Office 2007 (a.k.a "The 2007 Office System" ) is huge !! it's an amalgamations of PIA objects, namespaces, web services, product features, schemas, names, descriptions and relationship for more then 25 Products and Technologies.
Being in support, talking with the customer's i can well understand that relating all of these, and picking the best that you need is not an easy task for office developers. But it looks like times are changing..Treasure hunt is difficult till you don't have the map.. but now we have it.. Yes! I agree that its still in the draft stage, but i am sure erika is giving her best for giving the final version to the community
Thanks A Lot Erika !!
I did some reseach to know if the simmiler prize is given by some somebody else in the past ..and i came across a scary news!
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/01/28/free.ride.ap/index.html LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Brian Emmett's childhood fantasy came true when he won a free trip to outer space. But the 31-year-old was crushed when he had to cancel his reservation because of Uncle Sam.Emmett won his ticket to the stars in a 2005 sweepstakes by Oracle Corp., in which he answered a series of online questions on Java computer code. He became an instant celebrity, giving media interviews and appearing on stage at Oracle's trade show.For the self-described space buff who has attended space camp and watched shuttle launches from Kennedy Space Center, it seemed like a chance to become an astronaut on a dime.Then reality hit. After some number-crunching, Emmett realized he would have to report the $138,000 galactic joy ride as income and owe $25,000 in taxes. Unwilling to sink into debt, the software consultant from the San Francisco Bay area gave up his seat.
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Brian Emmett's childhood fantasy came true when he won a free trip to outer space. But the 31-year-old was crushed when he had to cancel his reservation because of Uncle Sam.Emmett won his ticket to the stars in a 2005 sweepstakes by Oracle Corp., in which he answered a series of online questions on Java computer code. He became an instant celebrity, giving media interviews and appearing on stage at Oracle's trade show.For the self-described space buff who has attended space camp and watched shuttle launches from Kennedy Space Center, it seemed like a chance to become an astronaut on a dime.Then reality hit. After some number-crunching, Emmett realized he would have to report the $138,000 galactic joy ride as income and owe $25,000 in taxes. Unwilling to sink into debt, the software consultant from the San Francisco Bay area gave up his seat.
I discussed about it in our internal newsgroups.. and i got a couple of funny replies ..here are a couple..
From the article you linked..Microsoft Corp. is the latest company to dangle a free space ride. This month it launched an elaborate online puzzle game as part of its promotional campaign for its new Vista PC operating system. The grand prize winner -- to be named this week -- gets a seat with Rocketplane Ltd., which is building a souped-up Lear jet it hopes will ferry passengers to space in late 2009.The $50,000 check that comes with the prize, which is valued at $253,500, should cover the winner's taxes, said Brian Marr, group marketing manager for Vista.
Our own powershell guy [lee holmes] said ...[talking about lee..did you read his latest post its good! as usual]
>Why hope, when it’s in the story? :) >> I believe that this will not happen to the winner of the vanishing point ..have we already thought about it ? [this is the part of my email that i sent to various DLs] The $50,000 check that comes with the prize, which is valued at $253,500, should cover the winner's taxes, said Brian Marr, group marketing manager for Vista. Lee
>> I believe that this will not happen to the winner of the vanishing point ..have we already thought about it ? [this is the part of my email that i sent to various DLs]
The $50,000 check that comes with the prize, which is valued at $253,500, should cover the winner's taxes, said Brian Marr, group marketing manager for Vista.
Lee
So..why am i telling you this..! it reinforces the thought .."PLEASE READ TWICE BEFORE YOU SHOUT!"
Can you believe it !!! yes .. this is the winning prize if you happen to solve the Vanishing Point Game ..
No, i don't want to miss out the real news but as so many people have already blogged about it, that its no more a Hot-n-New ! but believe me,these products are amazing and deserve a massive global launch.
Around the world, over 45 launch events will commence, including a televised extravaganza and celebrations at the Taj Mahal, a public concert at the British Library, fireworks at the Eiffel tower, celebrity-studded retail events in Rio De Janeiro, and huge pop concert in Taipei. You’ll see a ground-breaking international ad campaign in 20 major markets, retail merchandizing like we've never done before, and scores of partner-sponsored marketing programs and events.
For those not attending and wanting to keep up with what Microsoft is showing, you can check out http://microsoftwowlaunch.com for the following:
Oooof..! Microsoft Offers Cash For Wikipedia EditMicrosoft blunders over Weipedia editingThe Darkside Taints WikipediaMicrosoft offered cash for wikipedia alterationsMicrosoft offered cash to blogger for wikipedia editsMicrosoft 'tried to doctor Wikipedia'Microsoft: Lessons in how to look stupid
Same thing again..? is nobody still tired ? comeon guys ! its bad because MS Did it? Please have a look at the facts:
· Doug Mahugh is the guy who actually contacted Rick Jeliffe to see if he would be willing to help correct factual inaccuracies we noticed in Wikipedia's entries on Open XML and ODF, since he is knowledgeable about both formats and without bias against either Open XML or ODF.
· Here is the exact request ""Wikipedia has an entry on Open XML that has a lot of slanted language, and we'd like for them to make it more objective but we feel that it would be best if a non-Microsoft person were the source of any corrections ... Would you have any interest or availability to do some of this kind of work? Your reputation as a leading voice in the XML community would carry a lot of credibility, so your name came up in a discussion of the Wikipedia situation today." "Feel free to say anything at all on your blog about the process, about our communication with you on matters related to Open XML, or anything else. We don't need to "approve" anything you have to say, our goal is simply to get more informed voices into the debate ... feel free to state your own opinion."
· While we did offered to pay him for his time, to date no money has exchanged hands for the work Rick is doing on this project. Rick posted details about our request to him on his blog, to ensure that there was transparency as to his motives and ours, and to request aid from others on content to fact check his work.
· We (Microsoft and Rick) mutually believe that it is important for Wikipedia to have the most accurate content possible that reflects the true facts about Open XML and its relation to ODF. Shortly after his blog posted about his plans, he was contacted by a German volunteer for Wikipedia to thank him for his efforts.
· It’s important to point out that the Microsoft Open XML team went the extra mile to find someone who has a balanced perspective of Open XML to make an accurate Wikipedia entry. Rick Jeliffe recognizes the positives of the Open XML spec, but he has not hesitated to slam it publicly on areas that he sees as troublesome. In fact when we agreed that he would do this, he was very specific that he would write what he wanted and believed, and we would NOT have any input into the definition.
Why "Ask Me-2" ? because comments to "Ask Me" are disabled !!
The title of my previous post was taken directly from on of my customers comment..to be frank even i was not very delighted when i came to know that ServerDocument.AddCustomization will automate office.. so the question to all of the VSTO/Office gurus around is ... if there is any other/better solution to the problem or if I've missed something ? are there any changes expected in this behavior ..?
Here is the story ! i wanted to add a customization assembly to my document on the fly the scenario is .. i will have an ASP page that will enable users to upload a few documents, now..on the server i will add a customization assembly to it using "ServerDocument.AddCustomization" ..looks simple .. but hold on ..it fails when i did it on the server with something like
An error occurred while saving the form. at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.Runtime.IAppInfoDocument.SetDocument(String fileName, Byte[] bytes, FileAccess access) at Microsoft.Office.Tools.OfficeAppInfoDocument.GetOfficeDocument() at Microsoft.Office.Tools.OfficeAppInfoDocument.EnsureDocument() at Microsoft.Office.Tools.OfficeAppInfoDocument.WriteItem(String element, String id, Byte[] item) at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.Runtime.AppInfo.WriteManifest(IAppInfo appInfo, String manifest) at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.Runtime.Customizer.CustomizeDocument() at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.Runtime.Customizer.Customize() at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.Runtime.ServerDocument.AddCustomization(String documentPath, String assemblyName, String deploymentManifestPath, String applicationVersion, Boolean makePathsRelative)
While troubleshooting i found out that if the docs are not customized already then you need to have office on the machine where you are adding customization, why ?? logical conclusion was ..it automates office ! but for what ? i didn't know but looks like to insert Runtime Storage Control. Verified that it indeed does, and obviously that means if i do a ServerDocument.AddCustomization, that will mean that i am automating office on the server side, and that is NOT RECOMMENDED (believe me ..never do it!!), NOT SUPPORTED. So, what's the solution ?? read on ...
Then i noticed that i can still use the "modify-custom-properties-manually" approch, that was used in VSTO 2003 ( http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms268877(VS.80).aspx ).
Then came the bright idea! If it's possible to do it manually thenit implies that i can do the same thing programmatically, if.. i can manipulte the OLE32 IPropertyStorage and we already have a solution for doing that ..DSOFile !! that can be downloaded from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/224351
Currently i am in hurry ..but in the next post i will ask the office gurus about if there is any other/better solution to the problem or if i've missed something ?