Ty Anderson

Office Newswire: Will SharePoint 15 (2013) finally get an App Store? – 3.28.2012

Today is Opening Day for Major League Baseball and a national holiday in the Anderson house. It’s a big deal. It marks the start of Spring in my opinion. I realize we have an international audience here at the Newswire but I can’t help it… it’s time for some baseball and for once my favorite team opens the season. The crazy thing is that the opening day of America’s past time occurs in Japan this year. I’m wearing an A’s jersey right now because I’m so stinking excited. It won’t last however because the A’s will be terrible. But who cares! It’s baseball!Mr. Baseball

I don’t talk about it ever but it goes with the previous paragraph. I coach my son’s 3rd grade baseball team. It is some of the most fun I have all week. These boys are enthusiastic and crazy about baseball. This is my third year coaching them and we do not have a winning record. I think we have been playing 7th graders judging by the size of these kids. But this year I have hope. I ran across this bat that teaches the boys proper swing mechanics. And boy, it does work! It works so well we have dubbed it the magic bat. It has turned one of the lesser hitters on our team into one of the top 4 or 5 hitters (we have 13 on the team).

A couple of weeks ago we played a pre-season “seeding” game. As luck would have it, we played against the team that won our league last year. We finished second-to-last. You never know what’s going to happen when play the game so I was anxious and nervous as we took the field. I’m happy to say that, thanks to the magic bat, my ball players hit their way to 10-10 tie after 5 innings. Typically there are not any ties in baseball but this was treated as a scrimmage and we were forced to stop play after 5 innings. Had it not been for an inning of fielding that resembled the Bad News Bears, we would have one the game outright 10-5.

Our opening day will be in the first week of April. Please bear with me as I’ll most likely be unable to prevent myself from talking baseball now and then. In case you are curious, the image above is Mr. Baseball. We discuss Mr. Baseball often during practices and games. Baseball is fun but Mr. Baseball cannot be trusted. He is not a ball player’s friend. Maybe it’s the eyes… or the mustache… or both.

Office news & editorials!

  • Will SharePoint 15 (2013) finally get an App Store? :: For the sake of all things good in the Universe, I sure hope so. If you develop apps for SharePoint 2010 (on-premise and/or online), I bet you do too. I mean, look at what Apple has done with their app store. It’s easy because it is integrated with the platform. Just think what would happen if Microsoft does the same with their platform. The author of this article has done some digging into the SharePoint 15 Technical Preview Managed Object Model SDK. He has some significant thoughts and opinions. (est. reading time: 3 mins)
  • Six features you’ll love in Office 15 :: I am in no rush for Summer to arrive. But I am ready for MSFT to release a consumer preview. I guess for now, I’ll keep reading articles about Office 15 and posting them here for your perusal. Summer will arrive soon enough. It will be so stinking hot, that I’ll be happy to stay inside, work with Office 15, and report back to you here. (est. reading time: 2 mins)
  • Office 15: New features and screenshots :: Paul Thurrot set the bar high last week with his posts about Office 15. Now everyone is referencing his screenshots and commenting. Normally I’d criticize this strategy and say the authors should get their own screen shots. The trouble is they can’t because Office 15 isn’t available, except to a few select clients and users. As a result, I will not criticize. It seems everyone is doing the best they can with what little information is available. (est. reading time: 3 mins)
  • Office 15 for education: A new SharePoint 15 app in the wings :: I’ve thought for some time now that MSFT will be forced to create vertical market solutions if they want to continue to grow. That’s easy for me to write because I can’t prove that I’ve had these thoughts. I’m asking you to trust me on this. Anyways, it appears MSFT agrees with me and… they think SharePoint is just the platform. In this article the ever insightful MJF has the details. (est. reading time: 2 mins)

Office tips, tricks & tools

  • Create incredible documents more easily with Office 2010 :: The way your present your content matters as much as the content itself. You can have great content but terrible presentation. This situation will lead to zero readers. When you create documents, reports, financial models, etc… it behooves you to consider the reader… the consumer of your document. You need to make it easy for the reader to consume the information you present to them. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, please read this article and learn a few tricks for presenting your information. I promise, they are fairly easy to learn. (est. reading time: 7 mins)
  • Microsoft Access : features, tips and how-to :: I am including this article because, in addition to offering to tips, it provides guidance on when to use Access. It also mentions the various sample databases that can be used in your business today. (est. reading time: 1 min)
  • 75 Excel speeding up tips :: Whoa Nelly there’s a lot of tips here! More than I could handle in single sit-down. This is bookmark able resource. Better yet, kill some trees… .print it out and read it during lunch. You will learn something for sure. (est. reading time: 10 mins?)
  • How to remove the background in a PowerPoint images :: This is a repost from 2010 but is backed by popular demand. Did you know that PowerPoint (and Office really) has some powerful image editing tools? Well I did because I use the heck out of them. And my favorite is the Remove Background tool. It allows me to be lazy and avoid opening PhotoShop. Instead, I can insert an image and remove everything but the image element I want. It’s slick! But I will say it is a finicky and takes some practice. (est. reading time: 4 mins)

Office developer items of note

Cutting Room Floor

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