Two SharePoint design books from Wrox

Just wanted to make a quick post to take care of two birds with one stone:

First, congrats to Woody Windischman and his co-authors for finishing their Wrox book Professional Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007. I haven't read it yet, but I'm sure its an excellent addition to any SharePointer's bookshelf.

Second, I wanted to point out that my book has a very similar name and is also published by Wrox, its title is Professional SharePoint 2007 Design. As you can see, Woody's book title is quite similar to mine. So whats different between the two and why did Wrox need both? I'm glad you asked. My book focuses on the actual design process for branding websites with SharePoint (which includes a chapter that discusses the product SharePoint Designer). Woody's book on the other hand focuses entirely on the ins and outs of the SharePoint Designer product.

So, which should you get if you are looking to do SharePoint design? I say get both ;) One will teach you how to use SharePoint Designer to its fullest while the other will help you understand the process of taking a design from a Photoshop comp to a functioning SharePoint master page or theme (as well as other topics).

Happy New Year - I'm now an MVP!

Yesterday, after partying like a rock star for New Years (actually just played Rock Band with friends), I woke up late to get the email from Microsoft that I have been awarded MVP status for SharePoint Server for 2009! I'm sure everyone is sick of reading blog posts from people that are being renewed and folks like me getting it for the first time... but none the less I felt the need to give thanks to everyone that helped me get to this point.

Firstly, thanks to Shane Young and everyone at SharePoint911 for encouraging and supporting community involvement. Also, thanks to Andrew, Heather, and Ted (and probably a few others I have forgotten) for working with me on so many things throughout 2008. Lastly, thanks to my author team that helped out with the book Professional SharePoint 2007 Design.

I'm thinking 2009 will be a great year... hopefully yours is great as well!

Oxite open source CMS from Microsoft

Interesting release from Microsoft's Channel 9 Team, Oxite is an open source, standards compliant blogging and CMS engine that leverages Microsoft technologies. I wonder if this is just an experiment, or some kind of view into a potential future for WSS?

CMSWire Article abotu Oxite

Oxite in action at Mix

I'm an Android

While resisting the ever growing temptation to get an IPhone, I finally went and got a G1 Phone (Otherwise known as Google Android). Mainly I got it because I'm already on T-Mobile and didn't need to extend my contract to use it (bought off of eBay). Here are my initial impressions

Pro's

• Hardware based keyboard is nicer than software keyboard
• Open source means folks can code apps that can add all sorts of features (including interfacing with the telephone itself)
• Android Market (their version of the App Store) is free right now and has a lot of nice apps on it
• UI feels very nice, much like an IPhone, better thought out than Windows Mobile (which really could use a UI refresh after all these years)
• Plugging it into my PC and adding and removing files (like MP3's) is a piece of cake
• Was able to create a hello world app and add it to my phone without jumping through any app store hoops
• Applications can run in the background and bubble up events to the phone as they occur

Con's

• Not as slick as the IPhone
• Not multi-touch
• Camera is very slow and not very good quality (despite being 3mp)
• Android Market is difficult to sort on various criteria
• Hardware based keyboard is a blessing and a curse, in order to type anything I have to go to landscape mode and flip open the keyboard. Would be nice if someone could create a software keyboard to use from time to time.
• Slightly bulkier than the IPhone
• Headphone jack is USB not stereo mini
• Video player seems to be lacking in formats that it can play

New Article: SharePoint Quick Branding

I'm happy to report that an article I wrote for the SDTimes web edition was published recently. The topic of the article is a quick branding technique that uses the "Alternate CSS" capabilities of MOSS. This one isn't for you pro SharePoint designers out there... this is for the folks that want to add some nice branding to their MOSS site as quickly and simply as possible. By using the Alternate CSS and a wide image that includes your company logo, you can accomplish a lot of design with little effort.



SDTimes: Share Pointers: Quick Branding

SharePoint Name.dll ActiveX Fix has been Featurized

My friend Larry Riemann and I have taken my Name.DLL ActiveX Fix and turned it into a deployable Feature / Solution called SPAXO. The nice thing about SPAXO is that it will apply the fix to all pages on your site no matter what master page is applied without you having to add the Javascript code to your master page manually. We accomplish this by using the .Net HTTPModule to inject the Javascript into the page stream automagically. At this point the code is a major Use At Your Own Risk. If you are feeling daring, head over to Codeplex and give it a shot.

CodePlex: SPAXO (SharePoint ActiveX Override)

Started using Twitter

Twitter is an interesting beast, I initially rejected it... but as of a few months ago I started to give it an honest look. While I don't twitter my whole day away like some folks, I do seem to post at least once a day to it. I think its very good for posting topics that are too small or too personal for a typical blog. So, if you want to see my minor rants and personal stories, follow me at http://www.twitter.com/themossman and if you want to stay focused on UI and SharePoint topics of worth (or so I hope) keep reading here at http://blog.drisgill.com/.