The Microsoft Office 2010 “limited” technical preview, due in July 2009 has a waitlist which you can sign up to as of today.
This is an invitation only program which will provide access to early, pre-release versions of Office 2010. The full list of applications:
- Access 2010
- Communicator 2010
- Excel 2010
- InfoPath 2010
- OneNote 2010
- Outlook 2010
- PowerPoint 2010
- Publisher 2010
- Visio 2010
- Word 2010
There is also a new, official product group IT Pro blog here.
Parkesy
Here’s a neat little online game which can also be a great pointer to some valuable resources. The idea is to collect “Geek Points” as you deal with day to day problems being handed to you on a plate by your boss and your inbox!
Server Quest II is the sequel to last year’s pixellated adventure. As the resident IT professional, the scenario begins with your return from holiday when in a temporary spell of relaxed judgment, you’ve jeopardised your reputation by forwarding your personal holiday snaps to the entire organisation..!
Visit www.server-quest.com and be prepared to be ushered into a world where the IT Pro rules. Find out if you’re geek enough to play and experience “a day in a Geek’s life” with ServerQuest II—with your reputation on the line, only the server can save you!
Parkesy
I spent a day recently upgrading my PC’s to Windows7. That’s my home Media Center, my work laptop and my “spare” testing machine which lives in my home office. These machines were all purchased pre Vista launch and Windows7 runs on each and every one of them. So do all my devices… Impressed? I sure am!!!
The Windows7 Release Candidate can be downloaded now from here. My favourite UI enhancement so far is the new Media Center interface, I love the scrolling backdrop of album art when I’m listening to my tunes…
All the information on Windows7 can be found on the main Microsoft site.
Parkesy
If you feel the need to gain an understanding of what is going to be contained in Service Pack 2 for the 2007 Microsoft Office System, the Office Sustained Engineering Team have published a list on their blog. This covers both Office desktop and server products, including Microsoft Office SharePoint Server and Shared Services.
Click here for full details.
2007 Microsoft Office System SP2 is due to be released on 28th April 2009.
Ciao for now :)
From Scuderia to Store, Community to News, there’s a whole host of droolable content over on the new Ferrari website, built on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server.
Head on over to http://www.ferrari.com and enjoy!
I guess I could crack some pun about SharePoint being the Ferrari of the website world but I wont!!! Ciao for now :)
SharePoint Designer is now available as a free download from Microsoft.
SharePoint Designer can be used to customise SharePoint sites. I recorded a two minute webcast on how to use it to apply the sample themes which you can view here.
You can download the full version directly from here and more information on the product can be found here.
Please note that if you are using SharePoint Online (part of BPOS,) there are some customisation capabilities that are not supported in the current version of SharePoint Online, primarily the use of code in workflows or forms, or modifications that require deployment and configuration on the server (for example, security policies, web.config changes, etc.) or that require changes to the database schema.
Enjoy!
The March 2009 CTP Visual Studio 2008 extensions for SharePoint are now available. You can download them directly from here.
Also included in this release are ten new themes for SharePoint built as VSeWSS projects. You can download them from here.
Ciao for now :)
Here's another screencast I've recorded which shows how to apply the sample custom master pages available on Office Online to Windows SharePoint Services team sites.
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server - Customisation This recording is based on the Demo Showcase virtual images, a resource readily available to Microsoft Gold and Certified partners. Total running time is just over two and a half minutes :)
Parkesy
Here's another screencast I've recorded which shows some of the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server personalisation capabilities of MySites including profile editing and blog creation.
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server - People & Personalisation This recording is based on the Demo Showcase virtual images, a resource readily available to Microsoft Gold and Certified partners. Total running time is just under five minutes :)
Parkesy
Here's another screencast I've recorded which shows some of the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server collaboration capabilities including the out of the box Approval workflow.
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server - Collaboration This recording is based on the Demo Showcase virtual images, a resource readily available to Microsoft Gold and Certified partners. Total running time is ten minutes :)
Parkesy
The roadmap for SharePoint Search and FAST enterprise search integration got an update today. In summary:
- FAST Search for SharePoint is a new search server adding FAST ESP capabilities into Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server (SharePoint "14")
- ESP for SharePoint is high-end search for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, available today.
You can find out more from the official SharePoint Team blog...
http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/02/10/microsoft-unveils-new-enterprise-search-road-map.aspx
Parkesy
I've been struggling to develop anything on my 64bit Windows Server 2008 box for a while now, mainly due to lack of support for this on 64 bit. The Visual Studio 2008 Extensions for Windows SharePoint Services version 1.3 addresses my needs :)
You can download from here and more details on the content of the package can be found here.
- Can be installed on x64 Server OS machines running SharePoint x64. Previously only x86 Server OS could be used
- Command line build, package and retract commands are included enabling continuous integration and build servers. Previously command line build of SharePoint projects was very difficult
- Refactoring support for renaming of Web Parts. Previously renaming a web part required changes in several files in the project
Enjoy!
Parkesy
Here's another screencast I've recorded which shows some of the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server search capabilities including how to search across content including the business data catalog and people.
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server - Search
This recording is based on the Demo Showcase virtual images, a resource readily available to Microsoft Gold and Certified partners. Total running time is under four minutes :)
Parkesy
The following tools may be useful to help build business case and justification with regards to return on investment (ROI) requirements as part of a project bid which involves any of the following Microsoft technologies:
- BizTalk Server
- Business Intelligence
- Dynamics AX/CRM/GP/NAV/SL
- Enterprise Project Management
- Exchange Server
- InfoPath
- PerformancePoint Server
- SharePoint
- SQL Server
- Visual Studio Team System
http://nucleusresearch.com/microsoft-roi-support-center/
Enjoy :)
Parkesy
Here's a little screencast I've recorded showing a demonstration of some of the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server Forms Services capabilities together with InfoPath forms rendered through a browser and also including simple workflow creation and deployment through SharePoint Designer.
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server - Business Process & Forms
Based on the Demo Showcase virtual images, a resource readily available to Microsoft Gold and Certified partners, the demo lasts just a touch over ten minutes, I'd love to know what you think of it!
Parkesy
