September 2009

SharePoint FUD… Spreading Far, Wide and Fast

The last month or so I’ve been a casual observer to a bit of a train wreck. It’s the train wreck that we collectively know as the SharePoint bashing exercise. I’ll admit fully and upfront.

More here:
SharePoint FUD… Spreading Far, Wide and Fast

Build a Collapsible Task Pane in Outlook – Part 2

In part 1 of this series I gave a (brief) overview of the Outlook Task Pane and provided a couple of links to articles on MSDN that explain how to build one.

Recap – 2 Problems with Task Panes within Outlook

Building a task pane and displaying it within Outlook is easy but as I mentioned in Part 1, there are a couple of problems:

1. Managing the multiple Task Pane instances, attaching to the Explorer and Inspector windows, and destroying each task pane when its Explorer or Inspector windows closes can be a pain.
2. The task pane you build does not come with an “collapse” button. You know, the button with a couple of chevrons pointing in the direction it will collapse? You have to add this functionality yourself. It can be done but there are easier methods.

This brings me back to the point of this series, Add-In-Express 2009 (ADX). This tool takes care of Issue #1 and. Issue #2. Yes, ADX costs a few bucks but it’s a time-saver and it reduces development effort. Either one of those is typically reason enough for me to purchase a tool (especially if the client is paying for it).

Quick Overview of the Design for the Collapsible Task Pane

By collapsible, I mean it can be "minimized" so that it resembles the collapsed state of the ToDo Bar. The task pane has a “collapse” button and resides between the mail preview window and the ToDO bar within Outlook Explorer windows.

Here is the design for the sample add-in I will build in Part 3:

The task pane displays exactly where it should. You can see the collapse button on the upper right-hand corner of the task pane. When the user clicks that button, they will see something like this image:

In this collapsed-state, only a vertical bar displays with an “expand” button. Clicking the expand button will return the task pane to its open state.

Preview of Part 3

Next-up, I’ll dig into the code and actually build the add-in. Also, I’ll decide on what to display within the task pane besides a lame button. Not to worry, I’ll think of something useful to put there and it will be code you can steal…put to use today.

Access 2010 Custom Themes

Today’s guest writer is Steve Greenberg.

See the rest here: 
Access 2010 Custom Themes

Better Searching in Outlook 2010

A common problem with email searches is that they can return too many results. For example, entering someone’s name may return matches where the name appears in parts of the message’s body even though you meant to look for messages from that person.

View original post here:
Better Searching in Outlook 2010

Data Feeds

Originally posted here:
Data Feeds

One of the keys to self-service BI is that people need the highest quality, up-to-date data for their analysis.

Google Apps vs. Office Web Apps: Can Microsoft compete in the …

Larry Dignan, Sam Diaz and other IT industry experts, blogging at the intersection of business and technology, deliver daily news and analysis on vital enterprise trends. Between the Lines – http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/

Original post:
Google Apps vs. Office Web Apps: Can Microsoft compete in the …

Build a Collapsible Task Pane in Outlook – Part 1

I believe Outlook is the informational portal to business users everywhere. As the desktop interface to Microsoft Exchange, Outlook effectively serves as the short-term and long-term memory of the individual user…the brain if you will. I feel comfortable calling Outlook my brain as I have only a limited short-term memory and virtually no long-term memory.

If I don’t get an important date on the Outlook Calendar or create a task for something I need to do…forget it. It won’t happen. If I delete an email instead of filing it away within my insanely intricate and highly detailed filing system, it is like you never emailed me at all.

My point, is Outlook contains the details of my life…both professionally and personally. It is vital to what I do and how well I do it. I’m obsessed with keeping my information organized and using this order to execute on a daily basis. I’m not what you might call “anal”. I don’t naturally have orderly tendencies. This fact only serves to point out the genius that is Outlook.

Outlook Provides Developers With a Portal to Business Users

As a developer, my love for Outlook has only increased. The Outlook object model is extensive, allowing developers to build Outlook add-ins that automate the workflow and info-flow (best I can tell, I just coined that phrase…I claim it) of their users.

When Microsoft released Outlook 2007, I was immediately drawn to the integration of the ToDo Bar into the main email window (see below).

I love that I can view my upcoming appointments along with my task list in the same window that I manage email. Ever since I first saw the ToDo Bar, I wanted to build a similar type of task pane. I found that it is indeed possible but it is a complete PITA. The issue comes down to manage your custom task pane instances and tracking to which Outlook Explorer or Outlook Inspector window they belong.

You can do manage the task panes by following the guidance available here:

Walkthrough: Displaying Custom Task Panes with E-Mail Messages in Outlook

Or you can take an easier approach and download the VSTO Power Toys and make use of the Office Custom UI Manager. Either way, write code to manage the task panes. In fact, I wrote about it in my book, Pro Office 2007 Development with VSTO.

Task Panes Made Easy with Add-In-Express

Both of the example just mentioned make building & managing custom Outlook task possible. But an much easier method exists. In fact it requires virtually no code. The rub is you need to look beyond the toolset provided by Microsoft. This tool is Add-In-Express 2009 (there are two versions, one for VSTO-based solutions and another for COM-based solutions)

Add-In-Express (ADX) can handle it all, allowing you build custom CommandBars, Ribbons, Outlook Property Pages, Form Regions, and much much more. In fact, they extend the possibilities of such things like form regions, allow you to place them in other locations besides the bottom of an Outlook form (see below):

(Source: Add-In-Express.com)

I first discovered ADX when building a solution for one of the major banks in the USA. That project required that we integrate Outlook with a custom CRM solution involving Exchange, Oracle, and Java web services. Using ADX, I was able to quickly build out the required Outlook Task Panes.

A Preview for Part 2

That’s it for now. I decided to break this article up into a series of posts. I originally planned to cover it all in a single post but kept procrastinating because I didn’t want to write a full-fledged article in a single sitting. So I’ll stop here with a quick intro of Outlook task panes and Add-In-Express. In, Part 2 of this series, I’ll cover the design for a sample add-in that will serve as the basis for a solution I’ll create with Add-In-Express 2009.

monoTouch .net development kit now available for iPhone

Filed under: Developer , Linux , Apple , Novell , Commercial , iPhone , Mobile While the Apple App Store is without doubt the largest available medium for a mobile developer to get their app in the hands of the users, for developers new to development using C / Objective C, the barrier to entry can be quite significant. Many developers working with other platforms (particularly Windows / Windows Mobile) have made significant investment into products developed in the .net languages (e.g.

More:
monoTouch .net development kit now available for iPhone

Get Started with Expression 3: Watch Videos and Tutorials

Learn how to get started using Expression Studio 3 by watching these free videos and tutorials that cover Expression Web, Expression Blend, Expression Design, and Expression Encoder.

Original post: 
Get Started with Expression 3: Watch Videos and Tutorials

Make SharePoint 2007 Act Like SharePoint 2010 (sort of …)

I’m pretty sure every SharePoint enthusiast has seen those great Sneak Peek videos Microsoft released some time ago. And I’m sure that lots of the new features shown were very exciting for lots of you. Since SharePoint 2010 is still quite far away in the future, let’s try to bring some of the 2010 stuff to SharePoint 2007! In the overview video , Tom Rizzo showed some new user interface functionality, pretty much all of it was heavily using asynchronous Javascript code to dynamically do updates, change layouts etc

Read more from the original source:
Make SharePoint 2007 Act Like SharePoint 2010 (sort of …)

Next Page »