All posts by : John R. Durants WebLog

1 of 74 | Microsoft Excel and Twitter via Smart Tags in a VS 2008 Solution - I recent wrote (“Twitter from Excel 2007”) about how Chandoo (Plus JP) caught my attention with their quirky take on updating Twitter from Excel. In there, I said I would lay down an expanded, more useful version. In so doing, I believe I have also provided a raison d’être for the thing in the first place! Here’s the shakedown (keeping in mind that These postings are provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confer no rights.”: I wrote the VS 2008 Add-in for Excel 2007 with a smart tag. The smart tag recognizes phrases or keywords that you have typed into Excel and then, with one click, let’s you post the cell (containing the keyword[s]) or List to Twitter. You can change what/how the sma......

2 of 74 | Saving Money in IT: Maximizing Value is Key (+ review of new U2 album) - In a recent post to a blog, a writer, Guy Creese, writes that the key to saving money in IT is ‘granularity’. In short- he suggests that the IT cost-saving key is to figure out what the basic use experiences are for people and match them to the cheapest software that suits those needs. I respect his view, and I hope he doesn’t mind if I politely disagree. Regarding Microsoft Office he says: “Somebody needs a productivity suite? Give them Microsoft Office. It does everything and then some. In many cases, it does more than the employee needs; but there's no easy way to get Microsoft Office lite from Microsoft.” Granted, there is such a thing as overkill. You see it happen all of the time in t......

3 of 74 | www.iheartonenote.com - I truly enjoy being enthusiastic about OneNote. I’m not ashamed of my unguarded devotion to this application (share the love via the new site: www.iheartonenote.com). Here at Microsoft, new ideas spring up every day, and those ideas/prototypes/proofs-of-concept fight for attention. They scramble, they hustle, prove their value, and if they are lucky—they survive and make it to big show: They become part of the Microsoft Office brand. OneNote is one such idea, and during the past few years it has radically altered my entire Windows experience. I record, store, share, search, and surf meaningful information in very different ways since I started using this application. I have heard similar ex......

4 of 74 | Twitter from Excel 2007 - I cannot think of any compelling reason for sending a tweet from a form in Excel other than it's kind of cool to know it can be done. Nevertheless, the little add-in for Excel has its charm as an odd little novelty: How to write your own Twitter client in Excel (Userform version is here) You can see my little tweet sent from Excel here: http://twitter.com/johnrdurant I tip my cap to Chandoo (and JP for the form version) on this one. Stay tuned for my addition to the app tomorrow--- I intend to add a little mix of technology in there that will make the application more relevant. Rock Thought of the Day:  The Black Crowes 'Warpaint' LP is fantastic Warpaint Listened to their new CD and......

5 of 74 | Adding and Binding XML in Office Documents - I am frequently asked about how to do some of the basics with XML parts in Office documents. There are excellent blogs and content out there to guide you in working with Office Open XML such as Brian Jones, Doug Mahugh, MSDN, and the Office Open XML SDK. I have also blogged extensively about OOXML and co-authored a major book on XML. But, the need to help more and more people get into the game of XML and Office is ever present. So, here are a couple of routines you'll find useful. The first routine adds two XML parts to a Microsoft Word document. The second removes the first XML part.   Private Sub AddToDataStore()  Dim pCustomPart As CustomXMLPart  Set pCustomPart = ThisDocu......

6 of 74 | Office 2007 (and beyond) Developer Resources: Looking ahead - Many of the investments developers make in Office 2007 are version-durable (read: they are likely to endure into the next version of Office). Some of the Office 2007 technologies that are so appealing for business productivity solutions are the new Office document format, Word content controls, and the Office Fluent UI (eg: Ribbon). There are some great resources to help you get into these. I recommend: http://openxmldeveloper.org/ --- This is the main site for our XML initiative regarding the file formats in Office 2007. There are samples and explanations here that will serve you quite well as you dive in. Introducing the Office (2007) Open XML File Formats by Frank Rice --- This is an e......

7 of 74 | Announcing the Microsoft Office Interactive Developer Map Version 2! - Technorati Tags: SharePoint,Visual Studio,Office,Microsoft,Devleoper,MSDN,VSTO,VBA,WPF,OBA We just released the Microsoft Office Interactive Developer Map Version 2! The Microsoft Office Interactive Developer Map is a Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) application that helps you see the different programs, servers, services, and tools for building productivity solutions. It  With this you can drill down to each product and technology and learn about new features, objects, Web services, namespaces, and schemas required to extend Microsoft Office and build custom Office Business Applications (OBAs). This application also includes links and pointers to online resources available on Of......

8 of 74 | Visual Studio Tools for Office Power Tools v1.0! - Technorati Tags: SharePoint,VSTO,VS 2008,Office,MOSS,Ribbon,XML,Workflow,Developer,Troubleshoot,API,Interop,.NET,UI Here were are nearly on the eve of our Visual Studio 2008 Launch event and we are already releasing more goodness!! We are announcing the release of some Office Power Tools for Visual Studio 2008. These are extra little projects, often done on the side requiring extra hours and effort from our team. They are also things that we were eager to get into the hands of our customers. I am really excited to see these hit the Web, and I look forward to hearing what your think! Here’s the download page: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=46B6BF86-E35D-4870-B214-4......

9 of 74 | Milestones, SharePoint, and Atlas Falling - Whew! We're working hard on Visual Studio Codename "Orcas", and that has kept me extraordinarily busy. One of the things I have been working a lot on has been our cool SharePoint workflow tools in VSTO Orcas. Using these tools makes it a lot easier to start developing and debugging a workflow solution. Once you get going with workflow, a lot of new avenues will beckon. For example, you can call a SharePoint Web service to get information about items that are currently part of a workflow process. SharePoint handles the security and heavy lifting for you- all you need to do is call a Web service and parse the response. Admittedly-- the responses are not always very clear. And, we do not rea......

10 of 74 | SharePoint Development Article - I have been intending to mention a great article by Robert Bogue about getting started with SharePoint workflow development: Wrangling SharePoint Workflows with Visual Studio "SharePoint and Workflow may be the most powerful combination since chocolate and peanut butter, but the trick is harnessing their combined power. That isn't as easy as it first seems, but in this article you'll learn how create a SharePoint workflow in Visual Studio from start to finish." What is particularly nice about this article is that is a true "hand-holding" tutorial. And, if you are not using our cool VSTO Orcas SharePoint workflow tools, you will need that kind of hand-holding.  Rock Thought for the Day:......

11 of 74 | Assemblies and Public Key Tokens - I'm working on a SharePoint v3 workflow project using the out-of-the-box (OOB) techniques. In order to install the workflow, you need to know the public key token for the signed assembly that you add to the Global Assembly Cache (GAC). To get this, I have been installling the assembly into the GAC and then looking at the token via the .NET config UI. No fun! Tedious... So, I wrote some code to grab the key token. It pulls it as a byte array, and I can just convert from there. Here's my code to do the job:   public byte[] GetToken(){ //Uncomment this and comment the statement below it to get a different take on things. //Here, I am getting the key token for the executing assembly//Assem......

12 of 74 | VSTO v3 CTP & Stadium Arcadium - First, I have some info about our CTP release of VSTO v3, and then I blog about the Red Hot Chili Peppers' new double CD: Stadium Arcadium. Microsoft Pre-Release Software Visual Studio Tools For Office "V3" - June Community Technology Preview (CTP) The June 2006 Community Technology Preview of Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Office "V3" is now available.The primary goal of this CTP is to showcases several new important investments in the area of Office programmability. New XML-based file formats, a revolutionized and highly extensible Office user interface, and support for managed add-ins in Office applications not previously covered by Visual Studio Tools for Office provide an unprece......

13 of 74 | VSTO v3 CTP & Stadium Arcadium - First, I have some info about our CTP release of VSTO v3, and then I blog about the Red Hot Chili Peppers' new double CD: Stadium Arcadium. Microsoft Pre-Release Software Visual Studio Tools For Office "V3" - June Community Technology Preview (CTP) The June 2006 Community Technology Preview of Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Office "V3" is now available.The primary goal of this CTP is to showcases several new important investments in the area of Office programmability. New XML-based file formats, a revolutionized and highly extensible Office user interface, and support for managed add-ins in Office applications not previously covered by Visual Studio Tools for Office provide an unprece......

14 of 74 | Overwrite Custom XML Part in Office 2007 file - Julie Kremer (everyone should know her) had a great post in March about how to overwrite a custom XML part in an Office 2007 file in the Office Open XML format. Her sample is great. She provided it in C#, so I converted it to VB.NET for those of you who prefer that language. Here's the code:         Dim xmlDocRelType As String = _         "http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/" _         & "2006/relationships/customXml"         Dim officeDocRelType As String = _         "http://schemas.openxmlforma......

15 of 74 | Overwrite Custom XML Part in Office 2007 file - Julie Kremer (everyone should know her) had a great post in March about how to overwrite a custom XML part in an Office 2007 file in the Office Open XML format. Her sample is great. She provided it in C#, so I converted it to VB.NET for those of you who prefer that language. Here's the code:         Dim xmlDocRelType As String = _         "http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/" _         & "2006/relationships/customXml"         Dim officeDocRelType As String = _         "http://schemas.openxmlforma......

16 of 74 | Webcast: Creating a multi-tier application with VSTO 2005 - In about 20 minutes, I'll be doing a Webcast on how to create a multi-tier app with VSTO 2005. Good times. Man, my blog has been stale. I think of it several times a day. Bottom line: I'm working on too many projects at work. It's affecting more than just my professional equilibrium. For example, I just barely finished going through personal mail from February. The stack was huge. I have five children, and so I give them as much of my day as I can. I sleep and eat somewhere in between it all...I think. I extend a heart-felt thanks to the people who have emailed me and encouraged me to keep my blog more up-to-date. It inspires me. You guys are all awesome. Customers energize me. I'......

17 of 74 | Webcast: Creating a multi-tier application with VSTO 2005 - In about 20 minutes, I'll be doing a Webcast on how to create a multi-tier app with VSTO 2005. Good times. Man, my blog has been stale. I think of it several times a day. Bottom line: I'm working on too many projects at work. It's affecting more than just my professional equilibrium. For example, I just barely finished going through personal mail from February. The stack was huge. I have five children, and so I give them as much of my day as I can. I sleep and eat somewhere in between it all...I think. I extend a heart-felt thanks to the people who have emailed me and encouraged me to keep my blog more up-to-date. It inspires me. You guys are all awesome. Customers energize me. I'......

18 of 74 | OpenXMLDeveloper.org and Bill Gates Keynote - I just left the Office Developer Conference 2006 keynote where Chairman and Chief Software Architect, Bill Gates spoke about Office 2007. As I watched him, I realized how he is aging. He seemed so timeless to me for a long time. Now, I see greater wisdom and compassion although I think he is actually more intensely passionate than ever. It's just different, I think. Bill Gates is an anomaly. There are brilliant people; there are geniuses, people with amazing, revolutionary ideas. But, very few of them have the same genius and, if need be, shrewdness, to win in the marketplace. Critics level their claims, but one thing all are compelled to acknowledge: he's got an otherworldly sense of the e......

19 of 74 | SharePoint Workflow as Commodity - I've been working with Windows Workflow Foundation while listening to the Smashing Pumpkins 'Earphoria' tracks. I just finished Geek USA. Crazy great rock and roll. Anyway, I am intrigued by the Activities Gallery on the site. By now, most people know about SharePoint in the Office 12 timeframe having some cool workflow features. I imagine a SharePoint workflow activities gallery. Think of people creating all sorts of workflow widgets for various business processes and putting them in the activities gallery. Sure, developers get something out of it by borrowing code, but there are bigger things at stake: SharePoint Workflow could make workflow a commodity. Right now, you are reading......

20 of 74 | Resize Bitmap in for WordML - In one of my articles, Creating an Outlook Task Add-in Solution with Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office, I show how to assemble a WordML document in code. When assembling the document, I embed some pictures. But, I what if you want to make sure the images are a consistent size? Actually, in a completely different part of the solution, I show how to do this. The code calls a Web service that does a search and pumps back a collection of XmlNode objects that contain information I want to use in the client-side app. The collection gets passed to a constructor on the client-side. I grab the node that is for the photo and manipulate it from there: Dim bytes() As BytecustomerPhoto = c......

21 of 74 | Take Your Own Microsoft Office XML Sample Worldwide - Before becoming a Program Manager for Visual Studio Tools for Office I was the site manager for the MSDN Office Developer Center. That meant that any developer content that was Microsoft Office branded went through my inbox before it went live. Fortunately, I had a truly amazing team of people working with me, and it was very satisfying work. My former manager and all-around excellent human being, Jean-Philippe Bagel, has a new opening on his team for a manager who is passionate about the documentation and samples for Word, Office XML, and more. I highly recommend Jean-Philippe, the group, and they type of work involved. Submit your resume and take your influence worldwide in this role.  Ro......

22 of 74 | Word 2003 Developer Resources- Uber list - I posted a copious number of resources that can help you with your Outlook development, and here is a similar post for Word. I`ll maintain this, and if you can think of things I have missed, please send me your ideas:Here`s the list of Word developer resources I will maintain and keep up to date. Articles with code ( or code downloads): Understanding the Word Object Model from a Visual Studio 2005 Developer`s Perspective by Frank Rice and John R. Durant Automate Document Assembly with Keylogix ActiveDocs and WordprocessingML  by Ken Getz Automate Word Tables for Data Insertion and Extraction  by Cindy Meister Create an Outlook Task Add-in Solution with Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office......

23 of 74 | What are people saying about the Office 12 XML ECMA Standardization - It`s big news: We are working with other big companies like Intel, Toshiba, and Apple, to make the Office 12 XML file formats full-blown standards. This means a big change in our licensing as well: they are not just royalty free (as with Office 2003); there is a covenant not to sue for use of our XML schemas. This should make it a lot easier for General Public License-oriented devs and ISV`s to take up our schemas and include them in their plans. Learn more about it here: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2005/nov05/11-21Ecma.mspx Here are links to what people are saying: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1891829,00.asp http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/22/microsoft_opens_f......

24 of 74 | Microsoft Announces `Live Software` Initiative - Here are just my notes from the announcements today: Bill Gates just announced Microsoft`s latest Big Bet: Live Software. If you think it`s all just marketing speak (I admit that at first, I was leaning that way), please read my whole entry. The demos they did were pretty darn convincing. He called this a "new software experience". Hardware trends show that as performance, memory, and so forth have improved, the price has gone down. Scenarios with media that would not have been possible before are now firmly in our grasp. Devices are pervasive and lower cost. Live software works with many devices. Instead of the device being the focus, the focus is on the software. For example, the software......

25 of 74 | Microsoft Announces `Live Software` Initiative - Here are just my notes from the announcements today: Bill Gates just announced Microsoft`s latest Big Bet: Live Software. If you think it`s all just marketing speak (I admit that at first, I was leaning that way), please read my whole entry. The demos they did were pretty darn convincing. He called this a "new software experience". Hardware trends show that as performance, memory, and so forth have improved, the price has gone down. Scenarios with media that would not have been possible before are now firmly in our grasp. Devices are pervasive and lower cost. Live software works with many devices. Instead of the device being the focus, the focus is on the software. For example, the software......

26 of 74 | Fired up about LINQ - I was pretty pumped when we introduced Generics with the new version of the .NET Framework (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms172192). But, I have to say that I am more excited about what we are doing with LINQ. This new initative solves a problem I have encountered on a lot of projects: Why should I use one method to address and access XML data and then a completely different one for SQL data The manner of querying data for each type could not be more different. Why should I have to remember nuances of these techniques depending on which language I use What about data sources that do not fit into these two categories What about a data source no one has thought of yet What would ha......

27 of 74 | Fired up about LINQ - I was pretty pumped when we introduced Generics with the new version of the .NET Framework (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms172192). But, I have to say that I am more excited about what we are doing with LINQ. This new initative solves a problem I have encountered on a lot of projects: Why should I use one method to address and access XML data and then a completely different one for SQL data The manner of querying data for each type could not be more different. Why should I have to remember nuances of these techniques depending on which language I use What about data sources that do not fit into these two categories What about a data source no one has thought of yet What would ha......

28 of 74 | VSTO Outlook Add-in Sample - While answering some posts in the NG`s, I found one by Jay Harlow, Outlook MVP. He mentioned  how pleased he was with our add-in support in VSTO 2005. That is pure goodness. Anyway,  in our exchange, he mentioned that he has two good VSTO Outlook samples on  his Web site. I have looked at them both, and they are quite good. I recommend them, and here is the link: http://www.tsbradley.net/Samples/default.aspx One of the samples exports Outlook folders or items to XML. To make the application more professional, he uses a BackgroundWorker so that the export process can occur asynchronously, and he punches up a progress dialog box to let the user know how things are going. The second sample cre......

29 of 74 | VSTO Outlook Add-in Sample - While answering some posts in the NG`s, I found one by Jay Harlow, Outlook MVP. He mentioned  how pleased he was with our add-in support in VSTO 2005. That is pure goodness. Anyway,  in our exchange, he mentioned that he has two good VSTO Outlook samples on  his Web site. I have looked at them both, and they are quite good. I recommend them, and here is the link: http://www.tsbradley.net/Samples/default.aspx One of the samples exports Outlook folders or items to XML. To make the application more professional, he uses a BackgroundWorker so that the export process can occur asynchronously, and he punches up a progress dialog box to let the user know how things are going. The second sample cre......

30 of 74 | Moving Template Content and Custom Toolbars - Have you ever written great code for a Word template and then wished you had it in another template as well It`s not as hard as it may seem to move your code from one template to another. You could use good `ol copy/paste and re-create the entire thing in the new template, but that`s not so fun. Fortunately, Charles Kenyon has a pretty good description of how to git-r-done (copyright Larry the Cable Guy). If you go up one level on Charles` site, you will find more tips for Word. It`s a good list. He also links to a site by Dian Chapman on creating your own custom toolbars. Check it out. I`m working on a Word->Excel XML transform. Basically, it takes a Word table and converts into Spreadshee......

31 of 74 | Moving Template Content and Custom Toolbars - Have you ever written great code for a Word template and then wished you had it in another template as well It`s not as hard as it may seem to move your code from one template to another. You could use good `ol copy/paste and re-create the entire thing in the new template, but that`s not so fun. Fortunately, Charles Kenyon has a pretty good description of how to git-r-done (copyright Larry the Cable Guy). If you go up one level on Charles` site, you will find more tips for Word. It`s a good list. He also links to a site by Dian Chapman on creating your own custom toolbars. Check it out. I`m working on a Word->Excel XML transform. Basically, it takes a Word table and converts into Spreadshee......

32 of 74 | Word XML Document Protection - Document Protection in Word`s XML file format: it`s not the kind of thing that inspires poets, but it`s great stuff nonetheless. On a recent discussion alias within Microsoft, a project manager asked how to make a document unalterable, except for certain sections. The PM for XML in Word 2003 responded (I`d mention his name, but I`m not sure how public he likes to be) that using the Tools | Protect task pane would deliver the goods for locking everything down except for certain regions. I thought I would throw in an example as well. Say I have a doc with three areas where I want people to edit. I can protect the whole document except for those three areas: Here you can see that I have th......

33 of 74 | Word XML Document Protection - Document Protection in Word`s XML file format: it`s not the kind of thing that inspires poets, but it`s great stuff nonetheless. On a recent discussion alias within Microsoft, a project manager asked how to make a document unalterable, except for certain sections. The PM for XML in Word 2003 responded (I`d mention his name, but I`m not sure how public he likes to be) that using the Tools | Protect task pane would deliver the goods for locking everything down except for certain regions. I thought I would throw in an example as well. Say I have a doc with three areas where I want people to edit. I can protect the whole document except for those three areas: Here you can see that I have th......

34 of 74 | Databinding in a UserControl vs. WinForm - Alright, I answered another question in a newsgroup, but the question posed, while technical, gets an A+ for honesty. It starts like this: I`m tearing my hair out at the moment trying to work out why the aboveisn`t working! Now, the "above" is that a custom UserControl in a VSTO task pane does not do databinding as expected. It`s easy to repro, and it can be repro`d in a simple WinForm app. So, I dedicate this blog entry to Keni (the ng poster). Get your Minoxidil, and here are the steps: Create a WinForm app Add new custom control Add a new datasource (Northwind`s Regions table is fine) Drag the table form the Datasource window onto the custom control. A datagrid should appear on it......

35 of 74 | Databinding in a UserControl vs. WinForm - Alright, I answered another question in a newsgroup, but the question posed, while technical, gets an A+ for honesty. It starts like this: I`m tearing my hair out at the moment trying to work out why the aboveisn`t working! Now, the "above" is that a custom UserControl in a VSTO task pane does not do databinding as expected. It`s easy to repro, and it can be repro`d in a simple WinForm app. So, I dedicate this blog entry to Keni (the ng poster). Get your Minoxidil, and here are the steps: Create a WinForm app Add new custom control Add a new datasource (Northwind`s Regions table is fine) Drag the table form the Datasource window onto the custom control. A datagrid should appear on it......

36 of 74 | Word XML and Page Count - I recently saw a post on the microsoft.public.office.xml news group wherein was asked: -------- When I save a word document as XML, it seems that o:DocumentProperties/o:Pages always comes out as 1. I have tried doing "update fields" and saving in page layout mode to no avail.Is this property broken any other way to determine the number of pages by looking at the XML-------- No one responded, so I was intrigued. Well, I figured it out. It actually is "by design" even though it may seem a little misleading. The element is "an estimate of the number of pages in the document." (see the Word XML SDK for more info). The tip-off was that it is an estimate. So, I did a series of tests and found ou......

37 of 74 | Word XML and Page Count - I recently saw a post on the microsoft.public.office.xml news group wherein was asked: -------- When I save a word document as XML, it seems that o:DocumentProperties/o:Pages always comes out as 1. I have tried doing "update fields" and saving in page layout mode to no avail.Is this property broken any other way to determine the number of pages by looking at the XML-------- No one responded, so I was intrigued. Well, I figured it out. It actually is "by design" even though it may seem a little misleading. The element is "an estimate of the number of pages in the document." (see the Word XML SDK for more info). The tip-off was that it is an estimate. So, I did a series of tests and found ou......

38 of 74 | XPath for a WordML and Outlook solution - The demo I did at Tech Ed 2005, Creating an Outlook Task Add-in Solution with VSTO 2005,  went off very well (I ended up receiving the Roku SoundBridge 2000 because of the good evals, so thanks to those who took the time to fill them out!!). Since then, I have been improving the solution, fixing bugs. The tester here, Pallavi, is tough on me in a very nice way! She wants the solution to be pretty sound, and so do I. To that end, I needed to make two key alterations: 1) Make the XPath query for searching my customers.xml case-insensitive 2) Make the XPath query in one of my XSLT`s search sub-nodes in a specific way. Today, I`ll mention the first technique. One of the things I love about XML ......

39 of 74 | XPath for a WordML and Outlook solution - The demo I did at Tech Ed 2005, Creating an Outlook Task Add-in Solution with VSTO 2005,  went off very well (I ended up receiving the Roku SoundBridge 2000 because of the good evals, so thanks to those who took the time to fill them out!!). Since then, I have been improving the solution, fixing bugs. The tester here, Pallavi, is tough on me in a very nice way! She wants the solution to be pretty sound, and so do I. To that end, I needed to make two key alterations: 1) Make the XPath query for searching my customers.xml case-insensitive 2) Make the XPath query in one of my XSLT`s search sub-nodes in a specific way. Today, I`ll mention the first technique. One of the things I love about XML ......

40 of 74 | WordML and Panose- Yes, Panose! - I have learned so much about Office via the XML formats in Office 2003 that I probably would have overlooked just working with the OM. My latest revelation (the smarties out there already knew, but I never claimed to know everything!) is about Panose. Oh yeah, Microsoft Word is all about Panose, baby! OK- what am I talking about Here`s the deal: there ought to be a way to properly identify a font irrespective of vendor. So, if you want to call your font, "FlipFlop", but really it`s Times New Roman to the rest of us, that`s cool, as long as you implement the Panose classification for your font: Looks like a good time, doesn`t it Now, in WordProcessingML, you can see how your fonts are expre......

41 of 74 | WordML and Panose- Yes, Panose! - I have learned so much about Office via the XML formats in Office 2003 that I probably would have overlooked just working with the OM. My latest revelation (the smarties out there already knew, but I never claimed to know everything!) is about Panose. Oh yeah, Microsoft Word is all about Panose, baby! OK- what am I talking about Here`s the deal: there ought to be a way to properly identify a font irrespective of vendor. So, if you want to call your font, "FlipFlop", but really it`s Times New Roman to the rest of us, that`s cool, as long as you implement the Panose classification for your font: Looks like a good time, doesn`t it Now, in WordProcessingML, you can see how your fonts are expre......

42 of 74 | Microsoft Office Development- Object Models or Declarative XML - As enhancements are made to the programmability story of a core product like Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Visual Studio, etc., there is a fundamental question: should enhancements be made via the OM or should they be made via an XML schema The same question holds true for Office developers who create their own add-ins and customizations. For my own part, I like to advance the declarative model in a lot of situations. We use for things like Research Services in Office 2003 with really great results. We also use for Smart Tag lists in Office 2002 and Office 2003 with great success. The core OM is just that- the core OM. We can`t imagine Word without Application.Documents.Document as the ......

43 of 74 | Microsoft Office Development- Object Models or Declarative XML - As enhancements are made to the programmability story of a core product like Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Visual Studio, etc., there is a fundamental question: should enhancements be made via the OM or should they be made via an XML schema The same question holds true for Office developers who create their own add-ins and customizations. For my own part, I like to advance the declarative model in a lot of situations. We use for things like Research Services in Office 2003 with really great results. We also use for Smart Tag lists in Office 2002 and Office 2003 with great success. The core OM is just that- the core OM. We can`t imagine Word without Application.Documents.Document as the ......

44 of 74 | Insert Word XML docs into another easily- I`m back from vacation! - OK- I am back from my long camping vacation. 5 sons, 4,100 miles, mini-van, tents, hospital. That`s my summary of the vacation. Anyway, a lot of people try to insert one Word XML document into another. Using XML methods on the OM seems to be popular. However, is the best kept secret. Regrettably, there is little out there in this regard. It`s mentioned here and there, but no one wants to explain how to use it. That`s where I come in. So, here`s the scenario. I have doc1.xml and doc2.xml. They both have unique lists, styles, and fonts. I want to put the contents of doc2 into doc1, but I don`t want to have to negotiate the import of all the styles, fonts, and list merging myself. Can`t Word ......

45 of 74 | Word XML and using XPath contains - I can`t remember if I blogged about this, and if I did, I just don`t remember (since my accident in September, my memory has been much less reliable- bummer). Anyway, I wanted to do an XPath search for nodes that contain string1 or string2 or string3. All examples I have found for the contains() function show only one term. That`s fine, but I may want to transform my raw XML to WordML under broader conditions. Well, I messed around for a while and found that it is awfully simple (Occam`s razor, blah): you add an `or` statement with the additional search term- like this: /contacts/contact[contains(name,`Leverling`) or contains(name, `Fuller`) or contains(name, `Dodsworth`)]/photo I received ......

46 of 74 | WordProcessingML is great, but you`re going to need tools - At Tech Ed, there was TONS of enthusiasm about WordProcessingML. Brian Jones, Office XML mastermind, was at the show too, and that was a huge plus. BTW: I have dubbed him the Russell Crowe of Office programmability, not because he does things of questionable legality but he`s built like him, and he doesn`t seem to like shaving. Anyway, my session on WordML was a huge hit, and the attendees once again made it really fun to do. What made Tech Ed even more special was the announcement about the new XML file format in Office 12 which has had great press coverage. Now, all of this is great- but you need some tools. Here`s one I simply cannot live without: XPath Builder. Amazingly, it`s free (for......

47 of 74 | VSTO Outook and Tech Ed 2005 - It`s been exhilarating and tiring to be at Tech Ed. Between Monday morning and when I went to bed last night I had only 6 hours of sleep (and no caffeine!). Nevertheless, the attendees make it all worthwhile. They get me very jazzed, and I loved delivering my sessions. Their enthusiasm for the Outlook add-in support blew me away. I think that the product will entice many companies and consultants to dive into Outlook development for the first time. Sue Mosher was in my session today, and she is way cool. My WordProcessingML session on Tuesday was a roaring success thanks to some great attendees. They were really into it (and it was at 8:30AM!). I can`t wait for PDC. I worked the booth for h......

48 of 74 | Microsoft Office Open XML File Formats announced - It`s a watershed moment for Office programmability: We have officially announced that the next version of Office will have a new open XML file format. A lot remains to be said, but I am going to stick closely to the the press release info (I have this aversion to disclosing confidential details, even by accident). We`ll be doing a lot more disclosing at Tech Ed in Orlando next week. YEAH! Read the press release, and pay particular attention to these statements by Sinofsky: "The Microsoft Office XML Open Format introduces significantly enhanced XML formats for Microsoft Word and Excel, and the first XML format for Microsoft PowerPoint. The formats use consistent, application-specific XML mar......

49 of 74 | Office 2003 and Web services- Reason Enough to Upgrade - I was alerted to this article today by Velle, one of my colleagues at Microsoft: Word, Excel Employed As Systems Interfaces I rarely read something that is reason for unreserved delight such as this article. This ISV, Meridian Systems Inc., came to the conclusion that putting Word and Excel 2003 front-and-center for its user experience in their Proliance product. Their decision paid off. We advertise Your potential, our passion, and here is one of the most clear-cut examples I have seen.  Third Rock Thought for the Day: I have a Johnny Rivers best-of CD. Some of my favorite songs as a kid were by him. A great crooner with a more than a touch of the blues. Rock On...

50 of 74 | Office XML End Users and Search Nirvana - Found this book: Upgrader`s Guide to Microsoft Office System 2003. I don`t know if it`s any good,but what I thought was curious is that the book seems to be targeted toward users (make`s sense), but it includes plenty about the XML support in Office 2003. This is one of the struggles we have here at Microsoft. How much do we include about XML in the end-user documentation In the end, time makes us decide, but not always with the best data behind us. If you have read my blog for a long time, you may recall that in 2003, I became a fan of ActiveWords. Well, I am perhaps an even bigger fan of the MSN Toolbar. It`s incredible. I am simply way more productive thanks to this search tool. The good......