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August 2005 - Posts

Certeon - A Product to Accelerate Your Business Applications

I met with the folks at Certeon ( www.certeon.com ) yesterday. They have a product that helps accelerate business application. “What if the growing population of branch office workers was not burdened with unusably slow applications? What if IT
Posted by Mauro | 1 Comments

Be wary of the Content Web Editor contributors

Of all the SharePoint web parts I have seen (from Microsoft, third parties, and custom), none has more impact on the overall portal experience than... the Content Web Editor! It is what makes SPS so great; users can be empowered to provide their own messaging
Posted by Mauro | 1 Comments

Great Article on the Future of Search Tools

There was an interesting article in InformationWeek recently on the future of search tools... Fewer Tools, Smarter Searches ( http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=167600137 is the printable version)... ignore the product
Posted by Mauro | 0 Comments

What Version of SharePoint Are You Running?

Have you run SPS and/or WSS SP1? Are your production and development environments running the same version? Do you know that the SharePoint Bacup/Restore tool will only work if the 'backup' and 'restore' environments are on the same version? It's not
Posted by Mauro | 5 Comments

SharePoint Custom CSS Changes Not Appearing

This is a good one!... You create a new CSS file for SharePoint (based on a copy of SPS.CSS), save it to the same directory as SPS.CSS, then use the SharePoint Admin interface to tell SharePoint about it. You look at the UI and it looks great. Some users
Posted by Mauro | 3 Comments

SharePoint Capacity Planning Document

One of the first questions I often get from organization investigating SharePoint Portal Server (especially from the IT department) is “How much hardware do we need?”. My recommendation, more often than not, is a simple web farm... one SharePoint
Posted by Mauro | 0 Comments

Great Web Part for 'Printer Friendly' Rendering

I found another great web part by James Milne. It is a toolbar (web part) with some very useful items. The one I like the most is a 'Printer Friendly Version' button. I have been asked a number of times for a better way to print SharePoint-based content.
Posted by Mauro | 0 Comments

SharePoint Web Capture Web Part Showing Warning

Some users may experience problems with the web capture web part content on their portal. Specifically, when the page loads you get a “This page is accessing information that is not under its control...” warning message. It is harmless but
Posted by Mauro | 4 Comments

George Wesolowski is Blogging!

One of my co-workers, George Wesolowski, is now blogging. George's blog, http://georgew.typepad.com/dotnet/ , is also focused on real-world lessons from building with Microsoft tools. His expertise in is in .NET development and SQL Server. Be sure to
Posted by Mauro | 0 Comments

Odd Behavior with Microsoft Project File in SharePoint

I had reader report a problem with a Microsoft Project file in a SharePoint document library. It seems that when you click on the file it opens properly in Microsoft Project. When you use the context menu and select “Edit in Microsoft Project”
Posted by Mauro | 0 Comments

Multiple Login Prompts on WSS Site

I had a blog reader send a question this week (note, please feel free to ask!) about a login problem with his WSS site. I thought I would share the email exchange... Reader: I am experiencing a multiple login problem for some users. People who have access
Posted by Mauro | 1 Comments

Get Ready for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 - Free eLearning

Microsoft has a special offering on eLearning modules for SQL Server 2005. These hands-on labs are a great way to get you started on the new features on SQL '05. For a limited time, they are free for download. The E-Learning courses, valued at $99 each,
Posted by Mauro | 1 Comments

Placing a Copyright Footer on Every Portal Page

Here is a great tip for placing a standard footer at the bottom of every portal page. It is a simple and low maintenance solution for creating a copyright identifier or additional navigation. I like it because you maintain the text in one place and changes
Posted by Mauro | 6 Comments

This Year's Best Business Intelligence Book

My favorite book this year has been “ Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything ” by Steven Levitt. It was an informative and fun read. Interestingly, I just saw an article in the August 2005 Inc Magazine by Michael
Posted by Mauro | 0 Comments

Differences Between Virtual PC and Virtual Server

I got a bunch of very cool demo dvd's from Microsoft this week; a nice collection of real demonstrations of the latest technologies... all of them based on virtual images. The documentation had a link to a Microsoft whitepaper that explains the differences
Posted by Mauro | 0 Comments

WSS Object Model Poster by Mindsharp

Got back from vacation and found a pleasant surprise on my desk... Free SharePoint posters from Mindsharp. I went to their website a few weeks back ( https://www.mindsharp.com/Default.aspx?page=Login&destPage=RoadmapRequest ) and provided some basic
Posted by Mauro | 3 Comments

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Upgrade Advisor - CTP June Refresh

The Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Upgrade Advisor is available for download . This assessment tool is designed to “help Database developers and administrators analyze SQL Server 7.0 and SQL Server 2000 database servers in preparation for upgrading to
Posted by Mauro | 1 Comments

30 New WSS Site Templates from Microsoft

The buzz today is about the new WSS Site Templates from Microsoft. 30 of them!... a wide variety to cover a number of key organizzational and social collaboration topics. All are available free for download and can be uploaded into your SharePoint environment
Posted by Mauro | 8 Comments

Secrets of the SharePoint Portal Search Results Revealed -- revisited

Several months ago I wrote an article on how to manipulate the XML attributes behind SharePoint Portal's search results presentation ( http://www.knowledge-management.com/news/v4n11/spssearch.html ). A few readers have pointed out that my MSDN reference
Posted by Mauro | 0 Comments

Fortune Mangazine Article on Netscape IPO

Read a great article in the most recent Fortune Magazine (my favorite periodical!) about the Netscape IPO. Fortune celebrates the 10 year anniverary of the IPO by gathering firsthand perspectives from key Netscape employees. For anyone involved in technology
Posted by Mauro | 0 Comments