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January 2004 - Posts

Best Practices for SharePoint Portal Server Management

Posted Wednesday, January 28, 2004 2:01 PM by lauraj
Kent pointed me to this article by Kenton Gardinier in Windows Server System Magazine (previously known as .NET Magazine). It walks you through ensuring adequate capacity for your SharePoint Portal Server installation, while at the same time reducing Read More...
2 Comments

Great writing advice

Posted Monday, January 26, 2004 7:41 PM by lauraj
I was checking out my referral logs, and found this wonderful piece on the Ten Mistakes Writers Don't See (But Can Easily Fix When They Do) via Jim Martin's blog . This one's a keeper. Some of the items made me wince; I know they're things I do without Read More...
0 Comments

Orcut Overload?

Posted Sunday, January 25, 2004 4:49 PM by lauraj
I've played a little with Orkut , the new social networking software. I love the design, it's so clean and functional. Did you notice the title letters are all made with people? This afternoon when I checked my email, there were a bevy of invites and Read More...
14 Comments

Integrate an InfoPath Form with an Access Database

Posted Sunday, January 25, 2004 12:41 PM by lauraj
In the InfoPath webcast on Friday January 23 , Raghu mentioned an article about Integrating InfoPath and Access. He said he thought it was in the Access section of the MSDN Library , but it actually lives in the InfoPath Section . Microsoft Office InfoPath Read More...
1 Comments

Translate this page

Posted Sunday, January 25, 2004 12:32 PM by lauraj
Check out the new links to the left, one for Translate this page , which takes you to Systran, where you can type in the web page address and select a language, and one specially for Erol and Stramit , that automagically translates this page to French Read More...
3 Comments
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OfficeZealot.com

Posted Saturday, January 24, 2004 11:02 PM by lauraj
Wow, I was just cruising OfficeZealot.com 's front page, and there are lots of goodies there! John Durant points to an update to the MSDN Office Developer Center featuring InfoPath, James Edelen talks about a new SharePoint Database Explorer tool he's Read More...
1 Comments

New KB Articles of interest to SharePoint fans

Posted Saturday, January 24, 2004 10:24 PM by lauraj
There were a couple of interesting new KB articles in the last couple of days that I haven't mentioned yet: 831090 "Cannot run the FrontPage Server Extensions on this page" error message when you try to upload a file to your SharePoint Web site. This Read More...
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InfoPath Webcasts/Training continued

Posted Saturday, January 24, 2004 10:01 PM by lauraj
After watching the second webcast in the series yesterday (which was good but fast paced), I downloaded the Training Materials I talked about earlier in the week. Unfortunately, some of the instructions are kind of confusing (nothing you couldn't figure Read More...
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SharePoint 2003 (WSS+SPS)... and keeping yourself 'documented'

Posted Friday, January 23, 2004 2:21 PM by lauraj
Scoble pointed to Serge van den Oever's blog, where there are some good SharePoint posts such as this one which I've excerpted: Things are moving fast in the SharePoint world... especially with respect to documentation. Before you know it the documentation Read More...
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CNet: Google and Social Networking

Posted Friday, January 23, 2004 2:52 AM by lauraj
Google tip-toed into the hot market of online social networks with the quiet launch of Orkut.com on Thursday, CNET News.com has learned. The search company, which is expected to go public this year, is flexing its power with its Internet fans by constantly Read More...
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Wow that was quick!

Posted Thursday, January 22, 2004 11:30 PM by lauraj
There's a new KB article on PDFs in SharePoint Portal Server 2003 . It addresses getting your PDF files indexed as well as getting the icon to show up . Many thanks Gabe and Iyaz for getting the answer to this common customer question documented! Update Read More...
2 Comments

InfoPath 2003 Resources

Posted Thursday, January 22, 2004 6:25 PM by lauraj
InfoPath 2003 Technical FAQ InfoPath 2003 Support Center InfoPath 2003 SDK Download MSDN InfoPath Resources InfopathFAQ.com (Stephen Cummins) Read More...
3 Comments

InfoPath/Office 2003 Webcast Series

Posted Thursday, January 22, 2004 6:21 PM by lauraj
To coincide with the release of the new InfoPath Developer Resource Kit/Training Materials , there is also a series of InfoPath/Office 2003 Webcasts (sorry, I posted some of these before, but I wanted to talk about the series as a whole. A second session Read More...
1 Comments

New InfoPath 2003 Training Materials available

Posted Thursday, January 22, 2004 5:59 PM by lauraj
Contoso Sales Report and Contract Generation Solution These solution-based training materials are designed to help technical decision makers and solutions developers/architects understand and learn about building Microsoft® Office InfoPath™ Read More...
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Eric Legault: Indexing Adobe PDF Files in SPS 2003

Posted Thursday, January 22, 2004 3:48 PM by lauraj
Continuing on the topic of PDF files in Sharepoint, Eric Legault has a post on how to get the PDF files indexed so they show up in search. As you may know, SharePoint includes filters to index many file types (Office docs, web pages, Tiff images, Visio Read More...
3 Comments

Washington State Democratic Caucuses: Feb 7

Posted Thursday, January 22, 2004 5:10 AM by lauraj
This year, the Democratic party in Washington is opting for a caucus rather than a primary. Caucuses require, in my opinion, much more commitment than voting. You show up, talk, listen to other people talk, move around into groups (hopefully of 15% or Read More...
3 Comments

Bits and Pieces #1

Posted Thursday, January 22, 2004 4:33 AM by lauraj
Mads Nissen from Oslo, Norway has a very cool .Text template, and interesting posts to boot! Jonathan Hodgson pointed me to an article he has written on Generating Thumbnail Images from PDF Documents using VB.Net Tommy wonders " I wonder why you have Read More...
6 Comments

Oh hey, a new MSDN blogger

Posted Thursday, January 22, 2004 2:26 AM by lauraj
Christa Carpentiere , our new SQL/Data Access Content Strategist, has a blog - where else but on sqljunkies.com ! Thanks to Matt for the link! Read More...
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Netscan Queries

Posted Thursday, January 22, 2004 2:20 AM by lauraj
Duncan posted about NETSCAN today; as it turns out, I was playing with it today, too. Microsoft Research is a cool place... and if you had any doubt, you only need to look at some of their publicly exposed data, such as the NETSCAN system. I pulled a Read More...
1 Comments

SharePoint: Adding icons for other document types (like PDF)

Posted Wednesday, January 21, 2004 3:26 PM by lauraj
I've seen lots of questions on various SharePoint newsgroups about how to get PDF files to show up with the right icon in document libraries. The process is documented in the WSS admin guide , but it's not that easy to find. I'm working with the folks Read More...
4 Comments

More new MVPs, wow

Posted Wednesday, January 21, 2004 5:12 AM by lauraj
Thanks to my friend Julie Lerman , I've just found out that there are more new MVPs. I particularly enjoyed reading John Bristowe's post on the subject of his award (for ASP.net). Congrats to John, and Doug Reilly , and James Avery and I'm gonna end here Read More...
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Do as I say, not as I do

Posted Wednesday, January 21, 2004 4:56 AM by lauraj
Julie cracks me up... ...But then he asked me about my backup habits. This is like when the dental hygienist asks if you've been flossing regularly. Skip to after that conversation. We have a deal. He is going to call me in two weeks. If I am not backing Read More...
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Scanner art, and beyond beautiful

Posted Wednesday, January 21, 2004 4:55 AM by lauraj
Katina Matson. These prints are wow. Read More...
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Treo 600: Shanghai Pocket Essentials is essential

Posted Wednesday, January 21, 2004 4:24 AM by lauraj
I finally found a Mah-Jongg game that I can see on my Treo 600, and boy is it a good one; Shanghai Pocket Essentials by LandWare. Nine tile sets, including easy-to-see Samurai, tons of layouts organized in categories, including smaller layouts called Read More...
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Newsgator 2.0

Posted Wednesday, January 21, 2004 3:56 AM by lauraj
Yay, it's finally here ! No longer will I have to listen to Shawn say things like, "No, it does that.... oh wait, you don't have 2.0, do you?" Read More...
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Congrats to our new XML MVPs!

Posted Wednesday, January 21, 2004 3:35 AM by lauraj
Congratulations to all our newest XML MVPs , including my buddy Jeff Julian , DonXML Demask (who tells me that leaving PDC we sat next to each other at the airport but he didn't know it was me, dang it!), Daniel Cazzulino , and Oleg Tkachenko . Have questions Read More...
1 Comments

Dev Days 2004, coming to a city near you

Posted Tuesday, January 20, 2004 9:33 PM by lauraj
Registration for the US Dev Days 2004 is now open, and if you register before February 10, it's only $75. Coming to 32 different US cities , it's sure to be interesting and rewarding for professional developers across the country. From the site: With Read More...
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Renaud Comte: Great example of WSS/FrontPage2003

Posted Tuesday, January 20, 2004 2:48 PM by lauraj
I subscribed to Renaud's feed after he left some comments on my blog. Today I see he's pointing to a really cool example site out of New Zealand by Ian Morrish. The examples are well documented in articles that are easy to understand -- take this one Read More...
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SharePoint links added to right nav

Posted Tuesday, January 20, 2004 4:32 AM by lauraj
I've mucked with my style-sheet, and added two sets of SharePoint links to the right nav (Microsoft and non-Microsoft). If you know of good sites for SharePoint information, feel free to leave a comment here or send me email. I will also be adding a set Read More...
4 Comments

Mail Enabling SharePoint Document Libraries

Posted Tuesday, January 20, 2004 3:30 AM by lauraj
If you're a SharePoint fan, you probably already know about MSD2D.com . They have a new article by Eric Stepek on Mail Enabling SharePoint Document Libraries : One of the many new features included with SharePoint Portal Server 2003 are mail-enabled document Read More...
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SharePoint: When is an administrator not in the administrator group?

Posted Monday, January 19, 2004 5:32 AM by lauraj
Even if you remove a user from the Administrator group in Windows Sharepoint Services, it's possible that they could still have some level of administrative access if they are the owner or secondary owner of the top-level site. See this TechNet article Read More...
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WSS and Visual Studio.NET 2003

Posted Monday, January 19, 2004 3:47 AM by lauraj
Conrad has an interesting post on interactions he's experiencing between WSS and VS.Net 2003, and how he solved the problem. And besides being interesting, his post reinforced my nascent belief that I need a new home computer, so I can use the old one Read More...
2 Comments

Decision Trade-offs

Posted Monday, January 19, 2004 3:25 AM by lauraj
As I was catching up on my reading last night, I found this post . Peter Torr was talking about "always making the wrong decision", and asking for forgiveness in advance for making *someone* unhappy when their project is released. (Peter works on the Read More...
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Why all the SharePoint/InfoPath posts?

Posted Monday, January 19, 2004 2:32 AM by lauraj
As the whole blog transition has wound to a close, and I've ended up with two separate homes, I've been thinking a lot about how I can add value to the community through this blog (other than a series of perhaps interesting, but generally inconsequential, Read More...
2 Comments

Scoble: What about Favorites, asks Ed

Posted Sunday, January 18, 2004 7:43 AM by lauraj
Robert says" I stopped using Favorites about five years ago. Hint, what happened about five years ago? Google. My favorites file back then was about 5000 items. It just got so big, and so out of date, that I stopped using it. Today my "favorites" list Read More...
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Getting a reply color other than the offered 16 in Outlook 2003

Posted Sunday, January 18, 2004 2:42 AM by lauraj
I'm not a huge fan of registry hacks, but I just might try this one that Tony Schreiner exposes. Outlook 2003 limits you to only 16 color choices when you specify a font for replying; Tony figured out how to specify any RGB color. Chartreuse anyone? Read More...
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Including OneNote 2003 files in your Sharepoint Portal Server 2003 searches

Posted Sunday, January 18, 2004 2:34 AM by lauraj
Okay, last one today, I promise :) This Microsoft Knowledgebase article gives the steps that Sharepoint Portal Server 2003 administrators need to follow to get OneNote documents included in search results. (Have you tried OneNote 2003 yet? It's pretty Read More...
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SharePoint: Get rid of that pesky "!New" tag

Posted Sunday, January 18, 2004 2:10 AM by lauraj
Here's another Microsoft Knowledgebase article , this one tells you how to get rid of that pesky !New tag when you add a new item to Sharepoint site. This "How To" applies to Sharepoint Team Services, Sharepoint Portal Server 2003 and Windows Sharepoint Read More...
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How to use the Gthrlog.vbs tool to view gatherer logs in SharePoint Portal Server 2003

Posted Sunday, January 18, 2004 2:01 AM by lauraj
There's a new Microsoft Knowledgebase article that talks about how to use the unsupported gthrlog.vbs tool. From the article: Every time that SharePoint Portal Server creates an index or updates an index, SharePoint Portal Server creates a gatherer log Read More...
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Difference between Windows Sharepoint Services and Sharepoint Portal Server 2003

Posted Sunday, January 18, 2004 1:52 AM by lauraj
I ran across a Microsoft Knowledge Base article the other day that has a good comparison of the features in Windows Sharepoint Services and Sharepoint Portal Server 2003. This information exists in other places, but this is a nice concise summary. It Read More...
2 Comments

Four new Publisher 2003 articles in the Office Developer Center

Posted Sunday, January 18, 2004 1:42 AM by lauraj
Spotlight on Publisher 2003 "In these four new articles, Andrew May demonstrates how to use the Publisher object model to extend the capabilities of Publisher 2003. Learn to create navigation bars and catalog publications, customize wizards, and sort Read More...
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Excel tip: Entering Data

Posted Thursday, January 15, 2004 7:52 PM by lauraj
Today I was entering a bunch of data into a spreadsheet, using the numeric keyboard with my right hand as I read numbers off the list on desk to the left. In this situation, it's easiest to use the Enter key on the numeric keyboard to move between cells, Read More...
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MSN Ads

Posted Wednesday, January 14, 2004 7:05 PM by lauraj
Some people love the MSN Butterfly ads and some people hate them -- to each their own. If you're in the "love 'em" camp, though, only4gurus.com has them available for download . Read More...
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This is broken!

Posted Tuesday, January 13, 2004 11:13 PM by lauraj
Sean posts about thisisbroken.com . This site is one of the outlets for Mark Hurst , and I totally agree with Sean that it's important to understand what's broken. The posts are also really funny! Mark's main website is www.goodexperience.com , and he Read More...
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Developers and Community

Posted Tuesday, January 13, 2004 4:24 PM by lauraj
Thought I'd point you to two new blogs of note: Mark Cligett and Jeremy Bostron are both in the Developer Division, on a team that is leading community efforts for VS and the .Net Framework. Both have solicited feedback from the developer community, so Read More...
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Other Interesting Webcasts coming up

Posted Monday, January 12, 2004 3:50 PM by lauraj
I thought I would point out a few more upcoming webcasts that look pretty interesting to me: Microsoft Executive Circle Webcast: The Project Management Office Evolution Microsoft Executive Circle Webcast: Understanding the Value of Productivity and Collaboration Read More...
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ASP.net Webcast Week

Posted Monday, January 12, 2004 3:33 PM by lauraj
I just read in the MSDN Flash that the week of January 19th is ASP.net Webcast Week . Space is limited (and some are full already!), so register early for webcasts including Introduction and Best Practices topics (among others). Read More...
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Here, there and everywhere

Posted Monday, January 12, 2004 12:15 AM by lauraj
There's been a lot of moving around in the Microsoft blogging world, and in the last couple of days the dust has finally settled , and the new default home for what was once http://blogs.gotdotnet.com is now http://blogs.msdn.com . Lots of people worked Read More...
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Alerts for Microsoft Knowledgebase Articles

Posted Friday, January 09, 2004 3:30 PM by lauraj
Yesterday I saw a link for http://kbalertz.com on http://www.asp.net ; I had heard of kbalertz before but had never visited. Last night I went to the site and was very pleasantly surprised at the functionality of the site, including the total ease with Read More...
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Great snow pictures from today

Posted Wednesday, January 07, 2004 1:15 AM by lauraj
Tommy took some great photos of the snow today. Look at all of them, if you have time... they are all great, but the photos are Maya are Wonderful! Originally posted to my temporary blog home at http://www.geekswithblogs.net/lauraj Read More...
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Loving Newsgator even more

Posted Tuesday, January 06, 2004 3:41 PM by lauraj
Once I started using Newsgator , I was pretty much hooked. When I only had my one blog on GDN , my blogging life was easy -- I installed the BlogX plugin , and posted away. Once I moved this work-ish blog to GeeksWithBlogs (thanks Jeff!) and created another Read More...
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Snow Day in Redmond

Posted Tuesday, January 06, 2004 2:58 PM by lauraj
Today there was a major storm in the Puget Sound area -- lots of snow, on top of ice that's formed over the last few days. I, along with quite a few of my co-workers, worked from home today. There was lots of angst, as you can probably imagine, as everyone Read More...
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Black and White M&Ms?

Posted Monday, January 05, 2004 2:34 AM by lauraj
Weird. Tonight I went to the store to buy the requisite 6 pounds of M&Ms (it's a Microsoft tradition to treat your team to a pound per year on your anniversary*) and all they had was black and white. Apparently there is some sort of promotion going Read More...
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Weather in Seattle

Posted Monday, January 05, 2004 1:23 AM by lauraj
I can't believe how cold it is -- I like this accuweather forecast . Don't think I've ever seen the word frigid in a weather forecast! Brrrrrrrr Read More...
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Mars looks like the southern California desert!

Posted Monday, January 05, 2004 12:42 AM by lauraj
Luckily I'm not a conspiracy theorist, otherwise I would think that this is actually the southern California desert! Read More...
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test: please ignore

Posted Sunday, January 04, 2004 7:13 PM by lauraj
please ignore Read More...
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Telling us about problems

Posted Friday, January 02, 2004 7:03 AM by lauraj
There are a bunch of folks at MSDN who read a wide range of blogs (and quite a few of us who have blogs, as well). Sometimes we run across someone who is having trouble with some aspect of MSDN, which they've written about in their blog (for example, Read More...
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Visualizing RSS feeds

Posted Friday, January 02, 2004 6:28 AM by lauraj
Catching up on my reading, and saw that Steve Makofsky, of furrygoat.com fame, has been working on visualization techniques. I found the image in this post pretty interesting. I can see that one of the feeds is Chris Sells, but my eyes gave out trying Read More...
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This is how I know...

Posted Thursday, January 01, 2004 7:13 PM by lauraj
... that I'm working in the right place. It's Jan 1, Thursday night, and I've been off work since the 19th. I'm going back to work on the 5th, so a few more days off still. As my MSDN pals pop up on IM Messenger (and more and more of them have today), Read More...
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Sound of Music, Rocky Horror style

Posted Thursday, January 01, 2004 6:56 AM by lauraj
Last Sunday we went to see The Sound of Music, with a twist. It was billed as a "sing-a-long". The movie is one of M's favorites, so I took a chance and got tickets for the three of us to go as one of her Christmas gifts. It wasn't until Sunday morning Read More...
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