TLDR: If you like what I write: go to http://viziblr.com --------------------------------------- All three of the regular readers of this blog may have known that since late 2009 I’ve maintained a personal blog . I love my MSDN blog. I started my MSDN...

  In Part 2 I mentioned that one way to harm to readability of a spec was to not understand the audience or what they need from the spec. Let’s expand on that. Not all specs are the same, and different situations call for different approaches. ...

I tried thinking of all techniques I have seen or have used in making great specs. I put all those techniques in a crucible and boiled away everything until only one principle remained. Here it is: “Specs must be readable”     That’s it. And...

It’s tempting to say a functional specification is a document that … blah blah blah requirements, scenarios, glossary. design details, etc. It’s tempting to say that because it is true - true but it misses the bigger picture. A spec...

In 16 years I’ve written an a lot of functional specs. I’ve written them in small teams and in big teams and every size in between. These specs covered many areas: email protocols, server components, user experiences, networking...

I’ve been working on my VisioAutomation project for years now - it appeared on CodePlex in 2009 if I recall correctly but existed for a few years before that. In any case, as the library has grown, one thing I was never satisfied with was the number of...

Developed a PowerShell module lately? Want to be like all the cool kids and have an MSI installer for it? Don’t want to learn WIX? Ok, I can help you. I have a small script I developed that does exactly this. Essentially you point it at a folder, give...

Ever need to share your Visual Studio solution or projects with someone? You ZIP up a folder with your code and send it. If your project is under source control – one that is integrated with Visual Studio – you will likely hear from the recipient of your...

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I love PowerShell but keep forgetting the syntax for common things. So, I wrote up a small guide to help me translate from one to the other   http://viziblr.com/news/2012/7/5/translating-between-powershell-c-and-python.html    

Writing C# code to control Visio and looking for some sample code? There’s a NuGet package that can help you   http://viziblr.com/news/2012/6/21/visio-c-automation-samples-with-nuget.html    

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The NY times recently released this beautiful video featuring Alan Gilbert , conductor of the New York Philharmonic, discussing the role of a conductor. “There is no way to really put your finger on what makes conducting great, even what makes conducting...

At just over four years in the Dynamics AX team, I shipped two major releases (Dynamics AX 2009 & Dynamics AX 2012) and contributed to things you'll be seeing in the future. And now it's time to take a new journey.   WHAT I LEARNED Customers...

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If you need to do a lot of image file format conversion, then this PowerShell script will be very helpful. You can adapt it to do all sorts of tasks: creating thumbnails, converting audio or video with different tools, etc. http://viziblr.com/news/2012...

PNG is always the right answer, except not always. There are some cases where JPEG is going to be a better experience for your users. Learn what those case are and how JPEG can be useful. http://viziblr.com/news/2011/12/29/advanced-screenshots-for-your...

Need to get consistent widths or heights for shapes? You don’t need to do this manually or use macros. There’s a simple solution in Visio 2007 and Visio 2010 – Use the Size and Position Window to make precise changes to many shapes at once. http://viziblr...

If there were a visual way to describe what refactoring code feels like when I use Resharper this video does it. It captures that ephemeral sense of effortlessly being able to transform and slice and move code in a way I don’t believe is possible through...

I’ve been using Plastic SCM 3.0 for most of the last year and despite someone from the Plastic SCM team personally giving me demo (thank you!) I never got to the task of writing up what I thought about it. With the release of Plastic SCM 4.0 it is a good...

My favorite song today. Folks, this is true passion. (For the record, I am part of the small exodus to Linux Mint) http://soundcloud.com/bkerensa/foss-yeaaaah

Need to render one of these or just want to learn how?   You are in luck. Got some code for you at the link below. It’s a simple educational sample that has plenty of room for optimization. Also, I think I may start using it as a coding question...

Learn how to get fine-grained control over your shape text by controlling character spacing. http://viziblr.com/news/2011/11/13/visio-ndash-controlling-character-spacing-screencast.html  

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