DavidOverton.com
This site is my way to share my views and general business and IT information with you about Microsoft, IT solutions for ISVs, technologists and businesses, large and small.  

Browse by Tags

  • How to submit your templates to Microsoft for inclusion in the Office Template site

    I saw this and thought it was amazing. If you have a template that is good and you want to make it available to others, simply package it up (save it without personal information in it) and pop along to this site ( https://services.office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/submission.aspx ) to post it. I like this - power to the people!! ttfn David Technorati Tags: Office 2007 , Templates , Community
  • Application news for developers - x64 support, application people ready assessments, Vista Gadget security inspection and SharePoint development

    While I am on holiday I thought I would forward these items for the developers out there. The http://blogs.iis.net blog looks awesome for IIS7 information, including videos and the other MSDN information demonstrates how to develop SharePoint tools. Application support Is Your Application Platform People-Ready? Complete the Self-Assessment and Find Out Take the Application Platform Infrastructure Optimisation assessment to measure the effectiveness of your current infrastructure in platform-agnostic terms, and compare your application platform infrastructure against industry best practices and the latest IT research. http://www.microsoft.com/business/peopleready/appplat/ac/apio.mspx Inspect Your Gadget http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/security/bb498012.aspx Today, the Windows Vista Sidebar hosts Gadgets built from HTML, JavaScript, and potentially ActiveX controls. Because Gadgets are HTML, they are subject to Cross-site Scripting style bugs. These bugs are extremely serious because script in the Sidebar is capable...
  • SharePoint webcasts, business information, KB support information and developer information

    When I talk to partners delivering solutions on Windows SharePoint Services V2, V3 and even for some Portal server is becoming a real business opportunity. When I met with Vin of Wem & Co the other day, some of the stuff they were doing was amazing! Anyway, here are the 3 things I thought might be useful - one being the SharePoint VHD so you can just download and play. SharePoint information Creating Business Value through Better Collaboration http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/Browse.aspx?DisplayLang=en&nr=20&productId=353C4E9D-9E78-4435-A360-01BB7F540D17&sortCriteria=date Tools Office SharePoint Server 2007 VHD This download comes as a pre-configured VHD. This download enables you evaluate Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/Browse.aspx?DisplayLang=en&nr=20&productId=353C4E9D-9E78-4435-A360-01BB7F540D17&sortCriteria=date Webcasts TechNet Webcast: Workflow in Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies 2007: Out-of-the-Box and Creating Custom...
  • How do I take a public folder offline

    I seem to have been asked this a number of times recently, so here is the answer. To take a public folder offline, simply add it to your favourites and then enable synching of public folders. Mark the public folder as a favourite (right click on the folder and select make favourite Go into your account settings and ensure that public folders are enabled for caching Tools / Account / Properties for the Exchange Account / More Settings / Advanced - then tick the box Now, when you sync the favourite public folders will be copied too. That is it ttfn David Technorati Tags: Offline , Public Folders
  • Questions from today's Webcast

    I promised to load the questions from todays webcast. The blog on the webcast can be found at Slides from todays Webcast on Windows SharePoint Services on SBS (WSS v2 & WSS v3) . The Questions were: Do uploaded files take up space in the system partition or can they be stored in a different partition They can do - all files are stored in the SQL database, so moving the SQL database will move the files from the system partition. if the existing SharePoint 2 is almost empty - will you loose out anything if you upgrade? Don't upgrade it - do a clean install and then move data across Do you recommend any books for end-user/creators? If you do this search, you can see a couple of books http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=windows+sharepoint+services+book+sbs&src=IE-SearchBox - some people seem to rate the step by step book. You have a contacts list, can a specific detailed with field relevant to my business be created? Any fields can be added or removed from the WSS contacts fields, so yes, you can create...
  • Slides from todays Webcast on Windows SharePoint Services on SBS (WSS v2 & WSS v3)

    Today I did my last Webcast on SBS. It was the 3rd of a 3 parter on SBS. Part 1 was about how to use the OPK, part 2 was on Configuring SBS. I will post links to part 1 & 2 later today, but thought I would get the last one out 1st. If you watched the Webcast you will know that explorer crashed on my machine stopping the demos with word and excel working, which was not desired, but I did load 2 beta patches onto my system yesterday, so now the diagnosis as to wether that was the problem begins. Anyway, if you want the slides set they can be found here . Some of the useful links from the deck are: WSS v2 Office 2003 web parts (the last ones) http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=38be67a5-2056-46a1-84b1-337ffb549c5c&displaylang=en Samples and information http://www.sharepointcustomization.com/wss/articles.htm Enable Office 2007 support http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/doverton/archive/2007/03/13/how-to-get-companyweb-windows-sharepoint-services-v2-to-work-with-office-2007.aspx Backup and restore...
  • Simple overview of what is in Windows SharePoint Services 2007 & MOSS 2007 and how to develop on them

    For those who wish to expand into SharePoint enhancements (remember that you can enhance the site without any dev tools using the browser features) I found this simple blog entry ( Know your options for developing with SharePoint 2007 - Program - .Net - Builder AU ) and it is quite nice. Read the whole blog, but here is a snippet. The editions of SharePoint One of the more confusing aspects of SharePoint is that there are two versions available: Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007. Developers follow the same basic steps to get started with SharePoint regardless of the version. Here's an overview of both offerings. |> WSS: This is the so-called "free" version, as there are no additional licensing issues. It is included with the Windows Server 2003 operating system (version 2.0). The current 3.0 version is available via download. It provides core document management, collaboration, and search functions, which include blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, e...
  • Upgrading to Office 2007 using retail boxes - what can you upgrade from

    [updated to change blog title to something meaningful] I was asked about this today - for those people with retail copies of Office, what can they upgrade from to Office 2007. Full details on Word, Excel, Access, Publisher and the suites can be found at 2007 Microsoft Office system pricing - Products - Microsoft Office Online . To see if you have a retail box of an earlier version of Office and if it will load without you needing to upgrade onto a new machine with Vista, have a look at http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/doverton/archive/2007/05/09/buying-vista-and-then-installing-an-old-version-of-office-whatare-you-allowed-to-do.aspx 2007 Microsoft Office suites 2007 Microsoft Office Suites Estimated Retail Price /Upgrade Price Qualifying Products for Upgrade Microsoft Office Basic 2007 Available only through OEMs; price not quoted Upgrade not applicable. Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 $149/NA Upgrade not applicable. Microsoft Office Standard 2007 $399/$239 Microsoft Works 6.0–10; Microsoft Works suite 2000–2006...
  • How to enable cached mode for Outlook when used inside Terminal Server (which means that BCM can work too)

    OK, this is in response to the people who have posted on this subject. Someone was kind enough to give me the exact details, but I shall protect my sources except to say they know the insides of MS tools well. The warning here is that this is unsupported and could completely destroy your users profiles, so only do this is you are comfortable editing the registry The short description: Open up Regedit navigate to [HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\<ProfileName>\13dbb0c8aa05101a9bb000aa002fc45a] Find the key 00036601 (REG_BINARY) - note the number in it now so you can undo the changes if needed Change the value to one of the following enabled value; 84 01 00 00 - note that on my desktop system the enabled value is 84 19 00 00, so play around with this a little enabled with Public Folders/Favorites: 84 05 00 00 disabled value; 04 00 00 00 FYI - you will need to search for "00036601" and adjust ALL of them since each key is for a different user on...
  • Business Contact Manager 2007 (BCM) is NOT supported on Windows Terminal Server, but a little hack will make it work

    [updated on 28th July] Hi, I've pinged this around a bit internally and the answer I got back is that this is not supported and will not work. I have not tried it myself, but don't expect it to work. If you need this sort of functionality you need to look at MS-CRM I am afraid. History: You need a Volume License of Office 2007 to run in Terminal Services. You can get BCM with Volume Licensing of Office 2007 as noted at http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/suites/FX101635841033.aspx Outlook running in Terminal Services does not run in cached mode - http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/ba930d00-dc38-4564-ad00-8304d74f1d8c1033.mspx?mfr=true 3) BCM requires Outlook to run in cached mode (Office 2003 note in a KB about this - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/831747/en-us and I have had PSS confirm this is still the case with BCM and Office 2007) Wish this was not the case, but better to say up front rather than pretend. Now, updated, if you look at How to enable cached mode for Outlook when used inside...
  • Unified Communications

    This information is from the last 2 Technet newsletters ( http://www.microsoft.com/technet ) Unified Communications Team Blog http://blogs.technet.com/uc/default.aspx Unified Communications - Office Communication Server 2007 Videos Two videos, one on Office Communications Server 2007 and one on Office RoundTable http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=4&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3fFamilyID%3d67d3e846-ae4a-4b30-9e0c-eac22bd2a58a%26DisplayLang%3den Unified Communications and Collaboration Event Presentation Downloads Unified Communications and Collaborations Event Downloads http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=5&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3fFamilyID%3da10931b2-dceb-4ddc-8c5a-25c4b2c5804c%26DisplayLang%3den Using Exchange Server 2007 for Unified Messaging and Fax How can you best implement the Unified Messaging (UM) features of Exchange Server 2007...
  • Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) v3, SharePoint Portal and Office Communicator, Partner Sales 101 and Dynamics and CRM training

    Office Communications Server 2007 Ignite Workshop This two-day workshop introduces many of the new features and capabilities that are built into Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, including Rich Presence, Instant Messaging, Audio/Video Conferencing, and Voice. Click here to enrol. Implementing and Maintaining Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Course This is a residential, intensive and compressed course intended for those partners who want to get a head start on the new SharePoint certifications. Ten days compressed into five Training for 12+ hours a day Residential course, with 24 hour availability of labs and instructor Exams taken during the week Limited number of seats – few deliveries are planned, so if you want your Partners to attend please encourage them to sign up now Click here for more information or to enrol Partner Sales 101 The next one is being held on the 11 th September 2007 Aim: This session will equip sales people with the knowledge and skills...
  • Show Classic Menus and Toolbars on Ribbon of Office 2007 - two product choices

    I saw a blog entry at Susan Bradley's blog about her now deploying Office 2007 with a classic menu . It was worth of a blog link for all those who want to stick to the old, old ways where you search for items over multiple menus (especially if you turn on personalised menus which hide all the things you don't use regularly). The tool looks slick, but then I found a 2nd one are realised that some cunning ISVs had seen this as their great opportunity to fill a gap that is very unlikely to be filled by Microsoft. The Two solutions are shown below and can be linked to from pschmid.net - RibbonCustomizer™ Feature Tour - Part 3: Classic UI Tabs and Show Classic Menus and Toolbars on Ribbon of Office 2007 : V1.1 Feature Tour - Part 3: Classic UI Tabs RibbonCustomizer™ V1.1 ships with a set of Classic UI tabs for Excel, PowerPoint and Word 2007. Those tabs emulate the Office 2003 menus and toolbars in Office 2007. We provide these tabs to help you familiarize yourself faster with the new Ribbon User Interface...
  • How to get rid of the installer / configuration dialog when running Office 2007 and Office 2003 on the same system - for Vista and other versions of Windows

    I have been asked this many times following up on the blog entry Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system where once people have removed the problem with the End User Licensing Agreement (EULA) appearing every time they start Office they then get the dialogs below every time they switch between Word 2007 and Word 2003. when starting Word 2003 when starting Word 2007 The fix to the problem is very simple as it turns out - simply run the following commands (by pressing the Windows Key+R or typing it into the Start/Run command box. Use the line with Office\11.0 if you have Office 2003 installed and Office\12.0 if you have Office 2007 installed. You can use both if you have both installed : reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Options /v NoReReg /t REG_DWORD /d 1 reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Options /v NoReReg /t REG_DWORD /d 1 That is it. Office 2007 might want to have one more spin round the block with it's configuration dialog box, but that should be it. ttfn...
  • Why should a small business use Office 2007

    Once again I thought I would put pen to e-paper on the top reasons I give people to move to Office 2007. I don't think there are many businesses out there that use a PC and don't use some form of office productivity suite and while most use Microsoft Office XX (where XX could be 97, 2000, XP or 2003), some use other products that in my opinion just don't compare for a business that wants to look great and work efficiently. With Office offering a massive choice of products and features, these are the headlines I use when talking to people. For those with a version of Microsoft Office, but not 2007 More Professional and Impressive documents and materials Use Microsoft Publisher 2007 to build sales and marketing materials that look agency made, but are actually in-house work The updated Microsoft Word 2007 has many features to ensure your documents have a professional, consistent look and feel throughout the whole document conforming to your brand goals (no matter how big or small they might be). The...
  • How to find and use an Accounting template to use with Office Excel 2007 and then change it from US to UK currency, change the formatting of dates and drag lists (or Excel Tips and Tricks 1) - all in a Video presented with Silverlight

    The Video I have delivered a number of Vista and Office demos over my time, so I decided to record a number of them for others to borrow, use, learn from or anything else they choose. This video covers the following subjects in enough detail for people to hopefully understand what they need to know on how to use these features in Excel 2007 and apply them to all of the Office 2007 applications: Find a template and use it - I use an accounting template as it is based on Office 2003 and US based Change the currency cells from dollars to pounds using find and replace for formatting Change the date formatting from US to UK Dragging a list across a range of cells to give column a different month To see the Excel 2007 Video played using Silverlight (just try it) click here *. If you want to download it as a WMV file then head over to the new bCentral - the UK Small Business Center on MS.com - It is on this page as an Excel Accounting sample: * it will take a few moments to open if you have Silverlight installed and...
  • How to connect to and import data from an XML Web Service into Excel 2007

    I have been wondering how to do this recently for one of my own projects and then the subject came up internally. A very unassuming Hovsep then wrote up the answer, so as a tip here it is - if you follow the link at the bottom you will see a step by step process with screen shots to help you along the way. Excel 2007 - How to connect to and import data from an XML Web Service Many organizations have adopted a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) as the architecture of choice. SOA allows a company to expose its services and data in a manner that is compliant with industry standards. SOA is the buzzword these days. Down the wire of SOA is XML data that is exchanged between entities. Microsoft Office Excel 2007 has built-in features that allow a user to connect to and consume XML data. Such data can be stored in an XML file on the local hard drive, shared in a portal or returned from an XML Web Service. If you’d like to use Excel to import XML data from a Web Service, follow these step-by-step guidelines. For the...
  • How to add a trade-in line item (i.e. give cash back to discount a deal) to BCM 2007

    Someone asked me how to do this and I discovered that you can't have a negative discount percentage, negative quantity or negative price. So this makes it impossible to do... well, no, but it is not quite as easy as we would like. To make it work you need to create a Product and Service csv file to import to make it work. Here are the step by step instructions on installing it and using it. Installing the trade-in items Go to the BCM menu and select the Product and Services menu item Press the import button at the bottom of the dialog to get the screen shown on the left Create a csv file on your desktop called tradein.csv (start / run "notepad %homepath%\tradein.csv") Copy and paste the text below into the text file and save Trade In (10000), Trade in, -10000 Trade In (1000), Trade in, -1000 Trade In (100), Trade in, -100 Trade In (10), Trade in, -10 Trade In (1), Trade in, -1 browse the csv file on your desktop and press import Job done Using the trade-in items in an opportunity Now we have these...
  • Worldwide Partner Conference - WPC in Denver - what I know so far - Office Live and Windows Live as a platform for partners to build on

    Office Live is already a great success, but today Microsoft announced even more to make it a business for partners to make success for them and their customers. We've released information about partners, solutions and using Windows Live, sample sites and more information on how to make it a business success. Have a look at Microsoft Office Live Launches Partner Program, Helps Partners Reach Small Businesses for more information. Add to this the extra opportunities that Windows Live also brings and the new tools to build on there too ( http://partner.live.com/windowslive/ ) and you really start to get something amazing. The press release Microsoft Office Live Launches Partner Program, Helps Partners Reach Small Businesses includes a reference from Solution Canvas: Solution Canvas is a Glasgow, Scotland-based Microsoft Gold Certified Partner that uses the Microsoft Office Live platform to host justia, a powerful practice management system for small legal firms. justia offers a cost-effective solution that provides...
  • David Overton moving on to pastures new

    With a tear in my eye the time has come for me to move my stick hut somewhere new. I have loved working in and with the small business community and with a set of awesome partners who can complain and nag, but normally with good cause and that are more willing to say thank-you and "good job" when the time is right. To you all I take my hat off for making me feel so welcome. As a legacy we now have SBSC up and running, partner groups that support themselves, a voice into Microsoft from the smaller end of the partner community and a better understanding of the motivations of both Microsoft and our partners. We also have a new level of engagement with customers. I wish I could take credit for all of this, but I am just a figurehead for a great team of people inside Microsoft. A nice chap called Mark in the OEM team will be helping to drive Cougar knowledge through the community when the time comes (no, this is not the time yet, trust me), SBSC has been supported by Jen as many of you would have seen from...
  • Technet Answers on licensing Office 2007 for Terminal Server and Disaster Recovery licensing

    I was reading the latest Technet newsletter and saw this and thought I would pass on these two items: 2. How do I license Microsoft Office so my users can access it over Terminal Service? Microsoft has produced a Word document (126Kb) that discusses the options available to customers who would like to configure access to Office in this way. 3. How does Microsoft license its products for use in a disaster recovery situation? View the guide to "Cold" Server Back-Up for Disaster Recovery" . ttfn David Technorati Tags: Licensing , DR , Disaster Recovery , Office 2007 , Terminal Services
  • How to customize Business Contact Manager 2007 forms in Outlook 2007

    I found this on the Office Website when someone asked me about form customisation for BCM. I thought I would share it. Demo: Customize Business Contact Manager forms You can customize Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager forms by adding fields and list items (drop-down lists) that are unique to your business. You can customize the following types of forms: Account Business Contact Opportunity Business Project You can customize drop-down lists by clicking Edit this list and then adding your item to the list. Watch this short demo to see how to customize a Business Contact Manager for Outlook form. How to do it (text version) Customize your Business Contact Manager forms through user-defined fields Customize drop-down lists on Business Contact Manager forms Demo: Customize Business Contact Manager forms - Outlook - Microsoft Office Online ttfn David Technorati Tags: Business Contact Manager , BCM , Customise , Customize
  • Spreadsheets and documents based on standards - OpenXML and ODF, ODF and Excel or all 3

    I have been using and referencing standards for a long time. They are great. C# is an ECMA standard for example as are parts of .Net which is how project Mono has managed to come great strides in delivering part of the .Net experience on non-Microsoft platforms. Also my 1st job out after University was writing document converters. So there are two things here - one, what is wrong with more than 1 standard - we have several for networks, several for character sets. Often one standard will work where another will not. Nearly always one standard is driven by an interested party. Open Office is very keen to see greater adoption of ODF. Microsoft is very keen to seen greater adoption of OpenXML. OpenXML is already a European standard (ECMA) and one of the nice things about that is the stability you are offered if you are developing against it. There is no requirement to have Office to use this file format. OK, so we could say "lets not use the European standard and create a similar one, but not quite the same"...
  • Darren Strange of Office 2007 / 12 fame talks about Max Office document converters and the the role of beta software

    I saw this and thought those of you with Mac customers might find this useful if Office 2007 is around or potentially around in their businesses. Also of note is the fact that beta, trial and RTM seems to be very blurred today. Do you ever deploy beta code? I do, often in small environments with big warning labels, but I do do it. Following on from some of your less than exuberant feedback about the new Mac converters, I looked into it. To summarise, the Mac BU have released the beta 1 of the file format converters of Office for Mac. You can download the converter for Word documents here . More info is at the ever useful macmojo blog First thing to point out is that this is a BETA and also that it is a BETA 1. There is a bug-ette in that apparently it doesn't handle some reserved characters from non-english languages or some special Unicode characters such as ™. Any docs that have these characters seem to screw up or don't convert at all. Apparently the issues with Unicode was documented in the help with...
  • Microsoft Office Outlook Connector Beta (how to connect Office Live Basics or Windows Live Hotmail to Outlook)

    Don't you love the way the title of a product described what it is? While this product does what it says on the tin, it misses out the most important thing - what can you connect Outlook to. The answer is e-mail and contacts based on our Hotmail service, so this includes OfficeLive. If you sign up to one of the subscription OfficeLive services (i.e. you pay us to use it) then you get a connector which can do all this AND synchronise your calendar items too. Once in Outlook you can do all the searching, filing and manipulation you want to do. Today you can now download the beta of the next version of the Microsoft Office Outlook Connector. Download: Microsoft Office Outlook Connector (Beta) The Microsoft Office Outlook Connector is designed to let you access your Windows Live Hotmail account through Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007. You will be able to download and install the Connector to sync up your email and contacts in Windows Live Hotmail for free. However, if you are a paid subscriber of MSN Premium, Office...

(c)David Overton 2006-23