Office 2010 - default file format ballot OOXML or ODF

Something I missed in the Office 2010 beta’s – apparently Office will ask you for the default file format you want to use - Office Open XML format or OpenDocuments Format - the first time that you open it.

This is apparently part of an agreement of Microsoft to commit to more interoperable applications. In Office 2007 Microsoft supported ODF through a separate Sourceforge project but now you get it built in. In september 2008 Belgian government decided to standardize on ODF – so know they can use ODF and still use Office 2010.

Outlook 2010 is pretty smart …

I used to work with the Outlook Hotmail Connector for Hotmail during the beta tests of Outlook 2010 but I decided to remove all beta components – but one way or another Outlook seemed to remember that I used to have a connection using the Outlook Hotmail connector and provided me with guidance directly in my Outlook user interface

I'm just wondering if the version which was installed (14.0.4760.1000) is the final release.

Office 2010 64-bit or 32-bit that’s the question…

I now have to decide whether to install the 64-bit edition of Office 2010 or the 32-bit edition. There’s some guidance available on Technet – 64-bit editions of Office 2010

The recommendations for which edition of Office 2010 to install are as follows:

• If users in your organization depend on existing extensions to Office, such as ActiveX controls, third-party add-ins, in-house solutions built on previous versions of Office, or 32-bit versions of programs that interface directly with Office, we recommend that you install 32-bit Office 2010 (the default installation) on computers that are running both 32-bit and 64-bit supported Windows operating systems.
• If some users in your organization are Excel expert users who work with Excel spreadsheets that are larger than 2 gigabytes (GB), they can install the 64-bit edition of Office 2010. In addition, if you have in-house solution developers, we recommend that those developers have access to the 64-bit edition of Office 2010 so that they can test and update your in-house solutions on the 64-bit edition of Office 2010.

Since I’m using both SharePoint Server 2010 and SharePoint Server 2007 (which relies on some ActiveX controls) I will probably go for 32-bit.

Technorati Tags: office2010,32bit,64bit

Windows Phone 7 Intro video

Windows Phone 7 Development links

I just followed a great TechDays Belgium session about Windows Phone 7 and I must say this definitely rocks …. and it is really easy to get started as all the necessary Windows Phone 7 developer tools can be downloaded from http://developer.windowsphone.com. There are basically 2 models for building applications for Windows Phone 7 – either using the XNA model or using the Silverlight model.

If you download the developer tools you will notice that they can be added to an existing Visual Studio 2010 installation or if you don’t have Visual Studio installed it will add Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone. The download also contains the Windows Phone Emulator as well as XNA Game Studio 4.0 – check out the Windows Phone 7 Training Kit on MSDN and the Windows Phone 7 Training Kit direct download.

Some interesting tidbits:

• Currently C# is the only supported programming language
• Windows Phone is cloud-ready – you might for example want to integrate XBox Live
• Windows Phone will only support 2 resolutions – 480x800 and 320x480
• Your windows phone is orientation aware - in Silverlight you will have explicit orientation events which you can use to manipulate the UI in your apps.
• Since the Windows Phone has a built-in accelerometer you will be able to program against it – using a standard API
• Windows Phone 7 supports multi-touch, again a new way to handle input both in XNA as well as Silverlight.
• Navigation uses pages

Related links:

• CTP release of the OData Client Library for Windows Phone 7 series
• Tips for using the OData Client Library for Windows Phone 7
• Charles Petzold’s  ‘Programming Windows Phone 7 Series’ (Book preview chapter) http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/C/8/7C820C6F-C205-4ECF-B9F3-1505DD13F9BF/ProgWinPhonePreview.pdf
• Charlie Kindel’s blog (PM on the Windows Phone team) -http://blogs.msdn.com/ckindel/
• Windows Phone blog -  http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowsphone/
• Windows Phone Developer blog - http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/wpdev/

Expect more info to come in the next days ….

Technorati Tags: windowsphone7,phone7,microsoft,silverlight,xna,development

SharePoint Saturday Belgium – 8th of may 2010

BIWUG is organizing the first ever SharePoint Saturday in Belgium.

When: Saturday 8th May 2010

Where: Hof Ter Helst, Kattenbroek 1, 2650 Edegem

We will welcome you as of 9 o'clock for a coffee and sessions will start at 9:30.

9:30-9:45 Welcome and Introduction

9:45 - 10:30 Visual Studio 2010 Tools for SharePoint (Karine Bosch)

10:40 - 11:30 LINQ to SharePoint (Serge Luca)

11:40 - 12:30 Client Object Model (TBD)

12:30 - 13:40 Lunch break  with sandwiches and drinks

13:40 - 14:30 Sandboxed solutions (Steven Van De Craen) 

14:40 - 15:30 MetaData in SharePoint 2010 (Joris Poelmans)

15:40 - 16:30 SharePoint, WCF Services en REST (Stéphane Eyskens)

16:30 - Closing drink

Don't hesitate to register now as registrations are limitted to 100 participants.

We really hope to welcome you!

Don't forget to also take a look at the SharePoint Saturday Belgium event site...

 

Technorati Tags: sharepoint,sharepoint+saturday,biwug,community,sharepoint+2010,sps2010

Using MailServer for SharePoint 2010 development box

As you probably know SharePoint 2010 development is only possible on Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008/2008 R2 (all 64 bit versions). I still prefer using Windows Server 2008 so I need POP3 mail server functionality to test e-mail integration and so on…  I have used the POP3 extender from Visendo in the past for this but it did not work quite as fluent as expected.

I just finished installing a new SPS 2010 dev box so I decided to use SmarterMail – for a walkthrough about how to configure SmarterMail check out Reza’s blog.

Technorati Tags: sharepoint,pop3,windows+server,w2008,development

Folksonomy and Taxonomy – do you have to choose?

With the introduction of SharePoint 2010 and the way that it supports free tagging (folksonomy) as well as a centrally managed controlled vocabulary (taxonomy) using the managed metadata column – the debate about taxonomy versus folksonomy will probably light up again. In my personal opinion – there is no need to choose between one of both. The way that SharePoint 2010 supports the notion of promoting free tags into a managed taxonomy demonstrates that a folksonomy can be used as a source to define a taxonomy as well.

Related links:

• Folksonomy versus Taxonomy
• Taxonomy driven folksonomy
• The holistic web – Taxonomy versus folksonomy
• Knowledge Management – Some thoughts on Folksonomy versus Taxonomy
• Ontology is overrated: Categories, Links and Tags
• About taxonomy, folksonomy and SharePoint
• Just enough taxonomy

Technorati Tags: sharepoint,sps2010,taxonomy,folksonomy,knowledge+management,microsoft,sharepoint+server+2010

SharePoint 2010 – launch May 12th, RTM in April

Just picked this up from the SharePoint team blog – SharePoint 2010 & Office 2010 Launch:

Today, we officially announced that May 12th, 2010, is the launch date for SharePoint 2010 & Office 2010. In addition, we announced our intent to RTM (Release to Manufacturing) this April 2010. 

It’s an exciting time for us! We hope you can virtually join us on May 12th at 11am EST to listen to Stephen Elop, President of the Microsoft Business Division, announce the launch. You can register for the event @ http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/businessproductivity/proof/pages/2010-launch-events.aspx. 

Arpan Shah
Director, SharePoint

Technorati Tags: sharepoint+2010,sps2010,sharepoint,launch

BIWUG on SharePoint 2010 revisited

I have just upload the presentations and the code sample from Stephane on SPLinq to the BIWUG site – if you want to see the sessions again – don’t forget to take a look at the BIWUG on SPS2010 recordings

Technorati Tags: biwug,community,sharepoint,sharepoint+2010

Your favourite feature in SharePoint 2010?

(Click the image to see it bigger)
I did a little survey as part of the contest to win a free TechDays ticket - with the question: What is your favourite feature in SharePoint 2010 - here are the results


So what's your favourite feature - leave a comment.

SharePoint 2010 - the enterprise managed metadata (EMM)service, enterprise content types and content type syndication

Did you ever try to deploy content types across multiple site collections in SharePoint Server 2007 and keep them in sync afterwards? If so, you probably now that this is not that easy – there is not standard support for this in 2007. Some of you will have tried the SharePoint cross-site configurator on Codeplex. Luckily this issue has been solved with SharePoint 2010 which has built in support for central management of content types from a master site collection and afterwards pushing out the changes to other site collections – this commonly referred to as content type syndication and the content types within the master site collection hub are called enterprise content types. Another great feature enabled by the Enterprise Managed Metadata (EMM) service application.

• SharePoint 2010: Content type hubs – publish and subscribe to content types
• SharePoint 2010 content type subscriptions
• How to publish and subscribe to content types in SharePoint
• The basics on content type syndication in SharePoint 2010
• Using Enterprise Content Types and Managed Taxonomies in SharePoint 2010

Technorati Tags: sharepoint,sharepoint+2010,sps2010,microsoft,content+types,managed+metadata+service,EMM

Taxonomy and the Managed Metadata service in SharePoint 2010 – great links

The managed metadata service in SharePoint 2010 provides a central store for keywords and a hierarchically organized metadata - think of lookup columns but then a lot better with hierarchy support and central management across site collections, web applications or even farms.  If you’re new to the concept of the managed metadata service, managed keywords and the managed metadata field I strongly suggest that you take a look at the following links:

• Stephen Cawood has some postings about how the new SharePoint 2010 managed metadata features works:
  • Introduction to SharePoint Managed Metadata – excellent introduction to why the Enterprise Metadata Management feature in SharePoint 2010 is so important and what you get out-of-the box.
  • Also check out SharePoint 2010 Taxonomy Hierarchy and using SharePoint Term stores
  • SharePoint managed metadata developer experience
• Some great stuff on Technet on Managed metadata planning in SharePoint 2010:
  • Plan managed metadata (SharePoint Server 2010)
  • Managed metadata overview (SharePoint Server 2010)
  • Managed metadata service application overview (SharePoint Server 2010)
  • Managed metadata roles (SharePoint Server 2010)
  • Plan terms and term sets (SharePoint Server 2010)
  • Plan to import managed metadata (SharePoint Server 2010)Plan to share terminology and content types (SharePoint Server 2010)
• Excellent series of blog posts by Chris O’Brien:
  • Managed Metadata in SharePoint 2010 – a key ECM enhancement
  • Managed Metadata in SharePoint 2010 – some notes on the “why”

Technorati Tags: managed+metadata,sharepoint+2010,sps2010,sharepoint,metadata,taxonomy

SharePoint 2010 and content organizers

Content organizers allow for content submitted to SharePoint to be rerouted to the correct location based on a number of routing rules which use both content types and it’s metadata to provide a certain routing logic. It’s actually an improved version of the routing logic which was available in the SharePoint 2007 records center. There are some excellent blog posts out there if you want to learn more:

• SharePoint 2010 Content Organizer Part 1 – A cool new feature for managing your content
• SharePoint 2010 Content Organizer Part 2 – The rules engine
• SharePoint 2010 Content Organizer Part 3  - The drop off library

Technorati Tags: sharepoint+2010,sps2010,sharepoint,content+organizers,ECM

Information Architecture, SharePoint and metadata – some theoretical background

Some interesting links that I found when preparing my chapter about the new metadata features in SharePoint 2010 – it is sometimes refreshing to take a step away from the product and look at some theoretical background postings and articles. Have fun.

• Origin of the phrase, “Information Architecture”
• White paper – Information Architecture in Office SharePoint Server 2007
• SharePoint Information Architecture and the Information Architect
• What is information architecture? 
• Metadata?Thesauri?Taxonomies? Topic maps! 
• The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
• Dr Tom Guides – Guides to metadata, taxonomies and their implementation.
• RDF Automation ushering in Semantic Web

Technorati Tags: sharepoint,metadata,information+architecture,taxonomy,thesauri

Folders and metadata – again ….

Anecdote about Subfolders versus Metadata – a story about resistance and changing jobs. Sounds familiar – take a look at these postings  - Follow up – Folders in SharePoint document libraries  - Why???

Luckily location based metadata in SharePoint 2010 will allow us to use the best of both worlds – keep the old school way of organizing information in folders while automatically assigning metadata linked to the folder location.

Technorati Tags: sharepoint,metadata,metadata+folders,information+architecture

SharePoint Server 2010 – Social Data Statistics Web Part

Check out - http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/socialstatswebpart

This sample consists of a Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 SharePoint Visual Web part project. After you build and deploy this project on your Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 site, you can add this Web part to any page where you want to display statistics for the social tagging activities of your users. The Web part displays the following information in three tables:

1. Each URL that has been tagged, and the terms with which each URL has been tagged.
2. Each term that has been used in a social tag, and the number of times that term has been used.
3. Each user who has added a social tag, and the number of times that user has tagged URLs.

The sample demonstrates how to use the new Social Data object model in SharePoint Server 2010. It also takes advantage of the SharePoint Visual Web Part template, one of the new SharePoint templates that you can use in Visual Studio 2010.

Technorati Tags: sps2010,sharepoint+server+2010,socialdata,sharepoint+2010,development,vs2010

Looking for application data folder in Windows 7?

If you need to find the Application Data directory, just type %appdata% in the Run dialog box, the Start menu search box, or at the command prompt. This will open the correct folder.

Technorati Tags: windows7,windows,tip

Win free ticket for TechDays 2010 Belgium with BIWUG

BIWUG (The Belux Information Worker User Group) is giving away a free ticket for TechDays 2010. So how can you get this free ticket – very simple: please provide an answer to the following questions:

1.What is the coolest new feature in SharePoint 2010?

2. How many people will have send in their vote for the coolest feature by Friday 19th of February?

Send me an email at joris.poelmans@realdolmen.com and take your chance to win this ticket!

PS I will publish the results of this little survey afterwards ….

Technorati Tags: BIWUG,community

SharePoint 2010 – new developer training material including full virtual machine download

Lots of new SharePoint 2010 training material released in january:

• 2010 Information Worker Demonstration Virtual Machine (Beta) – fully functional virtual machines to demo Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010.
• Free E-learning: What’s new in Microsoft SharePoint 2010 for developers.
• Free E-learning: What’s new in Microsoft SharePoint 2010 for IT Pros
• Learning snack for developers – developing solutions with SharePoint 2010
• SharePoint 2010 developer material on Channel 9
• SharePoint 2010 – Getting started with development on SharePoint 2010 – HOL in C# and Visual Basic
• SharePoint 2010 Beta Developer Training Kit
• Windows Powershell compiled help for SharePoint 2010

Technorati Tags: sharepoint+2010,sharepoint,sps2010,microsoft,development