132 posts from: Erika Ehrli
We are hiring!
(Indexed 2010-06-04):
I get to write my first post on the new MSDN blog platform about a new open position in my group. My manager posted this position at the Microsoft Career site and wanted to share details in my blog in case you are interested.Content Publishing Manager 2(720752 -External)Job Category: Software Engineering: Content Publishing Location: United States, WA, Redmond Job ID: 720752 18116 Division: Microsoft Business DivisionWe are looking for an experienced content manager who will manage a team of exp...(truncated)...
MSDN: Getting Started with SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2010 Advanced Developer Training
(Indexed 2010-05-14):
I spent the last couple months working with a couple different SharePoint teams putting together this new learning experiences, so I wanted to devote a special blog entry for this two projects.Getting Started with SharePoint 2010Last October we released a Getting Started training series on MSDN SharePoint that includes a Silverlight application that displays 10 different SharePoint 2010 training modules with over 60 videos, more than 40 code snippets, 10 hands-on labs in both C# and VB, and fun ...(truncated)...
Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 Launch: A Summary of Technical Content that Matters to Developers
(Indexed 2010-05-12):
Oh my! The day is finally here! We have been working for months on producing and releasing technical content that matters to developers. So many steps and multiple people at Microsoft and the developer community have contributed heavily to the Office and SharePoint 2010 launch. Today is the happy day when we get to take it all live.Many of you enjoyed the content we released during Beta, so we updated most of it and created more for Launch.I realize each one of this projects deserves a blog entr...(truncated)...
Office 2010 How-Do I Videos for Developers
(Indexed 2010-03-25):
I uploaded a cool Word 2010 video to our Facebook group and people seemed to like it.Roganov Ivan made this request: Only one video? I want more! 2010!Done deal! We have about 20 more Office 2010 and about 30 SharePoint 2010 in the works now. Some more went live recently and were published to the MSN/Bing platform. You can find our recently published videos here:Programming with Sparklines in Excel 2010Programming with Slicers in Excel 2010Connecting to a .NET Framework Source Using Business Con...(truncated)...
Open XML SDK 2.0 RTM is live! Find Articles, Videos, Code Samples, and Resources on MSDN
(Indexed 2010-03-15):
Ive been incredibly passionate about Open XML since its early beginnings. I remember back in the day I was very excited about the possibility of generating .NET server-side Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents. I also had the opportunity to manage the Open XML Format SDK 1.0 documentation release, design a poster, and I also wrote for a few years a series of blog posts and MSDN technical articles about Open XML, the SDK, and how to use it.Since then, the Open XML Format SDK has evolved signific...(truncated)...
SharePoint Conference 2009 Developer Videos and Slide Decks on MSDN
(Indexed 2010-03-11):
Some developers asked if we could publish some SPC videos and slide decks after the conference on MSDN. While we cant publish all the conference content, we were able to cherry pick most popular sessions and publish a selection of most popular Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 develop SPC videos and slide decks.Heres our selection of most popular sessions:Office 2010 Videos | SharePoint Conference 2009Office 2010 has many new developer oriented features. As a Microsoft Office developer, you can cr...(truncated)...
MSDN Office and SharePoint Developer Centers are wearing a new skin!
(Indexed 2010-03-03):
Someone recently asked me (in Twitter) if I was keeping some nice stories in draft and waiting for things to go live to push the publish button in my blog, Twitter, and Facebook. The answer is yes! I am keeping a lot in draft mode. This is why I keep saying that this are exciting times for Office and SharePoint developers.Theres few things for Microsoft people that bring more happiness than approaching RTM and start talking. As we get closer to that day, our team decided to start releasing new c...(truncated)...
MSDN Office and SharePoint in Facebook and Twitter
(Indexed 2010-02-25):
Our social media community is growing and we want to provide better support and more features to our followers. We are moving from a Facebook Group to a Facebook Fan Page.This will allow us to provide more frequent updates including news to developer content released weekly. Please follow us and become a fan of MSDN Office and SharePoint Developer Centers in Facebook.[Image] We'll be closing down the group, so please become a fan of our page http://www.facebook.com/pages/MSDN-Office-and-SharePoi...(truncated)...
Office and SharePoint 2010 Developer: RSS Feeds
(Indexed 2010-02-24):
The following RSS feeds are now live with headlines from July 1, 2009 to February 19, 2010. The feeds include headlines for all of the Office and SharePoint Getting Started content, as well as the Channel 9 learning courses for SharePoint and Office. [Image]MSDN: Microsoft Office Developer Centerhttp://www.microsoft.com/feeds/msdn/en-us/office/rss.xml [Image]MSDN: Microsoft Office 2010http://www.microsoft.com/feeds/msdn/en-us/office/rss2010.xml [Image]MSDN Office: Community Submitted Contenthttp...(truncated)...
Extending the Outlook Social Connector
(Indexed 2010-02-18):
I am one of those persons who has 25 apps running at the same time. I always have multiple instances of Explorer, VS, Office docs, and other apps running at all times. The one app I never close and I frequently visit is Outlook.One of the neat new additions to Outlook 2010 is the the Outlook Social Connector (OSC). The Microsoft Outlook Social Connector is an add-in that surfaces social network data including friends, profiles, activities, and status information from social networks in Microsoft...(truncated)...
New: Office Developer Atlas
(Indexed 2010-02-16):
The Office Product Marketing group has released a new Silverlight-based training set to introduce you to developer investments in 2010 including VBA, Fluent UI, and the Office Backstage.The app was released yesterday to MSDN and you can access it from this link:http://www.microsoft.com/resources/msdn/en-us/office/me...(truncated)... update this post with a link to an MSDN Dev Center landing page with more info as soon as its live.In the meantime, heres more info cross-posted from John Durants bl...(truncated)...
Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 Blogs of Notice
(Indexed 2010-02-10):
Blogs are super fun! Many product teams for Office and SharePoint are blogging about new features added to the 2010 release. Heres some blogs I recommend following: Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 - Microsoft Blogs ...(truncated)...
Whats New for Developers in Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010?
(Indexed 2010-02-08):
The upcoming release of Office and SharePoint offers a wealth of interesting new scenarios and solutions that can be built thanks to new features and improvements added to different Office and SharePoint products and technologies. Theres more possibilities to integrate Office and SharePoint to build rich client-server solutions using tools such as Visual Studio 2010, SharePoint Designer 2010, InfoPath 2010, and Access 2010.Some of you already had an opportunity to play with the Betas and write c...(truncated)...
Getting Started with Office 2010 Development
(Indexed 2009-11-18):
Its been an exciting week with all the recent announcements at PDC. Today, at PDC we announced the availability of our public Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 Betas. Lots of developers from the community who have been monitoring the new developer investments on Office 2010 can start creating solutions with the latest features. You can find links to all our downloads here:Download the 2010 Betas[Image] Office Professional Plus 2010 BetaWord, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access, Publisher, ...(truncated)...
Getting Started with SharePoint 2010 for Developers + New Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 (Beta) Developer Centers
(Indexed 2009-10-19):
Its always hard to stay away from blogging when theres so many new things to share and talk about. Today at the SharePoint Developer Conference Keynote, Jeff Teper talked about SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010 features for developers and IT professionals. This is the time to start to blog more about the new release of Office and SharePoint and I am glad that we can all talk now!!!!The SharePoint team blog has a good summary of key announcements made today at the conference, so in case you missed ...(truncated)...
MSDN Redesign: Office, SharePoint, and VSTO sites are live!
(Indexed 2009-10-17):
I know its late at night, but I couldnt resist. The MSDN Office, SharePoint, and VSTO Developer Center are blue now and match the super cool new MSDN branding and experience. Go take a look and enjoy:Office Developer Centerhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/default.aspx[Image] SharePoint Developer Centerhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/default.aspx[Image] Office Development with Visual Studio Developer Centerhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vsto/default.aspx[Image] More sites here: ...(truncated)...
Getting Ready for Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 + MSDN Redesign + New MSDN Open XML Developer Portal
(Indexed 2009-10-01):
Its been a while since I had an opportunity to blog. When I am quiet it usually means I am up to something :).Getting Ready for Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010This are exciting times for Office and SharePoint developers. While we have released some interesting news about Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 already, theres a lot more coming for the SharePoint Developer Conference and Beta 2.We currently have more than 100 items in the publishing queue to be released between the SP Conference and afte...(truncated)...
Open XML SDK 2.0 August CTP, Videos, and 50+ Open XML Code Samples
(Indexed 2009-08-28):
Zeyad Rajabi announced this week the availability of the new Open XML SDK 2.0 August CTP. As mentioned by Zeyad, changes to this CTP include:Add semantic level validation support Add markup compatibility/extensibility support General improvements based on your feedbackIf you are into Open XML Development, you will also be interested in a few more videos and code samples.[Image] Open XML SDK 2.0 Visual How-to SeriesWe have released some videos, walkthroughs, and code sample downloads in the last ...(truncated)...
Are you an Office Developer? Identify yourself as a member of the Office Developer Guild
(Indexed 2009-07-31):
This will be interesting for all of you who are into Office development: As Office developers, we can start identifying ourselves as active members of the community by joining the Office Developer Guild spearheaded by John Durant. The developer community for Microsoft Office grand and healthy. And, the knowledge and expertise in our community is pretty vast and deep. To make it easier for us to stay alert about events, up-coming content, etc. and more easily share ideas we now have the Office De...(truncated)...
Get Started Resources for Fluent UI Extensibility + Download the New Office Developer Resources Ribbon Tab
(Indexed 2009-07-22):
I remember all the buzz generated when we announced the new Fluent UI (Ribbon) for Office 2007 applications. The Microsoft Office Fluent UI replaced the previous system of layered menus, toolbars, and task panes with a simpler system optimized for efficiency and discoverability. The new UI, including the Office Fluent Ribbon, provides improved context menus, enhanced screen tips, a Mini toolbar, and keyboard shortcuts that help to improve user efficiency and productivity.In Office 2007, the Flue...(truncated)...
Whats New in Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 (Technical Preview post)
(Indexed 2009-07-15):
var addthis_pub="erikaehrli";[Image] I was out of town and had to miss the excitement of blogging about the launch of the Office Technical Preview yesterday. Lucky me, today I have tons of links and trackbacks to other blog posts to share!Whats New in Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010?Yesterday, Stephen Elop announced the technical preview milestone for Microsoft Office 2010 at the WorldWide Partner Conference.From the Press Pass:Office 2010 and related products will deliver innovative capabilitie...(truncated)...
How to Upload Files to SharePoint Server 2007 from ASP.NET Web Applications
(Indexed 2009-07-01):
var addthis_pub="erikaehrli";[Image] Some time ago I blogged about How to: Uploading a File to a SharePoint Library Site from a Local Folder and How to: Magic with SharePoint 2003, uploading files using a Web service. Some people found these samples useful and some people asked if I could provide sample code that works with SharePoint Server 2007.For some time I asked around and realized that there are multiple possible ways to accomplish this task in SharePoint 2007. Here are some popular appr...(truncated)...
MSDN Office Developer Center Pre Office/SharePoint 2010 Update
(Indexed 2009-06-25):
MSDN Developer Centers pull together content and resources around specific products and technologies. They connect developers with code samples, community sites, technical articles and documentation, upcoming events, and much more. The MSDN Office Developer Center (ODC) provides a developer roadmap to understand and work with Office System programs, servers, services, tools and technologies.As we prepare for our next product release (Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010), we worked on a set of site u...(truncated)...
Links and Toys of the Week (June 8, 2009)
(Indexed 2009-06-08):
Heres a few toys and great reads that have kept me entertained for the last couple weeks:IIS SEO Toolkit Beta Now Available!If you manage a personal or company Web site and havent heard about this yet, get ready to be amused. The IIS team released last week the IIS Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Toolkit Beta a free toolkit that helps Web developers, hosting providers, and server administrators improve their sites relevance in search results by recommending how to make them more search engine-...(truncated)...
Office 2010 for Developers: Conference moving to SharePoint Conference 2009
(Indexed 2009-06-02):
Last year I had the opportunity to attend the Office Developer Conference 2008 in San Jose, CA. I remember being there with Sanjay, Ken Getz, and Wouter at the Open XML booth where we had the opportunity to talk to some of you about the latest improvements to the Open XML Format SDK 1.0 and distribute Open XML posters. I was super happy to hear from Gray that we will have an Office Developer Conference moving to the SharePoint Developer Conference 2009. Office 2010 enables better integration be...(truncated)...
Links of the Week (May 15, 2009) for SharePoint Developers
(Indexed 2009-05-15):
The Windows SharePoint Services Developer Center has a new face and great community features and MVP highlights. This site has a new Bookstore and great Learn resources including videos and webcasts, virtual labs, and resource centers. Check it out at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/sharepoint [Image]The SharePoint Designer Developer Center has a new face as well. Check it out at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/bb421303.aspx. Also, if you have not heard the news yet, SharePoint Designer 200...(truncated)...
Open XML Format SDK 2.0: Getting Started Best Practices
(Indexed 2009-05-15):
The Open XML Format allows you to generate, manipulate, or pull data from Word 2007, Excel 2007, and PowerPoint 2007 files. If you are working with Microsoft-based solutions, you can generate, manipulate, and pull data from documents using the following tools and technologies:Notepad: Yes you can do it by hand! This is the classic hello world demo that you see in conferences and Level 100 Open XML sessions. Heres a video and sample that shows how to do this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libra...(truncated)...
Office 2007 Service Pack 2 Download and Improvements for Developers
(Indexed 2009-04-29):
[Image] The Office 2007 SP2 is available now for download: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=B44...(truncated)... are some improvements on SP2 that matter to developers: Save as PDF and XPS: One of the coolest things you can do from Office 2007 Word, Excel, and PowerPoint is Save As PDF or XPS. You can also programmatically Save AS ODF or XPS using the OM. Heres a cool video that shows how to do this:[Image] ";" mce_src="http://blogs.msdn.com/blogfiles/erikaehrli/...(truncated)...
Office 14 Microsoft Office 2010 Products and Technologies: Names & Availability
(Indexed 2009-04-16):
Today as part of the Exchange 14 annoucement we officially announced the name and availability of Office 14 products and technologies!Exchange Server 2010 will become available in the second half of 2009. Microsoft Office 2010 and related products will enter technical preview in the third quarter of 2009 and become available in the first half of 2010.Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, Microsoft Visio 2010 and Microsoft Project 2010 are scheduled to enter technical preview i...(truncated)...
Office Palooza: Join the contest to test & sharpen your VBA programming skills!
(Indexed 2009-04-15):
MSDN is sponsoring a coding contest for Office 2007, named OfficePalooza! This sweepstakes will run two weeks beginning April 20, 2009, and features ten fun Visual Basic of Applications (VBA) coding challenges in the form of puzzles and games. Each entrant will earn a chance to win one of hundreds of available prizes, determined by a random drawing at the end of the contest. [Image]About OfficePalooza Whats this all about, and where did this crazy idea come from, anyway?[Image]OfficePalooza Chal...(truncated)...
Announcing the MSDN Office Developer Bookstore
(Indexed 2009-04-09):
We have some great news for Office and SharePoint developers. We launched this morning a new section on the MSDN Office Developer Center where you can find Office and SharePoint books that matter to developers. We also provide free book chapters!MSDN Office Developer BookstoreHeres the set of links where you can find our bookstore pages:Office Developer BookstoreBook Excerpts for Office and SharePoint DevelopersBooks for 2007 Office System DevelopersBooks for Access DevelopersBooks for Excel Dev...(truncated)...
Open XML SDK 2.0 April CTP Live & Silverlight DeepZoom Class Architecture Diagrams
(Indexed 2009-04-09):
For all of those fans of Open XML and followers of updates done to the Open XML Format SDK 2.0, one more happy day has arrived. The Office Client Developer Content team and the Open XML SDK product team released the Open XML Format SDK 2.0 April CTP on MSDN! Zeyad has a great blog post where he explains in detail whats new with the latest version of the SDK.Brief Class Architecture OverviewThe Open XML Format SDK 1.0 is a licensed version of the Open XML SDK that allows you to manipulate Open XM...(truncated)...
MSDN Office Developer Center on Twitter: Office and SharePoint News for Developers
(Indexed 2009-03-18):
Ive been experimenting with Twitter for the last couple of months and I am quite addicted to it now. I love the fact that you can get real time news and chat with so many people from the community. SharePointDev, emilysc, ninar,and ricalo have been my Twitter mentors and got me deep into the addiction.Ive been twittering random news that matter to Office and SharePoint developers under my Twitter account, but wanted to create another feed where we specifically post:Just published contentPortal u...(truncated)...
Office 2007 and SharePoint Technical Content in your own Language
(Indexed 2009-03-07):
A long time ago I blogged about Office developer resources in your own language. Ever since, we have seen the need for Office Technical Content in multiple languages. For example, in countries like Russia or France, developers and IT professionals create great SharePoint solutions and deployments, but there is low English affinity on those markets. In some other cases you may understand well technical content in English, but you may have a preference to read it in your own language.[Image] In or...(truncated)...
Links for February 6th 2009: Workflow Development Resources Interactive Map, Join Us on Facebook, + Lots of New Articles and Downloads
(Indexed 2009-02-06):
It's cold and raining here in Redmond. Perfect weather for writing a blog entry. Workflow Development Resources Interactive Map Andrew May is a content publishing manager for WSS developer content. He is very passionate about Workflow and this week he created a new workflow development resources interactive map using mind maps. Andrew created this interactive map as another way of presenting some of the information we currently have on the MSDN Workflow Resource Center. If you are currently crea...(truncated)...
How to Export Data to Excel from an ASP.NET Application + Avoid the File Format Differ Prompt
(Indexed 2009-01-31):
This is a common task for ASP.NET developers. You have a Web application where you expose data from a database, Web service, or third-party API and you need an "Export to Excel" button. I have used different approaches to export to Excel from a Web application. Here's some options and guidance of when to use each one. Generate a CSV file: If you open a CSV file in Excel, you can see a table with data. You can use this approach if you don't need control over formatting, styles, or workbook struct...(truncated)...
Links for January 23th 2009: Office 14 for the Web, Outlook MAPI, and more cool Office blogs
(Indexed 2009-01-23):
I came across some interesting blog posts this week and here's a few links that I'd like to share with you. Office 14 for the Web Learning about Office 14 is one of the most exciting things I've been doing since I came back. I am dying to talk about so many of the great new features for developers in Office 14. Can't say much now (hopefully soon I will), but I came across a public announcement from PDC: Office 14 on the Web. In case you missed it (like me), Microsoft announced at PDC that the ne...(truncated)...
Top Office 2007 & SharePoint Articles, Downloads, Visual How-tos, and Portal Pages
(Indexed 2009-01-21):
I've spent the last few days pulling 2008 metrics for Office & SharePoint developer content. It's quite interesting to see what flavor of chocolates devs pick at the candy store. [Image]The Office System is an umbrella of products and technologies. Popular picks from the Office dev community include SharePoint, Open XML, WSS, the Fluent UI, Excel, Access, and Word technical documentation. Here's to the very best of Office & SharePoint developer content and kudos to all the authors who contribute...(truncated)...
Great News for Open XML Developers: ECMA-376 Implementation Notes for Office 2007 SP2 are here!
(Indexed 2009-01-16):
We've published today a new set of Open XML implementation notes. The ECMA-376 Implementation Notes helps developers to understand low-level details of the Open XML implementation. The notes also include information that will help ISO update the standard over time, and some other general information to cover some scenarios that are not covered in detail by the SPEC. The notes are definitely a great resource for all us who work with the Open XML SDK 1.0 and 2.0 and are looking for detailed docume...(truncated)...
Suggest a Topic/Code Sample for Future Office Visual How-tos
(Indexed 2009-01-09):
While reviewing traffic to some of our MSDN content, I noticed that the Office Visual How-tos we've published on the MSDN Library are getting lots of page views! Developers seem to like this content type since it provides a short article, code sample, and video. This content type provides quick demos that show you how to work with specific features provided by different Office products and technologies. We've covered a broad set of topics, such as Open XML, SharePoint, WSS, Word, Outlook, Access...(truncated)...
Links for January 9th 2009: LINQ for Office Developers, Office and Open XML Poster Downloads
(Indexed 2009-01-09):
Here is a list on links that I want to share with you. LINQ for Office Developers Some Office solutions require that you work with XML. Open XML documents, SharePoint, and InfoPath are great samples. LINQ to XML is an in-memory XML programming interface that enables you to modify XML documents efficiently and easily. One of the great advantages of using LINQ to XML is that it greatly simplifies the task of processing XML documents. Making Office development even easier. If you are new to LINQ to...(truncated)...
Im back!
(Indexed 2009-01-05):
Sofia came five months ago and I can honestly say that so far she has been the best part of my life.Spend a few months with a kid and you'll get to know a new side of you that you never imagined you had. It's like starting to live all over again. Even the simplest smile or sound coming out of your little one can make you go wild. Anyway, as many other lucky working moms, I get to enjoy the beauty of motherhood and the fun of a happy job to get back to. One of the things I missed the most was blo...(truncated)...
Presents for Outlook Developers...
(Indexed 2008-12-03):
New Reference Documentation The big news is an offering for COM developers: the long-awaited Outlook 2007 Messaging API went live today. This is an update to the old Messaging API last published several years ago. Outlook 2007 Messaging API (MAPI) Reference describes how to create Outlook 2007 items by using MAPI that is based on the Component Object Model (COM) rather than the Outlook object model.And hopefully you noticed this...Install Updates for Outlook 2007 Help This download installs the ...(truncated)...
What's New in Office for October?
(Indexed 2008-10-16):
Time's been passing. Meanwhile, we have a slug (bucketful? melange) of interesting new content out there. For Office client developers, we have a couple of important updates. One is to Andrew Whitechapel's popular article: Isolating Microsoft Office Extensions with the COM Shim Wizard Version 2.3.1.0. By customer request, we also republished a popular article that was inadvertently dropped in some recent shenanigans: Improving Web Site Usability and Appeal. The latest OfficeTalk column, by guest...(truncated)...
Getting Back in the Publishing Groove
(Indexed 2008-08-28):
It's great to get back into the publishing groove. Most of us over here, in "Office and SharePoint land" have been working for months to also publish Interoperability content to go along our traditional developer offering. You can access that content on MSDN Online, at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc216514.aspx. So now, were back to a full complement of technical articles, book excerpts, and API references. We have quite a mixed bag of content to present this week.For Office client de...(truncated)...
The Mysteries of Search Crawlers and Finding Stuff on the Intranet
(Indexed 2008-07-31):
As the managing editor for the Office Developer Center, I spend a lot of time trying to determine effective search optimization strategies to help our content get discovered by search crawlers or robots. My focus is generally on the big Internet search engines, but I know that this can be even more critical in an enterprise environment where you want the vast knowledge stored "somewhere" to be available in under five minutes of searching. Nothing is more irritating than resorting to the native s...(truncated)...
Sofia has arrived!
(Indexed 2008-07-21):
I guess that it should be no great surpise that my first blog post on Erika's behalf is to announce the birth of Sofia - certainly what will be her project with the most long-lasting influence. It's with great pleasure that I get to announce that Erika's baby, Sofia was born on Friday at 2:53 PM. Mom and baby are doing great. Sofia weighs 8.1 pounds and measures 19 inches long.[Image]I was flattered that Erika asked me to help out. I look forward to telling you more about the new content coming ...(truncated)...
My New and Most Beautiful Assignment
(Indexed 2008-07-11):
Blogging has been one of the things that I've enjoyed the most in the last couple of years. I really like the fact that it allows me to share news related to Office development with the community. For the first time in a couple years I'll have to take a break from blogging.I am going to have a baby girl anytime now, so I am taking some months out of the office to take care of my little one, Sofa. Here's a cute little picture I have from her last ultrasound.[Image] While I am gone, I'll have a gu...(truncated)...
My First Book: Programming Microsoft Office Business Applications
(Indexed 2008-07-02):
I think it's quite interesting how knowledge is shared nowadays. With so many blogs, online articles, how do I videos, and e-mail newsletters out there, writing/reading books seems to be just poetic. I still believe good tech books are your best friends when you are trying to get more in depth knowledge about a new technology.I would be lost today without my red C# bible: Professional C#This book has been my best friend and has helped me through many battles. I got mine almost five years ago and...(truncated)...
Announcing the Open XML Format SDK 1.0
(Indexed 2008-06-10):
We have great news for all Open XML developers who have waited so patiently for the fully supported release of the Open XML Format SDK 1.0. Today we published the final bits and online documentation on MSDN. You can get the SDK from the following locations:SDK download site: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=120908 MSDN SDK online documentation: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb448854.aspx XML in Office Developer Portal: http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/xml Open XML Formats Resourc...(truncated)...
Updated Office Developer Posters
(Indexed 2008-06-05):
Some other great news. We updated a couple Office developer posters.Developer Map for the 2007 Microsoft Office SystemThis version includes new information related to:PerformancePoint Server 2007Visual Studio 2008 Application-Level Add-Ins and Document Level CustomizationsVisual Studio 2008 Extensions for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0Unified Communications products and technologies: Communicator 2007, Live Meeting, Exchange Server 2007, and Communications Server 2007InteroperabilityVisual Basi...(truncated)...
New: SharePoint Essentials for .NET Developers
(Indexed 2008-06-03):
If you are a .NET developer curious about what is SharePoint and want to get started with SharePoint development, you should check out The SharePoint Developer Introduction for .NET Developers resource set announced today at Tech Ed. This is a new set of webcasts, virtual labs, screencasts, presentations, demos, white papers, hands on labs, and resources that show you how to build enterprise solutions using different SharePoint components such as:Web PartsData ListsEvent HandlersWorkflowSilverli...(truncated)...
Office + Virtual Earth Maps
(Indexed 2008-05-30):
Hi there!Long time, no blogging. Shame. I've been hiding in my cave (office) for the last month or so getting ready all the content and great news we are about to release next week at Tech Ed Developers. This time I unfortunately can't make it to the conference, but my heart has been at Tech Ed for a while. I'll be blogging almost every day next week so I can (remotely) share some of the great news for Office and SharePoint developers.In the meantime, I'll start by blogging about a recently rele...(truncated)...
Office Developer Community Submitted Content
(Indexed 2008-05-09):
I believe that people who have an opportunity to work with the field own an incomparable wealth of knowledge. MVPs, partners, consultants, and developers learn through experience all the technical details needed to design, develop, and deploy line-of-business solutions. Some of this people are really passionate about sharing their knowledge with the community by becoming trainers or by writing blogs, technical articles, or recording demos.[Image] Since we launched Office 2007, some well-known MV...(truncated)...
OBA Sample Application Kits Release to Web!
(Indexed 2008-04-28):
If youre looking for guidance on how to integrate SAP and/or PeopleSoft into your Office applications, then the OBA Sample Application Kits are a great place to start. OBA, or Office Business Application, is a composite application that integrates line-of-business systems with the Office client (e.g. Excel or Outlook) and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007. These kits provide some great documentation and source code to help you get up and running quickly. The kits include: 1. S...(truncated)...
Open XML Format SDK - Class Diagram Explorer in Silverlight 2.0 Beta
(Indexed 2008-04-25):
Last week I had the great opportunity to do my first experiments with Silverlight 2.0. I was truly fascinated to discover the power that this technology offers. My favorite feature so far is the Deep Zoom functionality. Deep Zoom allows you to zoom in an out an image or collection of images using your browser. It follows the same navigation principle used by http://maps.live.com/, where you use your mouse to zoom in and out a map. Not sure if you have seen the very cool Hard Rock Memorabilia sit...(truncated)...
Announcing the Open XML Format SDK April CTP
(Indexed 2008-04-17):
We are glad to announce that the Open XML Format SDK April CTP is available! You can download the new SDK from here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=AD0...(truncated)... You can also find and online version of the SDK on the MSDN Library: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb448854.aspx Also, you can find permanent links to both the download and online version at the XML in Office Developer Portal and at the Office Open XML Formats Resource Center. What is the Open...(truncated)...
Happy News for Open XML Developers
(Indexed 2008-04-02):
Many of you may have already heard that Office Open XML was approved as an ISO standard! This is great news for all of us who have been developing solutions using Open XML. You can find all the details in Brian's blog. Also, Doug Mahugh provides great pointers to other bloggers that talk about this.Getting Started with Open XML DevelopmentFor those of you who are interested in creating solutions using Open XML, you should know that we have plenty of articles, videos, and code samples available o...(truncated)...
Office 2007 + Silverlight
(Indexed 2008-03-28):
Latest technologies offered to Web developers, such as ASP.NET AJAX and Microsoft Silverlight, offer UI improvements and amazing interactive experiences for Web-based applications.Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIAs) for the Web, visit microsoft.com/silverlight.Fortunately, you can integrate Silverlight to different Office products and technologies.Silverlight + SharePointNot sure i...(truncated)...
My First PodCast: SharePoint Community Interview
(Indexed 2008-03-14):
Happy Friday!I was humbled when Luis Du Solier (MOSS MVP) asked if I could do an interview for the SharePoint Community in Mexico. We did the interview over the phone and in Spanish. It really was a fun experience and I enjoyed talking a bit of what I do and sharing some pointers to great developer resources for Office, MOSS, and OBA.[Image] In this interview I talk about:MSDN Office Developer Center: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/office/default.aspx SharePoint Server 2007 Developer Portal: h...(truncated)...
MSDN Office Developer Center - Home Page Update
(Indexed 2008-03-04):
Hi there!If you haven't noticed already, MSDN is changing the content and look-and-feel of MSDN Developer Centers. This new design pulls a lot of community elements such as OPMLs, RSS feeds for bloggers and content, featured MVPs, and latest submissions to the MSDN Code Gallery and CodePlex.The Office Developer Documentation group updates the MSDN Office Developer Center home page every Monday morning and today we went live with the new home page content and look. Take a look!http://msdn.microso...(truncated)...
Office Developer Conference 2008 Post-Conference Resources
(Indexed 2008-02-22):
Thanks to everyone who attended the Office Developer Conference this year! It was great seeing so many familiar faces and enthusiastic Office developers gathered once again.I have a couple links and resources that I want to share with everyone:ResourcesBill Gate's Keynote VideoIt was such an honor to be there and watch Bill Gates deliver a keynote about Office development. He said that he likes Office and developers. He was delighted to see Office + developers together :). Watch this video. http...(truncated)...
Announcing the Microsoft Office Interactive Developer Map Version 2!
(Indexed 2008-02-22):
We are glad to announce the release of the Microsoft Office Interactive Developer Map Version 2! The Microsoft Office Interactive Developer Map is a Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) application that helps developers visualize the different programs, servers, services, and tools that will help them build solutions. It allows them to drill down to each product and technology and learn about new features, objects, Web services, namespaces, and schemas required to extend Microsoft Office and bu...(truncated)...
Open XML at the Microsoft Office Developer Conference 2008
(Indexed 2008-02-11):
Hi there! I am very excited to be here in San Jose, CA attending the Office Developer Conference 2008. We had a keynote this morning with Bill Gates where he showed a video with his plans for retirement and where he talked about the value proposition of the 2007 Office system as a development platform. Bill talked about many of the different products and technologies that you can use to build Office Business Applications (OBAs), including the Open XML formats! Open XML is an open standard for wo...(truncated)...
What's New for Developers in VSTO 3.0
(Indexed 2008-01-23):
Visual Studio Tools for the Office system (3.0) is the key developer technology that enables you to create scalable, LOB solutions for Microsoft Office by using the Office development features included with Visual Studio 2008. Steve Fox and I thought it would be a great idea to write an article that talks about the evolution of Visual Studio Tools for Microsoft Office and Office Development, how it all relates to Office Business Applications, the different business productivity solutions you can...(truncated)...
Office Business Applications: Pricing Exception Management Solution
(Indexed 2008-01-09):
If you are looking for a real-world application that showcases how to expose data from SAP using the 2007 Microsoft Office system here's one:http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb977552.aspxLong story short, the Microsoft IT department designed and implemented a Price Exception Management application using a custom Office Business Application solution. This solution exposes and synchronizes real-time data in SAP, and provides a workflow routing and approval component that helps provide a co...(truncated)...
2008 Microsoft Office System Developer Conference (ODC 2008) Update
(Indexed 2007-12-07):
The 2008 Microsoft Office System Developer Conference (ODC 2008) is only 9 weeks away and shaping up to be an exciting event that will redefine what Office development is all about!ODC at a Glance When: February 10-13, 2008Where: San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, CaliforniaWho: Developers, Developers, Developers (Architects and Executives, too)What: The Office Platform. Clients, servers, services and tools. Registration Site [Image] Event Overview ODC 2008 is the premier event for Microsoft...(truncated)...
Where in the World is all the Office 2003 Developer Content?
(Indexed 2007-12-04):
The Office Developer Documentation group has published over 270 articles since the RTM of the 2007 Microsoft Office system. The team has also published 152 downloads, and 153 videos. That is a lot of content! The MSDN Office Developer Center has many portal pages that help promote these content items by product or by content type. It really is challenging to add so much content to a portal! With all that new content, one of the biggest challenges is making sure we keep promoting Office 2003 cont...(truncated)...
Announcing the MSDN & TechNet Library Machine Translation Project for SharePoint Products and Technologies
(Indexed 2007-11-28):
The Office Team is glad to announce our participation in the MSDN and TechNet Library Machine Translation Pilot for SharePoint Products and Technologies. The MSDN and TechNet Libraries are major resources for developers and IT professionals around the world who use Microsoft tools, products, and technologies. Both libraries contain a bounty of technical information. This includes sample code, documentation, technical articles, and reference guides. In order to provide content to all developers, ...(truncated)...
MSDN Office Developer Center Just Published: 10/2/2007 10/30/2007
(Indexed 2007-11-20):
I owe you the list of content published last month, so here it is! Publishing DateTitleProductsAuthors10/30/2007 Technical article: Deploying Solutions for 2007 Office System with ClickOnce Using Visual Studio Tools for Office (3.0) As you see in this article, Visual Studio Tools for Office now uses ClickOnce to deploy solutions for the 2007 Office system. ClickOnce, by default, gives Microsoft Office solutions full trust permissions. The extra step that has caused issues in the past is now buil...(truncated)...
Catching-up with blogging
(Indexed 2007-11-14):
What a shame that I write my first November blog post on 11/14. The last three weeks have been quite busy for me and I barely had a chance to think about blogging. I've been writing a couple articles and a book chapter :). It really is an exciting time for me, but I must confess my poor blog was only a part of my to-do list and today I decided it was time to blog again. Here is a summary of some resources that I missed to blog about in the previous weeks: Check out the new Office Client Develope...(truncated)...
MSDN Office Developer Center Just Published (9/16/2007 9/30/2007)
(Indexed 2007-10-23):
The following content items were published from 9/16/2007 to 9/30/2007: Publishing DateTitle Products Authors9/26/2007 Download: Download: 2007 Office Sample: imepad.h Header File This download provides the public imepad.h API for use by developers when customizing applications for the 2007 Microsoft Office System. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?2007 Microsoft Office System Microsoft Office Microsoft Office 2000 Microsoft Office 2003 Microsoft Office XP Windows Windows 2000 Win...(truncated)...
100+ Office Visual How Tos
(Indexed 2007-10-17):
It's been about 10 months since we started publishing Office Visual How-tos (VHTs), which is a compound content type, mixing a short how-to article, code samples, and a video of that code sample in action. The wealth of this content type is that you can watch a quick video to visualize how a feature works and then you can read conceptual information and grab a code sample. We also provide a list of related resources for further reading and learning. Here's a sample VHT: Setting Conditional Forma...(truncated)...
.NET Helper Classes for the SharePoint Server 2007 Search Query Web Service
(Indexed 2007-10-06):
If you are working with MOSS Enterprise Search, you should download the .NET Helper Classes for the MOSS Search Query Web Service. Callum Shillan is an MCS Solution Architect from the UK and he was very nice to share the helper classes he created with the community. You can find the .Net helpers for the SharePoint Server 2007 Search Query Web Service source code in CodePlex. Callum also wrote an MSDN article where he shows you how to use the helper classes. The genesis for this article was an in...(truncated)...
PerformancePoint Server 2007: What is it and how can I get started?
(Indexed 2007-09-28):
The release of PerformancePoint Server 2007 should be of special interest for those of you who are passionate about business intelligence (BI), dashboard, and scorecard solutions.[Image] What is it? Enterprises gather data related to line-of-business (LOB) operations. Data as-is is not useful. You need to transform it into information so you can understand your business and make decisions. PerformancePoint Server 2007 is a product that can help you to build a performance management application. ...(truncated)...
New RSS Feeds for Office and SharePoint Developers
(Indexed 2007-09-24):
RSS feeds changed the strategy that lots of people use to learn about new things. As developers we are faced with a bulk load of emerging software development technologies and products and sometimes it's hard to keep up with all the cool things you can do. RSS feeds help you discover the latest news from multiple sources and bloggers and learn more about new products and technologies. You can use Outlook, Windows Live, Windows Vista Sidebar, or other programs to subscribe to your favorite RSS fe...(truncated)...
MSDN Office Developer Center Just Published (9/1/2007 9/15/2007)
(Indexed 2007-09-18):
The following content items were published from 9/1/2007 to 9/15/2007:Publishing DateTitleProductsAuthors9/13/2007 Language Reference: SDK: Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 Developer ReferenceFind conceptual overviews, programming tasks, samples, and references to guide you in developing solutions based on PowerPoint. http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb265982.aspx2007 Microsoft Office System Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 Saul Candib9/11/2007 How-To article: Visual How to: Adding Progr...(truncated)...
Announcing the 2008 Office Developer Conference!
(Indexed 2007-09-17):
We have great news for Office Developers and Architects. We will have an Office Developer Conference next year! When: February 10-13, 2008 Where: San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, CA Who: 2000 developers and architects who build solutions on the Office platform (Office clients, servers, and services) [Image] ODC 2008 will bring together architects, developers, industry technical experts, Microsoft insiders and key partners in a public forum for the first time! Together, we will redefine what...(truncated)...
MSDN Office Developer Center Just Published (8/15/2007 8/31/2007)
(Indexed 2007-09-01):
Whew! The editors and writers of the Office Developer Documentation group are on vitamins! You will find tons of new content related to Open XML, SharePoint Products and Technologies (checkout the BDC stuff written by Jo-Anne West), Project 2007, Groove 2007, Access 2007, the new Communications Server 2007 SDK, and more. So much content for only a couple of weeks, but I'll let you see the list by yourself. The following content was published in the last two weeks Publishing DateTitle Products Au...(truncated)...
Open XML Developer Workshop videos now available on MSDN
(Indexed 2007-08-31):
If you are new to development with the Open XML Formats, take a look at this Open XML Online Training series and learn more about the Open XML file formats architecture, the Open XML schemas, the .NET packaging API, and programmatic generation of rich data-driven Open XML documents. All my respect goes to Doug Mahugh for the amazing job he has done with the Open XML training. Microsoft is really lucky to have someone like Doug on board. I told you I had a chance to attend this training a couple ...(truncated)...
A common business need: Generating server-side documents on the fly
(Indexed 2007-08-22):
I gathered a list of common Open XML questions related to programmability: What are the Open XML File Formats and what can I do with them? Can you show me the internal structure of a Word 2007 document? What are WordprocessingML, SpreadsheetML, PresentationML, and DrawingML? Do you have a .NET API that I can use to generate documents programmatically (server-side)? What is the architecture of a server-side OBA document generation solution? How can I generate a document programmatically and have ...(truncated)...
MSDN Office Developer Center Just Published (7/13/2007 8/14/2007)
(Indexed 2007-08-16):
The following content items were published from 7/13/2007 to 8/14/2007. Publishing DateTitleProductsAuthors8/14/2007 Technical article: Creating a Custom User Site Provisioning Solution with Office SharePoint Server 2007 (Part 1 of 2) Examine new capabilities built into the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Enterprise Edition, which enable business process automation and simplify the business process. This article is part 1 of 2.http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb687711.aspx 2007 M...(truncated)...
Open XML for developers: Nice gifts coming our way
(Indexed 2007-08-15):
If you are an Open XML fan (like me), I strongly recommend you check out the latest news shared by Doug Mahugh and Wouter van Vugt. Doug released all the ppt files, code samples, and hands-on labs content for the Open XML developer workshop. I attended this training and I can tell you that I owe much of my understanding of Open XML to Doug and his superb workshop. [Image] Also, Wouter wrote the book "Open XML Explained." He did a pretty amazing job explaining WordprocessingML, SpreadhseetML, Pre...(truncated)...
Update: Office Developer Poster - Looks so much better now!
(Indexed 2007-08-13):
I missed my blog so much! I took some vacation time to visit my family and then I was brave and lucky enough to have Lasik surgery. I've been willing to do that for a while and so far I love how the world looks without my glasses.[Image] I just got a printed proof of the new version of the Office Developer Poster that we will distribute during the next conferences. Updates to the poster include new namespaces, changes to Office Add-in technologies and VSTO, and final Office 2007 RTM brand names....(truncated)...
MSDN Office Developer Center Just Published June 2007
(Indexed 2007-07-16):
The following content items were published last June. Publishing Date Title Products Authors 6/28/2007 Book excerpt: Book Excerpt: Chapter 3: Customizing and Extending the Microsoft Office SharePoint 2007 Search (Part 2 of 2) MVP Patrick Tissegham shows...(read more)[Image]
MSDN Office Developer Center Just Published (7/1/2007 7/13/2007)
(Indexed 2007-07-16):
The Office Developer Documentation Group has a very cool content tracking application that we developed internally. We use this application to track all Office developer content submissions for MSDN. Our editors track all submitted content and schedule...(read more)[Image]
Office 2007 + WPF rocks!
(Indexed 2007-07-10):
Ever since we created the Microsoft Office Interactive Developer Map I became a huge fan of Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). I love that you can expose information and build custom solutions in very creative ways using WPF. If you want to learn...(read more)[Image]
Development Tools and Techniques for Working with Code in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (Parts 1 and 2)
(Indexed 2007-06-20):
We just published a must see paper written by Patrick Tisseghem of U2U , Mike Fitzmaurice , and heavy consultation from Mike Ammerlaan: Development Tools and Techniques for Working with Code in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (Parts 1 and 2) Part 1: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb530302.aspx...(read more)[Image]
More code samples and videos for Office Developers
(Indexed 2007-06-01):
The Visual How-tos just keep getting out there like popcorn. This time we published some more from Ken Getz, Joel Krist, and Ted Pattison. [Image]New VHTs include an interesting combination of Office products and technologies: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Word 2007 Visual Studio Tools for Office 2005 SE Outlook 2007 Open XML Formats Access 2007 VHTs published in the last couple of weeks TitleAuthorsPublishing DateVisual How to: Writing a Filter Consumer Web Part for Windows SharePoint Service...(truncated)...
Announcing the Microsoft Office Interactive Developer Map built with WPF
(Indexed 2007-05-30):
You never know what surprises each day will bring to you. Two days ago I didn't know today was the day when we were finally sharing with the world our new learning tool for Office developers: The Microsoft Office Interactive Developer Map . It all started...(read more)[Image]
My Office 2007 Bookshelf for Developers
(Indexed 2007-05-29):
I find myself writing wish lists about things that I want to blog about and this one just needed to get out there now. I know some of you might be interested in new books about Office 2007 and I have a list of MOSS, WSS, VSTO, and Office books that I...(read more)[Image]
Getting ready for the 2007 Microsoft Office System Launch
(Indexed 2007-01-12):
We are getting ready for launch and finalizing details on new content that we will continue to publish this year. As always, we have more surprises for you. ...(read more)[Image]
Compliance Features in the 2007 Microsoft Office System
(Indexed 2006-12-13):
I have seen some great articles about the 2007 Microsoft Office System, but if you are an architect or solution developer, this is one you don't want to miss: Compliance Features in the 2007 Microsoft Office System. This paper talks about business opportunities and technical aspects of extending the 2007 Microsoft Office system features to facilitate compliance. ...(read more)[Image]
2007 Microsoft Office System - Top Ten List of Resources for Developers and Architects
(Indexed 2006-12-02):
I compiled my top ten list of resources for architects and solution developers that plan to start building solutions using the 2007 Microsoft Office system (including SharePoint of course) and VSTO....(read more)[Image]
2007 Microsoft Office System RTM and Visual Studio Tools for Office Second Edition RTW!
(Indexed 2006-11-06):
Microsoft announced today the 2007 Microsoft Office system and Visual Studio Tools for Office Second Edition release to manufacture!...(read more)[Image]
Developer Map for the 2007 Microsoft Office System: Download your poster today!
(Indexed 2006-10-31):
The Developer Map for the 2007 Microsoft Office system provides an overview of all the Office system programs, servers, services, and tools that will help developers to build solutions. Download the poster today and dive into the whole galaxy of Office developer products and technologies!...(read more)[Image]
Office Business Applications: What is it, and how can I get started?
(Indexed 2006-10-26):
Office Business Applications are a new category of business applications that connect line-of-business systems and processes with the people that use them through a familiar user interface: Microsoft Office. In this blog entry I talk about the concept and provide links to useful resources....(read more)[Image]
NEW must-read book for Microsoft Office Project VBA programmers!
(Indexed 2006-10-19):
New about about Pr...(read more)[Image]
Developing Add-ins (XLLs) in Excel 2007
(Indexed 2006-10-04):
If you are interested in learning about Microsoft Office Excel 2007 features that affect XLL add-ins and enable new XLL functionality, as well as changes to the XLL C API itself, we just published a great article by Steve Dalton that will help you get started.The intended audience for this article consists of Microsoft Visual C and Microsoft Visual C++ developers who already have experience developing Microsoft Office Excel add-ins, or XLLs. This article is not an introduction to XLL development...(truncated)...
Developer Map for the 2007 Microsoft Office System - Image Map (draft)
(Indexed 2006-10-03):
We have been stating everywhere that "the Microsoft Office System is a complete set of client applications, servers, and services that provide organizations with the means to create, manage, and enhance business solutions." We have also published a full load of content for every product since Beta 2. Yet, we realize that as a developer, sometimes it's hard to understand the big picture and how all the little pieces (features and product specifics) can work together to help you build a real-world...(truncated)...
Office Development Bloggers OPML
(Indexed 2006-09-11):
Learn about OPML, exporting your RSS feeds to OPML using Outlook 2007, importing OPML files to Windows Live, and download my Office Development Bloggers OPML file....(read more)[Image]
New! 2007 Office System Virtual Labs
(Indexed 2006-08-30):
From the Source Force to you[Image] This is pretty cool. If you are interested in testing and playing around with the new 2007 Microsoft Office system client apps or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 without dealing with setup and installation, you might be interested in trying out the new 2007 Office System Virtual Labs.These are the latest onesCreating Workflows for Windows SharePoint Services Introducing Content Types for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Understanding the 2007 Microsoft ...(truncated)...
Office developer resources in your own language
(Indexed 2006-08-23):
If you are into technology, you are mostly going to find documentation in English. However, if you speak another language, its always useful to find documentation in your own language. I am from Mexico and I am always pleased to find technical documentation in Spanish.[Image] Here is a list of international resources related to Office development that you might enjoy readingParle vous FranceOffice system 2007, c'est bien sr une avalanche d'innovations, dont une nouvelle interface utilisateur qui...(truncated)...
Data-driven document generation with Word 2007 and the Office XML File Formats: Part 2
(Indexed 2006-08-16):
So you are looking for a component/technology/solution to help you generate Office files (documents, workbooks, and presentations) using a server-side application, and of course, using managed code. I can tell you that this need has been brought to my attention at some conferences, questions in DLs, customer feedback, and as a common customer requirement when I was working as a consultant. You know that using automation and interop is definitely not an option. However, the Office XML File Format...(truncated)...
Data-driven document generation with Word 2007 and the Office XML File Formats: Part 1
(Indexed 2006-08-11):
Last week I had a chance to write some interesting code samples. I missed coding a lot, and I felt a little rusted after working in different projects. But I had a lot of fun and I want to share with you one of the samples I wrote: A simple ASP.NET 2.0 solution that retrieves data from SQL Server and generates a Word 2007 document using the Office XML File formats, WinFX, and XML Mappings in Word 2007.One of the most common requirements for applications that work with data is "data-driven docume...(truncated)...
Microsoft Office System Developers Conference 2006 Videos available on MSDN!
(Indexed 2006-07-28):
Ready to go public with our surprise gift for you :).When you go to a conference, you always miss some sessions. It's kind of hard to go to all of them, so you get to organize your schedule and pick some. Then you go to a lot of sessions and start learning all this new information, but you wish you could have some kind of outline or pointer to help you remember all this new information. So the session ppt slides are always nice to have. If you couldn't make it to conference, even better!Last yea...(truncated)...
10 News from Office DevLand
(Indexed 2006-07-21):
I have been working in all sort of after Beta 2 projects and I couldnt blog for the last two weeks. I missed my blog! While I was getting other things rolling, I kept a little blog to-do list with some things I wanted to share with you and now ten potential blog entries were turned into a single blog entry that looks more like a newsletter.[Image] Here goes a list of ten new cool things from Office DevLand that you should not miss.1. New Office Live Channel 9 interview: This Channel 9 vid...(truncated)...
2007 Office System: Developer Posters
(Indexed 2006-07-06):
Have you seen the .NET Framework posters for developers? I love them! There are tons of marketing posters, of course, but the ones I find quite useful are roadmap and object model posters. The roadmap posters organize different technologies in a way that helps you understand how everything works together. Object model posters on the other hand, provide a graphic view of top level namespaces and key objects and are great in-the-wall reference documentation. If you have a bad memory (like me) and ...(truncated)...
Open XML File Formats: What is it, and how can I get started?
(Indexed 2006-06-23):
While being at Tech Ed, a lot of people were interested in finding a way to programmatically generate documents without Interop. Some of the business scenarios contemplated generating over 5,000 documents and some IT professionals were interested in finding the best option. A great option to solve this business need is: The Open XML File Formats. Some people have been following the news and are even ahead of most of us already buidling solutions to generate documents using the Open XML File Form...(truncated)...
Tech Ed 2006 Pictures (Office System)
(Indexed 2006-06-23):
I loved Tech Ed this year! Office 2007 is driving a lot of awareness and I was happy to be there to experience that. I was hanging out at the Visual Studio Tools for Office booth and I enjoyed a lot talking to Partners, MVPs, ISVs, and IT professionals that wanted to learn more about VSTO v3 and the 2007 Microsoft Office System. For me it's always fascinating to listen about development projects related with Office. I go there thinking I will be able to share some knowledge, but it's always peop...(truncated)...
Tech ED 2006: News for Office and SharePoint Developers
(Indexed 2006-06-14):
I am here at Tech ED at Boston and I am having a lot of fun talking to developers and IT professionals who want to learn more about Office 2007, Office SharePoint Server 2007, and Visual Studio Tools for Office.We have an Office System booth area where you can find experts for different Office and SharePoint products and technologies. I am at the Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the Microsoft Office System booth and we are running demos to show some of the coolest things you can do with VSTO. We are...(truncated)...
Blogs for the Office blog lovers
(Indexed 2006-06-08):
Blogs are a fantastic way to get news to the community. I am sure the developer community is quite aware of everything that is going on with the new version of Office thanks to all the -very nice- people that are blogging about new enhancements and features for different Office programs, servers, services, tools, and technologies.I made a blog entry some time ago where I shared a list of Office 2007 (12) bloggers and I was surprised to see that some people enjoyed the list. It was my personal co...(truncated)...
How-to enable the Developer tab in the Ribbon bar
(Indexed 2006-06-06):
I am a new user to Office 2007 (Beta 2) and I am having fun discovering things around. If you already downloaded the 2007 Microsoft Office system Beta 2 and you are ready to start experimenting with Office, here is a nice trick related to the very cool Ribbon bar. The Ribbon provides a Developer tab that groups a set of commands related to Office programmability and extensibility. The following figure shows the Developer Ribbon (Word 2007).[Image]By default, the Developer tab is disabled. Why? M...(truncated)...
Football World Cup 2006 Excel workbooks
(Indexed 2006-06-01):
Have you ever thought about all the data that is stored in Microsoft Office Excel workbooks around the world? Excel workbooks are an extraordinary data store, but they also offer great potential as a resource of dynamic information that can move across data-management workflows and business processes.The previous paragraph was stolen from my last column. Of course, when I wrote this article I was not thinking about some other cool and interesting data that you can store in Excel workbooks. My mi...(truncated)...
What's new for developers in the 2007 Microsoft Office System?
(Indexed 2006-05-23):
Hi everyone!I had to stop blogging for a while because we were working on building an improved MSDN Office Developer Center. However, I will blog a lot starting from today to let you know about resources, developer tips, and best practices for the 2007 Microsoft Office System.The 2007 Microsoft Office System Beta 2 was announced today! We have been working a lot on creating new Office 2007 content and to redesign the site and here are some pointers to resources you should see![Image] Check out.....(truncated)...
New Office Live Blog and 2007 Microsoft Office System demos
(Indexed 2006-05-05):
The Office Live thing...If you want to learn more about Office Live, you should not miss Chris Beiter's blog. Chris is a Program Manager on the Solution Developer Platform portion of Office Live's next release. So for those of you who are interested in the developer story for Office Live, stick around Chris's blog.The Office 2007 Demo thing...Have you seen the MSDN TV shows published recently? If you can't wait to get to the demo, here are the links that jump into the fun part:Access showhttp://...(truncated)...
How to: Magic with SharePoint 2003, uploading files using a Web service
(Indexed 2006-05-04):
Some time ago I blogged about my intentions of uploading files to a SharePoint Document Library site from a local folder using some kind of Web service. After doing some research and some tests, I found a very easy way to do that and now I want to share with you the approach I followed since you might find it useful as well.PrerequisitesTo build this solution, you need to install Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and follow the next steps:Create a Document Library Grant access to the users th...(truncated)...
More news on 2007 Microsoft Office System
(Indexed 2006-05-01):
Hi all,Just a little blog entry to let you know about a new MSDN TV show and a new section of MSDN where we will start adding 2007 Microsoft Office System content.The new MSDN TV Show: Building Custom Solutions with Excel ServicesDanny Khen and Shahar Prish recorded an MSDN TV show about Excel Services that you should not miss.[Image] http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdntv/episode.aspx?xml=episodes/e...(truncated)... Excel Services let users calculate, display, and explore Excel workbooks on the ser...(truncated)...
MSDN Office Developer Center - Behind the Scenes
(Indexed 2006-04-18):
We are getting ready for Beta 2 and we have been working hard to produce articles, videos, interviews, code samples, and more content that dives into the details of how-to develop solutions using the 2007 Office System. The past months everything was about what you can do with 2007 Office System, now, we are getting ready to show you how you can do it. Behind the scenes, we have been quietly working with the product teams to provide a great amount of content that will allow you to learn how to d...(truncated)...
Getting ready for the Microsoft Office System Developers Conference 2006
(Indexed 2006-03-17):
The Microsoft Office System Developers Conference 2006 will be held in Redmond, WA next week; so expect to see more buzz related to the 2007 Office System in blogs.Office has evolved a lot as a development platform and the best part is that you will be able to watch it with your own eyes. No matter where you are, you can watch and listen to Bill Gates and Kurt DelBene showing investments done to Office programs, servers, services, and tools. Bill and Kurt will deliver keynotes next week that yo...(truncated)...
Project and Project Server resources for developers
(Indexed 2006-03-15):
I have the honor of sharing an office with Jim Corbin, who is the programmer writer for Project. Jim is the guy responsible for writing developer oriented documentation, articles, and the SDK for Project. So as you can imagine, he has great knowledge, expertise, and experience with everything related to Project and Project Server. One of the advantages of sharing an office with Jim is that I get to learn a lot from him about what's coming for Project Server. Another great advantage is that Proje...(truncated)...
Office 2007 and SharePoint PDC recorded sessions
(Indexed 2006-03-07):
Some time ago I shared a pointer to the Office & SharePoint PDC '05 slide decks. I just got in my Inbox a pointer to the PDC '05 recorded sessions and I just wanted to share the pointer with all of you in case you didn't know about them:http://microsoft.sitestream.com/pdc05/default.htmSlide decks are quite informative, but it's never the same compared to the opportunity of watching the speaker in action talking about a feature/product and of course, you get to see more than a slide that says : D...(truncated)...
The official name: 2007 Microsoft® Office system
(Indexed 2006-02-16):
Finally, I am able to spell the real name for the next version of Office: 2007 Microsoft Office system.For those of you who have not seen the press passes and want to catch-up here is a list with some of them:FAQ: Looking into Office 12 Does "Office 12" equal Office 2007? Microsoft announces Office 2007 pricing, detailsSee the 2007 Microsoft Office System Pricing and the 2007 Microsoft Office System Packaging.Maybe you have heard that this is the biggest release of the decade, and I can tell you...(truncated)...
How to: Generate autonumbered lists using WordML (2003)
(Indexed 2006-02-07):
I was reading today an internal distribution list and I saw an interesting thread about autonumbered lists using WordML (2003): "I embarked on a journey to try and transform InfoPath rich text (xhtml) to WordML. I encounter a problem when I try to transform a rich text node that contains multiple numbered lists: in the rich text they both number from 1-3, but in Word the result is 1,2,3 and 4,5,6."Zander Westendarp provides a great workaround: If you increment the value of the w:listDefId elemen...(truncated)...
Visio Connector for Project/EPM/SPS
(Indexed 2006-02-03):
You should check this out! Imtiyaz Mubarak (a developer, Microsoft Parter, and friend from India) along with Chris Castillo from the Visio team created and published a component that provides a Visio Add-In and a Project Add-In that integrates Visio 2003, Project Server and MS SharePoint Server. This component allows you to:Generate Project Plans from the Visio Process Flow Diagrams.Generate Project Plans from WBS.Generate SharePoint Tasks from the Visio Process Flow Diagrams.Report the Status ...(truncated)...
How to subcribe to Office "12" Beta 2 Program
(Indexed 2006-01-26):
I have been receiving some emails from developers who can't wait to start playing around with Office "12" and that want to know how to enroll to the Beta 2 program. I don't manage the program, but I just talked with someone from the Office "12" Partner Readiness Team and here's what you have to do:For Beta 1:Office 12 Beta 1 is a limited, non-public beta for partners who have achieved the Information Worker Solutions Competency status. You can learn more about the Information Worker Solutions Co...(truncated)...
Office "12" bloggers list
(Indexed 2006-01-24):
To view the list of Office "12" bloggers from my previous blog entry you must have Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01 Service Pack 2 (SP2) or later and the Microsoft Office 2003 Web Components.For those of you that have a different browser here's the list:TopicOwnerNameURLRSS feedAccess 12Erik RuckerA discussion of what's new in Access 12http://blogs.msdn.com/access/http://blogs.msdn.com/access/...(truncated)... Services (ECM)Rob LeffertsOffice SharePoint Document Services (ECM)http://blogs.msdn.c...(truncated)...
Excel Services and Office "12" bloggers list
(Indexed 2006-01-23):
I have been playing around with Office "12" and SharePoint "v3" and I am quite surprised of how easy it is to view and interact with Excel Spreadsheets in a browser thanks to Excel Services. I needed to build a site and share with my team our content plans for Office "12." I had an Excel file that I wanted to share so I added an Excel Web Access web part that allows my peers to interact with an Excel 12 Workbook as a Web page. This is way much better than sending around my file by email!If you h...(truncated)...
Office "12" supports "Save As PDF" programmatically
(Indexed 2006-01-11):
As a developer, I was quite excited to learn that Office "12" will allow you to save documents as PDF/XPS. Since that moment, I have been quite surprised to see excitement around that feature. I am now happy to learn more about XPS. You should read Jeff Bell's blog and Andy Simonds's blog to learn more about this.For those of you who have been asking through my blog and email if this functionality (Save As PDF) is going to be exposed in the API the answer is YES! Office PIAs will have methods th...(truncated)...
Get a sneak peek at Windows Vista and Microsoft Office "12"
(Indexed 2006-01-11):
If you want to learn more about Windows Vista and Microsoft Office "12", you can enroll to the ISV Touchdown Briefings for Windows Vista and Microsoft Office "12."[Image] The Office "12" preview includes the following:The new UI extensibility model which includes: Application-centric task panes, add-in development, and Ribbon UI extensibility features. The Microsoft Office System open XML File Format, which allows for manipulation of files, creating files without using the individual programs, r...(truncated)...
Happy new Office "12" year!
(Indexed 2006-01-06):
I have given my blog a long winter vacation and here I am back and quite excited to start writing more news related with Office "12." This is going to be a great year for Microsoft with Windows Vista and Office "12" being shipped; everybody here at Microsoft is starting this year full on energy, enthusiasm, and hard work for all of you.I am currently working on the content plan for MSDN and Office "12" and the current wish list that I am building contains a proposed set of technical articles, co...(truncated)...
Generating Active Directory Diagrams with Visio 2003 and Visual Studio .NET 2003
(Indexed 2005-12-12):
Last week we published a new Office Talk column: Generating Active Directory Diagrams with Visio 2003 and Visual Studio .NET 2003. I am very happy about this and I have to say that I had a lot of fun writing this article and code.Everything started back in September at PDC when I met with a customer who asked how to build custom Active Directory Diagrams with Visio 2003. We talked about the possibilities and in general I explained how he could build an Active Directory diagram. Active Directory ...(truncated)...