers, such as Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and many others.

Quick news: A new managed library to help with debugging

Devon Musgrave — Tue, 07 May 2013 17:59:56 GMT

Greetings, developers. In case you missed it, take a look at this post by Lee Culver, a software developer on the .NET Runtime team, which introduces you to a new managed library that allows you to automate inspection tasks and access more debugging info. Below is a quick excerpt from the beginning of the post. The post continues with an example and related code in three sections: “Getting Started,” “Analyzing the Heap,” and “ClrMD Features and Functionality.”

Today are we excited to announce the beta release of the Microsoft.Diagnostics.Runtime component (called ClrMD for short) through the NuGet Package Manager.

ClrMD is a set of advanced APIs for programmatically inspecting a crash dump of a .NET program much in the same way as the SOS Debugging Extensions (SOS). It allows you to write automated crash analysis for your applications and automate many common debugger tasks.

We understand that this API won’t be for everyone -- hopefully debugging .NET crash dumps is a rare thing for you. However, our .NET Runtime team has had so much success automating complex diagnostics tasks with this API that we wanted to release it publicly.

One last, quick note, before we get started: The ClrMD managed library is a wrapper around CLR internal-only debugging APIs. Although those internal-only APIs are very useful for diagnostics, we do not support them as a public, documented release because they are incredibly difficult to use and tightly coupled with other implementation details of the CLR. ClrMD addresses this problem by providing an easy-to-use managed wrapper around these low-level debugging APIs.

Perhaps also of interest is this recent title: Inside Windows Debugging (Microsoft Press, 2012).

Scott Hanselman: Ah, the thankless life of the Build Master

Devon Musgrave — Thu, 02 May 2013 16:59:41 GMT

Greetings. Today we share the Foreword that Scott Hanselman graciously contributed to Sayed Hashimi and William Bartholomew’s Supplement to Inside the Microsoft Build Engine: Using MSBuild and Team Foundation Build, 2nd Edition (ISBN 9780735678163). This Supplement adds coverage of new topics to what Scott calls Sayed and Willam’s “missing manual” for MSBuild. As Scott says, “This updated supplemental edition builds (ahem) on the good work of the previous editions and includes new sections on the updates to the MSBuild core, changes in Team Build, and even updates to Web Publishing in Microsoft Visual Studio 2012.”

Enjoy!

Foreword

Ah, the thankless life of the Build Master. If they do their job well, you’ll never know they exist! If they don’t, well, everyone knows it’s the Build Master’s fault, right?

I’ve been a builder in one form or another since my ﬁrst foray into managing the build. Nearly 15 years ago now, I worked on an extremely large system with a team of hundreds. When it came time to build, we used Fred’s machine. Yes, I learned that day that we built and shipped large systems on Fred’s laptop.

This is also how I came to ﬁnd that learning a new build system is similar to boiling a frog. If you throw a frog into hot water, it jumps out. But if you turn the water up slowly, the frog doesn’t realize it’s getting hot, so it stays in the pot and gets boiled. The team didn’t realize how big the system had become and how complex the build was getting.

I realized immediately, somewhat intuitively, that we needed build box. Fast-forward some years, and now every group I work with uses Continuous Integration. Groups I work with have build farms, one with a “Siren of Shame,” a ﬂashing light to effectively shame the build-breaker. We have build artifacts as complex and elegant as actual preconﬁgured virtual machines that pop out the end of our build.

All this was made possible by the power of automation and the surprising ﬂexibility of MSBuild. Sayed and William have written what amounts to the “missing manual” for MSBuild. MSBuild, and its enterprise support counterpart Team Foundation Build, are almost unapologetically powerful. However, they need to be.

Today’s software systems are multilayered, multitiered, and iterate at a speed previously unheard of. All our software development practices and team building comes together at one pinch point: the build.

This essential reference to MSBuild gives us the knowledge not only into how to create an adaptable and vigorous build system, but also valuable insights into the “why” of the product. William is a senior development lead on engineering systems within the Developer division at Microsoft, while Sayed is a program manager overseeing build and pushing for the Microsoft Azure Cloud and Web Tools. I could think of no better people to help me understand a large build system than the folks building large systems themselves.

Sure, we’ve all started with “Build.bat” and called it our build system. Perhaps we’ve put together a little schedule and called it an automated build. But these simple constructs don’t scale across a large team or a large product. This book is what the documentation should have been—a guide that takes us through the humble beginnings of MSBuild as a supporting and unseen player in the .NET ecosystems to complete and sophisticated team build solutions.

More importantly, Sayed and Bill dig into the corners and edge cases that we all ﬁnd ourselves bumping up against. They elaborate on the deceptively deep extensibility model that underlies MSBuild and give us the tools to bring both stock and custom components together into a complete team workﬂow.

MSBuild continues to evolve from version 2, to 3.5, and now to version 4 and beyond. This updated supplemental edition builds (ahem) on the good work of the previous editions and includes new sections on the updates to the MSBuild core, changes in Team Build, and even updates to Web Publishing in Microsoft Visual Studio 2012.

I’m glad that this book exists and that people who care about the build like Sayed and William exist to light the way. Now, if I can just ﬁnd out what I did just now that broke my build. . .

—Scott Hanselman

Teacher, coder, blogger, podcaster

hanselman.com

Save: Petzold’s Programming Windows 6th Ed with coupon at Amazon.com

KimSpilker — Wed, 01 May 2013 15:46:00 GMT

A great way to save an extra $10 through May 15, 2013

*Note - this coupon applies to the print version only.

To find coupons, go to www.amazon.com/coupons

How to Redeem the Coupon:

To apply a coupon offer to a qualifying item, add coupon in one of two ways:
1. Click on the coupon offer on the item detail page via the "Clip this Coupon" button, or
2. Click on the coupon provided on amazon.com/coupons.
After applying the coupon to the qualifying item, add the item to your Cart via the "Add to Cart" or "1-Click" option button on the respective item detail page.
The coupon discount will be applied to the qualifying item added to your Cart and will be reflected on the final order checkout page.

New book: Microsoft Excel 2013 Inside Out

Valerie Woolley — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:29:26 GMT

We’re happy to announce the Microsoft Excel 2013 Inside Out (ISBN 9780735669055) by Mark Dodge and Craig Stinson is now available for purchase.

This supremely organized reference is packed with hundreds of timesaving solutions, troubleshooting tips, and workarounds. It’s all muscle and no fluff. Learn how the experts tackle Excel 2013—and challenge yourself to new levels of mastery. Purchase includes a companion ebook and sample files.

Topics include:

Customizing the Excel workspace
Best practices for designing and managing worksheets
Creating formulas and functions
Performing statistical, what-if, and other data analysis
Core to advanced charting techniques
Using graphics and sparklines
Managing databases and tables
Automating Excel with macros and custom functions
Collaborating in Excel online, in the cloud, and more
Extending Excel

NOTE: O’Reilly Media is the official distributor of Microsoft Press books. View O’Reilly’s terms of service for use of their services (including payment services) and the privacy policy applicable to how O’Reilly handles your data.

Visit this previous blog post to see the book’s table of contents as well as a description of the book’s audience and an overview of topics.

Here is an excerpt from Chapter 9, “Worksheet formatting techniques.”

CHAPTER 9 Worksheet formatting techniques

When creating a worksheet in Microsoft Excel, you probably don’t ask yourself
the question, why use formats? But we’ll answer it anyway. Compare Figure
9-1 to Figure 9-2, and we need say no more. Although the data is the same in
both worksheets, the worksheet in Figure 9-2 takes advantage of the formatting features
available in Excel, and as you can see, it’s much easier to read and interpret. In this chapter,
you’ll learn how to apply basic formatting to help turn your data into information.
We also discuss advanced formatting features such as themes, cell styles, and conditional
formatting.

Formatting fundamentals
Worksheet editing involves creating and modifying the content, layout, and organization of data, while worksheet formatting deals with the appearance and readability of that data. With formatting, you can take mind-numbing detail and turn it into information by highlighting the important stuff, adding visual cues and clues, and enhancing overall readability and organization. Be careful, though—over formatting can be as distracting as using none at all. Usually, the goal of a good worksheet is to call attention to the right information, not to showcase Excel’s formatting features (or your mastery of them).
Formatting in Excel is easy: select the cell or range, and use the appropriate buttons and commands on the ribbon to apply formatting. Many of the most often used formatting features appear on the Home tab on the ribbon for quick access, as shown in Figure 9-3. In fact, formatting commands dominate the Home tab; all seven of its ribbon groups include formatting commands (even the Editing group). Figure 9-3 also shows the Format Cells dialog box, which you can access by clicking the dialog box launcher in the Font, Alignment, or Number group on the Home tab on the ribbon. (The dialog box launcher is the small arrow icon to the right of the title in many ribbon groups.)

Here are some fundamental rules of formatting in Excel:
●A formatted cell remains formatted until you remove the format or apply a new format.
●When you overwrite or edit a cell entry, you need not reformat the cell.
●When you copy or cut a cell, the formats applied to that cell travel with it.

Formatting tables

The concept of “tables” in Excel took on fresh meaning with the 2007 release, and it continues through the 2013 release. Tables are special objects in Excel that include many features beyond formatting, but you can use the Format As Table button on the Home tab to apply specific font, border, and fill attributes to all the elements of a table at once. The Format As Table gallery, shown in Figure 9-4, applies predefined combinations of these formatting criteria.

You can apply the Format As Table command to any region of cells (that is, a contiguous block of cells on a worksheet). You select a cell anywhere within the region, click Format As Table, and then select one of the sample table formats from the gallery. When you do, Excel displays the Format As Table dialog box, which lets you adjust the selection, as shown in Figure 9-5.

If your table includes headers (as most do), select the My Table Has Headers check box in the Format As Table dialog box. Excel then selects the entire table automatically and applies the selected table format to it.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when using Format As Table:
● If you don’t like the way something looks, click the Undo button on the Quick Access Toolbar (or press Ctrl+Z).
● The boundaries of a table are defined by blank rows and columns or the edges of the worksheet. Try adding blank columns or rows around your table to effectively fence off areas you don’t want Format As Table to touch.
● Select more than one cell before issuing the command, and Format As Table affects only the selected cells.

Although Format As Table does a pretty good job with simple tables, you usually need to make a few adjustments afterward. For example, starting with the raw data shown in Figure 9-1, we applied the Table Style Medium 20 format. Figure 9-6 shows the result.

As you can see in Figure 9-6, the title and subtitle in cells A1 and A2 were not part of the table, and therefore were not formatted, so we applied additional formatting manually to arrive at the result shown in Figure 9-2. In addition, we applied number formatting to the cells containing data. Nonetheless, using Format As Table speeds up the formatting process and provides at least one formatting feature that is otherwise unavailable: automatic row and column banding, which was one attribute of the automatic format we applied in Figure 9-6. Another cool part of using Format As Table is the automatic preview feature. After you define a table using the Format As Table command, you can then use the Format As Table gallery to preview other predefined formats. (It doesn’t work on raw data.) Rest the pointer on any format in the gallery, and the associated formatting is temporarily reflected in the table you have already created, but it is not actually applied unless you click.

After you create a table, a context-triggered tab appears on the ribbon only when you select a cell or cells within the table. Figure 9-7 shows the Table Tools Design tab.
The Design tab contains formatting commands in the Table Style Options and Table Styles groups. The latter group contains the same gallery as the Format As Table command on the Home tab. In Figure 9-7, we selected both the First Column and Last Column check boxes in the Table Style Options group, which in this particular predefined format applied bold formatting to the fonts in those columns. Also, the Filter Button check box was cleared to unclutter the appearance of the worksheet. (You can always redisplay the filter buttons when you need to massage the numbers; this chapter is all about appearances.) You can select and clear check boxes in this group and view the changes immediately. The Header Row check box actually adds or removes the header row from the table. The Total Row check box adds a double border at the bottom of the table and adds another row containing summary formulas. If you add the summary row, you can select which summary function you want to use by clicking the summary formula in the totals row and then clicking the menu arrow that appears. The menu offers a selection of functions—including Sum (the default), Average, Max, and Min—or you can select More Functions to display the Insert Function dialog box.