PDC 208: Microsoft unveils Office Web Applications

I wasn't sure I should blog about this, there's heaps of posts on-line already, yet I want to make sure you don't miss it, so strong advice, checkout the news at the PDC site or do a search for "Office Web Applications" to see what Office 14 will deliver in the browser.

Can't wait for the big event in Sydney next week, Steve Balmer should have plenty to talk about!

Office Devcon 2008 Sydney

Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint, Outlook, VSTO, SharePoint are the main topics for the many sessions presented at the Offce Devcon 2008 on 15 and 16 November in Sydney. Just like last year I'll be presenting and my new employer, Stargate Global Consulting is one of the gold sponsors for this event. Having the sponsors on board means we were once again able to keep this event free of charge so head over to the site and register before we run out of space.

Just going through the speaker list you'll notice that the majority of them are experienced speakers and MVP's, Graham Seach has managed to get together a group of specialists that will put on a terrrific range of interesting sessions. Below are mine:

Title: Context driven action panes

Type: Deep-dive

This session will be an introduction on how to develop and deploy VSTO based action panes in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. It will also demonstrate a project based approach in Visual Studio that allows re-use of application resources throughout the various Office client applications through the use of Class Libraries and User Controls.
Target audience is developers that would like to see how to move from VBA to VSTO or Visual Studio developers who would like to know a bit more about VSTO. The session will demonstrate concepts as well as technical detail so non-developers that would like to see the potential of what VSTO can do are invited to join and won’t be bored by too much technical detail.

Title: Getting the most out of Word Building Blocks and Content Controls

Type: Deep-dive

Word 2007 has introduced a new way to embed controls in documents called Content Controls, this session will demonstrate how this can be used to build compelling, professional and efficient data driven business documents such as invoices, reports etc.
A special Content Control is the "Building Block Gallery" control which of course is driven by Building Blocks stored in templates and galleries. We will focus on this control and the building block gallery, how to make the most of that and how to manage building blocks beyond what OOTB Word has to offer.
The session will demonstrate a project built using these technologies so you can see all of this in action in a word solution being used on a daily basis to efficiently generate reports.

Presenting on Word Content Types for MOSSIG

Tomorrow, september the 24th the Mossig meeting is all about Word '07, SharePoint and Content Controls. Definitely high on my list of favorite topics.

Tag Driven Information Customising the Document Information Panel in Office
William Cornwill, SharePoint Technology Solutions Professional – Microsoft

Join William Cornwill from Microsoft as he creates a SharePoint document library, defines a new Site Content Type and customises the Document Information Panel.
William will demonstrate the following;
• Create Word Template
• Create Site Columns
• Create Site Content Type
• Create Document Library
• Add Content Type to Doc Library
• Show default Document Information Panel
• Create a new Document Information Panel
• Extend the Document Information Panel

Increasing business productivity by making good use of OpenXML, SharePoint Events and Word Content Controls.
Ed Richard, SharePoint Solutions Principle – Stargate Global Consulting – MVP SharePoint

Join Ed as he talks about setting up MS-Word templates and make SharePoint events generate or change Documents using the OpenXML SDK.
Ed will show a range of options using real life projects demonstrating the power an capabilities of Word and SharePoint working as a team. He’ll also show some VSTO integration and explain how to make clever use of Document Building Blocks and Word Content Controls.

Please rsvp to info@mossig.net so we can arrange the catering, pizza @5.30pm

Patrick, we will miss you

My sincere condolences to Patrick's family, friends and collegues.

http://www.u2u.be/

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2008/09/05/we-ll-miss-you-patrick.aspx


http://blogs.msdn.com/dmahugh/archive/2008/09/05/patrick-tisseghem-one-of-a-kind.aspx

Patrick has inspired me as I am sure he has many others in the SharePoint community.

The above posts say it all...

Please pick up your MVP Logo wind-up generator torch-key ring

If you are registered for Tech Ed Australia this year, come along to MVP Theatre to watch MVPs delivering sessions ranging from 20 minutes to the full 75 minutes. There are only 20 seats in MVP Theatre, so you need to be quick getting to the Expo Hall if you’re serious about catching an MVP Session. The Agenda for MVP Theatre is here (please watch it for last minute updates). To attend, you must be a registered delegate, so if you haven’t bought your Tech Ed ticket yet, you can register here.
I’m presenting on Wednesday from 16:00-16:30 on my pet topic generating Word Documents from LOB systems using the OpenXML SDK.
Seated attendees to MVP Theatre each receive an MVP Logo wind-up torch keyring (no battery!), so you need to be quick!
You can’t pre-register for MVP Theatre sessions; it’s first in first seated.

SharePoint Professionals, now's the time to harvest

We all know it, SharePoint is hot and judging from what I'm hearing through the grapevine vNext is going to be even hotter. What I'm also seeing and hearing is that SharePoint ranks very high amongst the skills companies and head-hunters are looking for so now would be a good time for that career change!

SharePoint certification would be a good move as well obviously, especially now that the industry recognizes that the MOSS and WSS 3.0 exams are not to be taken lightly. So, act now, go and find a good training, read up, practice and sit in on the exams, how about at Tech-Ed next month?

To seriously prepare I'd like to point out that fellow MVP's and SharePoint experts Todd Bleeker, Ben Curry, Steve Smith and Kathy Hughes are hosting a 'SharePoint Summit' in August in Sydney and that will be the perfect opportunity to get trained up and ready to go for those certifications! I highly recommend this course, check out the details here.

BTW, I'll be attending Tech Ed in Sydney this year and you'll find me presenting in the MVP Theatre and assisting in the Hands-on labs.

Cya in Sydney!

SharePoint is maturing

What's a product without a dedicated magazine? And in this day and age, it should really be a nice on-line one don't you think? And what about a globally oriented association so that we can all join and share experiences?

This week this has all been established, after long planning and preparation the ISPA is finally launched and at the same time an on-line magazine dedicated to SharePoint has gone live! Great news for the global SharePoint community.

If you want to know more about ISPA, read this detailed post by Bob Fox about the ambitious aims for this organisation.

As board member of MOSSIG I am proud and excited to be involved in this project and I hope I can keep contributing and help grow this initiative.