January 2006 – Page 2

Saving Outlook 2003 E-mails to SharePoint Document Library

I see this a lot, and it’s easier than you might think:

Open the e-mail, and click File >> Save.
In the “File Name”, enter the URL to the document library, and click Save.
A view of the document library will open in the folder list window. Confirm the file name (which will be the e-mail subject), change it if you need to, and click Save again.
Your e-mail message is now saved in the document library!

Tip #1: You can get the URL of the document library by navigating to it, and copying everything up to the end of the library name. For example, you’d use http://MyPortal/sites/TestSite/Document%20Library/.

Tip #2: If you need to save a lot of e-mails in the same document library, create a Network Place for the document library. Open My Network Places and use the wizard to create a new network place for this library, using the URL as shown in Tip #1. Then, you can choose this library by browsing My Network Places.

Just Arrived: Treo 700w

Wifey has just become a gadget widow (again). I couldn’t wait to get mine set up, but once she saw how much these things were going for on eBay, she thinks she may make a few bucks and buy another one later.

Other things I like so far:

The OK button, which ‘clicks’ the icon in the upper right corner (either Close or OK, usually)
The start menu button
Broadband speed Internet. Sweet!
The keyboard is surprisingly easy to use—the buttons are slightly domed, and very easy to hit squarely. Hy hands are kind of large, and the Treo is kind of not, and my hand started to cramp when typing a long e-mail.

One of the toughest challenges going to be finding replacements for the software I liked on my Axim. Handango has a lot of software available already for Windows Mobile 5, but some of my favorites haven’t been released yet. Fortunately, my password keeper (FlexWallet) is available for Windows Mobile 5.0, and that was a major concern. Unfortunately, Pocket Breeze (a Today screen plug-in) hasn’t been ported yet.

Something I totally hate:

There’s no colon on the keyboard. WTF? That’s kind of useful when typing in URLs into some programs. It’s the first choice in the Alt keys, so it’s not a total loss. But still…

A few things I’ll miss:

Monet backgrounds on the Today screen
Pocket Breeze
Program Switcher, because I could close programs without navigating a menu
ADB Weather
Pocket RSS
Jawbreaker (addictive game)

I’m trying to get DopplerMobile to work as my RSS reader, but it keeps crashing.

Here is the Treo 700w compared to my old Axim X5. The screen isn’t scratched—thats one of those scrren protectors that I didn’t do a great job of applying.

The Treo 700w is small in my hands. My hand started cramping when using the little keyboard in a long e-mail. My Axim’s thumboard was about 1/3 again as wide, and a little more comfortable to use.

The Treo ships with a game called Bubble Breaker, which is the same as Jawbreaker. And I can get my weather information on demand with MSN Mobile or Mobile Yahoo, so I don’tneed a desktop module for that. Still looking for a good RSS reader and blogging app.

Now playing: Weezer – Beverly Hills

Get Ready to Become a Small Business Specialist

This is a fancy bookmark for myself—nothing exciting here.

Get Ready to Become a Small Business Specialist

Gain new skills working with small businesses and become a Small Business Specialist. You can take free courses that help you meet the needs of small businesses. Begin qualifying as a Small Business Specialist by completing a sales and marketing assessment.

Now playing: Bowling for Soup – 5 O’Clock World

Naked Conversations Available as E-book

If you’re impatient, Shel and Scoble’s book Naked Conversations is now available as an e-book. I’m not sure why Amazon says that Acrobat Reader isn’t available for Pocket PC devices, because I’ve had a reader on my Axim for a while now–the e-book may require a new version, or features that aren’t supported by the mobile versions. You can find the mobile Acrobat Reader download page at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2_mobile.html#pocketPC.

If you’d rather wait for the printed version, you can find the hardcover version here.

Now playing: George Strait – Living and Living Well

Crystal Reports .NET: Setting Paper Orientation Programmatically

This is a question I see very often, and you can set the paper orientation in code-behind as such:

ReportDocument.PrintOptions.PaperOrientation = CrystalDecisions.[Shared].PaperOrientation.Landscape

Crystal Reports .NET Programming
If you’re new to Crystal Reports, or just to CR .NET, this is the book you need. Part how-to, part programming reference, lots of simple examples in both C# and VB.NET.

Now playing: Rent – Out Tonight

Gantt Chart Web Part

Teun Dynstee released his Gantt Chart Web Part today:

The part allows you to specify a list and view to render. You select the fields from the view that will indicate the start and end date of an item. The third required field is the title field. Because the part works with view fields, you can also use calculated fields to specify the start date, end date or title of the item.

Now playing: Dierks Bentley – Lot of Leavin’ Left to Do

SharePoint Quick Launch Web Part

Bob Mixon has released a beta of his Quick Launch Web Part:

This Web Part can be used to replace the hard coded HTML in a Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) Site. The first advantage to this Web Part is simply being aware of the current users security permissions. Meaning, if a user does not have the permissions to view the items in a document library or list, even if it is marked to be displayed on the Quick Launch bar, it will not be displayed.

There are many additional features currently present in this Web Part, which include:

The ability to turn any set of lists on or off. So if you chose to not display Surveys, simply turn it off!
The ability to display separation lines below the grouping headers.
And, the best of all features, the ability to dynamically add any items to the quick launch bar through a standard SharePoint list.

Now playing: M – Popmuzik

Free Crystal Reports XI book chapters now online

From the CR .NET Newsgroup:

Due to the popularity of my CR.NET Programming book being posted online for
free prior to its publication, I’m doing the same with my new book. You can
read chapters from “Crystal Reports XI Encyclopedia” online for free. I’m
posting chapters as I finish them and I currently have four chapters posted.
I’ll post the next four after I review them for errors. If you find the
chapters helpful, please link to them so that others may read them.

You can find the chapters listed on the home page of my website:
www.CrystalReportsBook.com

Enjoy!

Brian Bischof