Using Word 2007 Templates

Q: How do I use templates in Word 2007?


A: Using Templates in Office 2007 is one of the easiest tasks you will ever use. Basically a template document contains all the specifications for font, color, and the overall appearance of the document. To create and use a template, simply follow the procedure below.

Creating a Word Template
1. Open Microsoft Word 2007. By default, Word will open a blank document (.docx).
2. Modify the document so it contains all the cosmetic elements you want to appear in all future documents that will use this template.
3. Click the Office button (located in the upper left corner of the Window) and select “Save As”. After specifying the “File name”, change the “Save as type” to “Word Template (*.dotx)”.

Using a Word Template
1. When you need to create a document that reflects all the elements created in the template, simply open the template.
2. The next time you click “Save”, Word 2007 will automatically save the changes to a new document (.docx), leaving the template in place as-is.

Templates work the same way for all applications in the Office 2007 suite. Microsoft has hundreds of Office 2007 templates available for download, free of charge. To view these templates by category, go to http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CT101485751033.aspx

Setting Trusted Locations in MOSS 2007

Listed below are click-by-click instructions for creating a document library, making it a trusted location, and using it to display an Excel 2007 spreadsheet via Excel 2007 web part.

Create Document Library (with Excel as the default type)
1. Open the Home page to your site collection (i.e. http://moss101/Pages/Default.aspx)
2. Click “View All Site Content”
3. Click "Create"
4. Click "Document Library"
5. Specify all the settings for the library, using Excel 2003 as the default type. For the sake of this example, the document library will be called “Warehouse Documents”.
6. A document library called "Warehouse Documents" is now created, accessible at http://moss101/Warehouse%20Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx


Make it a trusted location
1. Click "Central Administration"
2. Click "Shared Services Administration"
3. Click the Shared Service (i.e. "SharedServices1(Default)" )
4. Click "open Shared Service Administration"
5. Click "Trusted File Locations", located under "Excel Services Settings"
6. Click "Add Trusted File Location"
7. Paste URL of document library (http://moss101/Warehouse%20Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx)

Upload sample spreadsheet
1. Maneuver to the Document Library (http://moss101/Warehouse%20Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx) and click upload
2. Upload an Excel document in .XLSX format. Note: Document must be in Excel 2007 format (.XSLX) to work with the EWS web parts. Otherwise the web part will produce an error message similar to the one below:

The workbook that you selected cannot be opened.


The workbook may be in an unsupported file format, or it may be corrupt.




Add Excel Web part
1. Open the Home page to your site collection (i.e. http://moss101/Pages/Default.aspx) .
2. Click “Site Actions” in the upper right hand corner of the page
3. Click “Edit Page”.
4. Click “Add a Web Part” in the desired zone.
5. From the pop-up box, select “Excel Web Access” web part and click “Add”. The web part will then appear in the selected web part zone as seen below:



6. Within the web part, click the link “Click here to open the tool pane” to configure the web part.
7. In the settings pane, use the ellipsis button (button with 3 dots) to maneuver to the document library created previously.
8. From the document library, select a spreadsheet in Excel 2007 format. Selecting any other format will result in the following error message:

SQL Server 2000 End-of-Life Support

For those with projects utilizing SQL Server 2000, Microsoft issued End of Life dates for support.

• Mainstream Support End of Life - April 8, 2008
• Extended Support End of Life - April 9, 2013
  End of "free" support
  Hot fixes (non-security related) will require an extended hot fix support agreement to be purchased
  Microsoft will not support warranty support, new features, or design changes
  Security updates will continue to be provided
  
  Microsoft Support Lifecycle: http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/
  MS SQL 2000 Lifecycle: http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?LN=en-us&p1=2852&x=9&y=11
  
  
  With the retirement of SQL Server 2000 around the corner, this brings up an interesting question for MCAD/MCSD candidates: Will this impact certification Exam 70–229: Designing and Implementing Databases with Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition? When will the exam be retired?
  
  Given Microsoft is still promoting the MCDBA certification on their site, I'm guessing 70-229 is safe for the moment. The exam is not currently scheduled for retirement at this point (http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcpexams/status/examstoretire.mspx) nor is it on the "Discontinued Microsoft Certification exams" list (http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcpexams/status/examsretired.mspx).
  
  For more info, visit the following links:
  http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcpexams/status/retired.mspx
  http://blogs.msdn.com/trika/archive/2007/07/03/lifecycle-of-new-generation-certifications.aspx
  http://blogs.msdn.com/trika/archive/2007/06/14/windows-server-2008-certification-paths.aspx
  http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcdba/upgrade/default.mspx
  
  For specific questions, e-mail them to mcphelp@microsoft.com

Classic UI Tabs for Office 2007

Office 2007 presented users with a new easy to UI, utilizing the new ribbon interface. However, not all users are comfortable with the new UI. A new ribbon customizer tool is available for Office 2007 providing a similar look and feel as previous versions of Office. To preview the ribbon customizer, go to http://pschmid.net/office2007/ribboncustomizer/featuretourpart3.php. A trial download version is also available.

Debugging Stored Procedure in Visual Studio 2005

This is an interesting article on debugging stored procedures, showing click-by-click directions. To view the full article, click here. In addition, another link was posted on this blog previously at
http://clevelanddotnet.blogspot.com/2007/05/follow-up-questions.html.

Working with double quotes (") in VB.Net

String manipulation in VB2005 is fairly simple. However, things can get a little tricky with the double quote character. How do you look for it in a string? How can you insert into a string? How do you remove it from a string? These are questions that may lead to confusion if you don't know what you're looking for.

Ironically enough, in VB the double quote can also be used as an escape character when searching for it in a string. For example:

Dim strTest As String
strTest = """123""" 'Displays "123" (double quotes appear in the final result)
strTest = """""123""" 'Displays ""123" (double quotes appear in the final result)
strTest = "test\""test" 'Displays test\"test
strTest = "test""test" 'Displays test"test


In cases where you want to insert a double quote character, simply reference it unicode character designation, chr(34). For example:

strTest = Chr(34) 'Displays "


Switching gears for a moment, ever wonder what would the result be if used nested string functions. Consider the following example:

strTest = strTest.Replace("""", "").Replace("""", "X") 'Displays testtest; executes functions from left to right

Follow-up questions

Listed below are some questions and answers from the last user group meeting.

Q: I have alot of VBA experience and would like to learn VB.Net. What resources are available that can help with this?
A: There are several sites available online to assist with this. For starters, check out the following links:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/beginner
http://safari.oreilly.com
http://www.bookpool.com
http://www.nerdbooks.com

Q: I created an application as a web site. Is there difference in deploying it between a web site application and a web
project application? Is there any way to deploy it as a web site application?
A: ASP.Net 2.0 "web sites" are different from the "web projects" you worked with in VS2003. Deploying a web site in VS2005
requires a different procedure (see http://www.odetocode.com/Articles/417.aspx for more information). If you want to build
and deploy web applications in VS2005 the same way you did in VS2003, you will need to download VS2005 SP1
(http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/thankyou.aspx?familyId=bb4a75ab-e2d4-4c96-b39d-37baf6b5b1dc&displayLang=en ). This will
allow you to create a "web project" in VS2005 and deploythe same way you did in VS2003, as opposed to the existing web site.
After you install SP1, you will be able to see the web project template in VS2005. Until then, you can only create a web
site

Q: How can I step through a stored procedure while debugging code?
A: Check out "Debugging SQL Server 2005 Stored Procedures in Visual Studio"
(http://aspnet.4guysfromrolla.com/articles/051607-1.aspx)


Q: How long will VB6 be supported?
A: Visual Basic 6.0 runtime will be supported for the full lifetime of Windows Vista, which is five years of mainstream support followed by five years of extended support”, which means it is supported until at least 2017. For more info, please visit http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vbrun/ms788708.aspx

Thanks to all who contributed to the meeting and the discussion. For more information on upcoming meetings, please visit www.clevelanddotnet.info. All meetings are free an open to all developers.

DotNetNuke Follow-up Questions

Listed below are follow-up questions from our last user group meeting on DotNetNuke.

Q: What are the System Requirements for DNN?
A: Win2003 server, IIS, ASP.Net 2.0

Q: Does DNN install as a "web-site" or does it take over IIS?
A: DNN installs as a simple web site application. Installation in simple, and by Default it installs with SQL Server Express.

Q: Can DNN sites be crawled by internet search engines?
A: DNN sites can be crawled. The menu actually checks the HTTP user agent string to see if a spider is hitting the site and presents an alternative menu to make it easier for the spider to crawl the site.

Q: Is everything stored in the DB, much like SharePoint?
A: Most items are in the DB, much like SharePoint. Some organizations do DB migrations to move all content. There are some .JPG files or other resource files that are not stored in the DB directly. For the most part, everything is stored in the DB.

Q: Can SharePoint or ASP.Net 2.0 web parts be incorporated into DNN without customization? A: Web parts will not work without modification.

Q: What DBs does DNN support out of the box?
A: The databases supported are SQL Express, and SQL Standard to Enterprise. There are also third party data providers available for Oracle and MySQL.

Password Resilience

In January I blogged an entry on creating strong passwords (http://clevelanddotnet.blogspot.com/2007/01/strong-password.html). As a follow-up, I found some data to help justify the need for a strong password. Listed below is a chart (courtesy of LastBit Corp) that details how well a password can withstand a "crack attack" from a hacker.

Web Services Resources

As a follow-up to our last user group meeting, listed below are some resources that can be used for creating and debugging web services.

Fiddler
This utility allows you to inspect all HTTP Traffic, set breakpoints, and "fiddle" with incoming or outgoing data. To learn more about Fiddler or to download it, go to http://www.fiddlertool.com/fiddler/version.asp.

Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar Beta 3
The Microsoft Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar provides a variety of tools for quickly creating, understanding, and troubleshooting Web pages. This version is a preview release and behavior may change in the final release. To download the IE toolbar, go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e59c3964-672d-4511-bb3e-2d5e1db91038&displaylang=en

XML Developer Center
The Microsoft XML Developer Center offers resources on editing, validating, and using XML data. This includes utilities, articles, and blogs. To visit the Developer Center, go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/xml/default.aspx.

Web Service Software Factory
This is a cohesive collection of guidance that enables architects and developers to design and build higher quality services and achieve more predictable results in less time by applying proven practices and patterns directly within Visual Studio 2005. To download the web service factory, go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=DB996113-6E92-4894-9B7E-0DEBB614D72F&mg_id=10110&displaylang=en

Resolvoing the error "The file could not be uploaded into the Web Forms designer."

Q: I received the following error ("The file could not be uploaded into the Web Forms designer.") when I opened a VS project, but I don't remember making any changes to the form design or the HTML?

A: Try to compile the project and see if there's an error in the code behind file (i.e. .CS or .VB file). If there are errors resolve them, and you should be able to view the file.

Zune Giveaway

During our March meeting, we will have a drawing for a Zune, courtesy of Microsoft. To enter the drawing, simply attend the C#/VB.Net user group meetings. For each meeting you attend between now and the end of March, you will be entered into the drawing. In addition, your name will be entered into the drawing an additional time for each new person you bring to the meeting. To find out more about upcoming meetings, go to www.ClevelandDotNet.info.

February .Net Events

Listed below is a summary of the .Net events scheduled for this month. Attend a few and increase your .Net knowledge!

Feb 8th: SQL User Group - "Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Database Professionals"
http://www.bennettadelson.com/technicalresources/sqlsig.aspx

Feb 13th: .Net User Group - "Building ASP.NET AJAX Enabled Websites"http://www.bennettadelson.com/technicalresources/sig.aspx

Feb 20th: Presentation - "Mobilize Your Business: Using Microsoft Solutions to Keep Your Business on the Move"
http://www.berbee.com/public/events/MS_MobilizeYourBusinessCleveland.aspx

Feb 27th: C#/VB.Net User Group - "XML Web Services"
http://www.clevelanddotnet.info