Slide deck from yesterday

Presented on Office 2007 and SharePoint integration yesterday, deck on Skydrive

Stay tuned for more detailed blog posts on Office Integration features.

Office 2010 Info on SQL pages

Here's some interesting facts on what's coming in Office 2010 and SQL Server 2008 R2

Add-in for Microsoft Office Excel 2010
Build Robust Analytical Applications
Combines native Excel 2010 functionality with an in-memory, column oriented processing engine to allow users to interactively explore and perform calculations on millions of rows of data at lightening speeds
Streamlines the process of integrating data from multiple sources – including corporate databases, spreadsheets and external sources
Access PivotTables, slicers, and other familiar analysis features in Excel to create reports and perform advanced analysis

Add-in for Microsoft Office SharePoint 2010
Share & Collaborate with Confidence
Enables users to publish reports and analyses to SharePoint to make them available to others in the organization
Applications and reports can be refreshed automatically while also maintaining version control and tracking
Central, secure location where users can easily control who has access to sensitive data while also maximizing the number of people who can view the reports

SharePoint 2010 Management Console
Manage User-Generated Analytical Applications
Provides a single, comprehensive management tool through Microsoft Office SharePoint that gives IT administrators the ability to set server policies and monitor Self Service BI activities
IT can manage and secure all BI assets, freeing the original authors to focus on business priorities
Dashboard views to monitor access and utilization of analyses and reports as well as track patterns of hardware usage to help ensure the right security privileges are applied and user generated solutions are continuously available, up-to-date, and secured

Read all about it and look at some screenshots here:

http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/r2.aspx

Presenting at Joel Oleson's Seminar tour in Melbourne

You've probably picked up by now that Quest has organised SharePoint Seminars around Australia in July.
Joel Oleson, SharePoint Guru and ex Microsoft SharePoint Team member will present on how to turn your SharePoint deployment project into a success and what you can do to prepare for the next version.

I don't think deployment of SharePoint 2007 is as successful as it can be without considering the added value of Office 2007 and the integrated features it offers users. So I'm presenting a breakout session during the Melbourne event about just that, how and why Office 2007 is a perfect fit to complement your SharePoint environment. I'll go beyond the obligatory Connect to Outlook action and demonstrate the power of Access, Visio, Word and Excel.

Please come and join us at this free seminar, but hurry, spaces are limited.

Click here to register for the Melbourne event on July the 9th.

SharePoint Designer will be a free download as of 1 April 2009

Microsoft has decided to make SharePoint Designer available for free, as of the 1st of April 2009 you will be able to download a free version from the SPD site. Note that this does not mean SPD is 'end of life', the next version fo SPD (which I have seen at MVP Summit) will ship when the next version of SharePoint is released.

(more details on this blog post)

MOSSIG and Stargate Global Consulting thought this was a good reason to offer a free introduction training for SharePoint Designer, you can sign up for this 2 hour workshop here.

Each workshop will be limited to 12 people, so sign up quickly!

For questions, just leave a comment.

I'm a PC

The world knows MVP's are PC's now...


http://www.microsoft.com/video/en/us/details/6d53ed7b-f784-4c00-b145-3c1123debc40

BTW, I'm in the first shot wearing a black SharePoint cap.

Free SharePoint Developer Training

Microsoft has just made it very easy for you to step up to the plate and access a generous amount of training resources for free. Start at the Ramp Up page on MSDN and find your way through the maze guided by Microsoft Learning. The courses provide a nice managed way to work through a list of topics applicable to SharePoint as well as Visual Studio developers and help you prepare for certification if that's what your goal is.

Check it out now at http://www.myrampup.com/

VSeWSS 1.3 CTP Now delivers 64 bit support

Good news for those of you developing on 64bit hardware, the Visual Studio Extensions for Windows SharePoint Services is now available in a 64 bit version. And that's not the only improvement, but don't take my word for it, head on over to the SharePoint Team blog and check out the feature list.

Note that this is still a CTP and there are still developers on deck to fix any issues so it's important to download this version, give it a good workout and report any issues you find (through Connect , go to the forums) so they can be fixed before the official release.

Accessing Document Libraries through UNC paths using ports

'Tip of the day' ;-)

You're probably all aware SharePoint Document Libraries can be accessed in Windows Explorer by using a UNC name like \\MyServer\MySite\Document .

I've always been in the dark about how that would work for document libraries in sites running on other ports. All of a sudden I was browsing through the Net work places and I saw a server appearing with an @ followed by a port number. So that's how you can add a portnumber to a UNC path and it will give you direct access to your document libraries:

\\MyServer@55555\personal\edr\Mydocuments would give me access to a MyDocument library on my MySite runnig on port 55555 for example.