One of the recent questions on our forums was about invoking a smart tag action in a VSTO 2005 project.
Invoke action for all Smart Tags in Word document
First, let me repeat: Our smart tag tools in VSTO are reason enough to own the tools.
I've been creating smart tags since just after Office XP became gleam in Steve Sinofsky's eye. It's pound-for-pound one of the most intriguing and useful things we have ever produced. The main obstacle in Office XP and 2003 has been the lack of tools for creating them. It just took too much fussing around. VSTO 2005 introduces a stable framework for the smart tags and a fantastic tools story.
I strongly, strongly (strongly!) recommend this tutorial:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/tour/vs2005_guided_tour/VS2005pro/Smart_Client/SmartTagsVSTO.htm
It's tasty, and the visual composition of the instruction is first rate.
Now, if you want to ref the smart tag or its actions in code, here's a line of code to git-r-done (copyright Larry the Cable Guy- if you want a view into a huge, kind, salt-of-the earth, plain-spoken segment of the American population loaded with tongue-in-cheek humor, get one of his CDs):
Globals.ThisDocument.SmartTags.Item("uri:mycoolapp:smarttag#HeavyMetal"). _
SmartTagActions(2).Execute()
This leads me conveniently to the ....
Rock Thought for the Day: I reserve this spot for real music (that would be Rock and Roll!), and so the so-called art of 'rap' music is deliberately left out. Now, every once in a while, a rap offering catches my attention. I am also OK with the rap-rock of Linkin Park, P.O.D. and other groups. Remember the Kanye West song, "Jesus Walks". The theatrical aspect of it- high drama and interesting convergence of themes caught my attention....for about 1 second.
Sadly, rodeo-drive-street-wise 'rapper' West needs to be institutionalized. He pretends to believe the Rolling Stone magazine photo of himself as Jesus is...art imitating reality. We all know he is just another self-important star using Jesus as his vehicle for personal ambition. His self-absorption is so complete, that he still needs to be institutionalized for insane arrogance. Read his marketing ploy here: I should be in the Bible.
Please, folks, let's just rock and roll. When John Lennon said, "We're bigger than Jesus", it was misconstrued as an equivalent to what West is saying now. It wasn't a Beatles marketing strategy, as crafty and shrewd as the truly were. They were finally understood, and their final album said it all: We just want to rock and roll and let the music stand on its own. So many alleged 'artists' forget that they actually need to produce, yes, art that must stand on its own. The White album has withstood the tooth of time just as Are You Experienced from Hendrix has. Thankfully, West is just the current Terrence Trent D'Arby- so forgettable in every way.
Rock On
