Developers Must: Download MSDN Samples library browser

Developers love code samples, but they have been sitting in front of desktop for too long. A Sample Browser app can give them some time to sit relaxingly in a sofa and continue to learn the beloved code samples. The Sample Browser gives developers a new experience to search, download, learn, and share thousands of code samples. The large sample repository includes Microsoft official code samples for Windows Store apps, over 1200 Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework samples driven by developers’ real-world pains and needs, and various product samples and community samples.

So now you can download them as wish, either to your Windows 8/RT device or Windows Traditional desktop:

Windows 8 app: Download the Windows 8 app for your Windows 8 or Windows RT device it gives developers a new experience to search, download, learn, share and request code samples. Swipe and search and share – It’s that easy! The app also supports the offline mode, so you can learn code samples anytime, anywhere.
Traditional desktop: Download Sample browser for traditional desktop, this will be very useful when you are using Visual Studio Express.

 

Adding few screenshots for your view:

 

   

Cyber Monday e-deal: Save 60% on ALL Microsoft Press e-books

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Mac meets PC: Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac

 

Microsoft launches Office 2011 for Mac today, bringing Mac users the latest versions of the company’s productivity software. Per Press pass, two editions will be available: Customers can choose between Microsoft Office for Mac Home and Student 2011 and Microsoft Office for Mac Home and Business 2011.

The release is the latest effort from the Office for Mac team, which has been delivering Microsoft software to the Mac for 13 years. Many of us doesn’t aware that Microsoft has made Mac-compatible versions of Word and Excel for 26 years, ever since there was a Mac?

The new release for Mac is focused on delivering anywhere access, better collaboration, and professional design tools to make it more attractive than previous versions. First and foremost, Outlook is now included in Office 2011 for Mac.

The new Outlook was built from the ground up and works with both on-premises Exchange and the just-announced Office 365, the new cloud service from Office.

Office 2011 has new built-in integration with Windows Live SkyDrive as well as connections to SharePoint so users can manage files and work from any location.

With Office Web Apps, Mac consumers can edit Office documents straight from their browser. 

The release’s new co-authoring tools let users edit the same Word document or PowerPoint presentation simultaneously with other people in different locations who are using Office 2011 for Mac or Office 2010 for Windows.

They can also quickly share presentations with anyone who has browser access through PowerPoint broadcasting.

Developer info : Microsoft supports jQuery

As you know jQuery is a lightweight open source JavaScript library (only 15kb in size) that in a relatively short span of time has become one of the most popular libraries on the web. A big part of the appeal of jQuery is that it allows you to elegantly (and efficiently) find and manipulate HTML elements with minimum lines of code. jQuery also includes a built-in set of animation APIs that can be used as commands.  The combination allows you to do some really cool things with only a few keystrokes.

Microsoft has announced its plans to support the jQuery open-source JavaScript library – a fantastic library, which can really benefit ASP.NET and ASP.NET AJAX developers. Not only will Microsoft support the jQuery library, but they giant also plans to ship it as part of its Visual Studio tool set. Microsoft announced the news on Sept. 28. See: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/09/28/jquery-and-microsoft.aspx

The journey started when ScottGu decided to start supporting jQuery back in September 2008. The journey started for contributing features to jQuery when Scott sent Stephen Walther, Program Manager of ASP.Net for AJAX to meet with John Resig – the creator of jQuery and leader of the jQuery project – to find out whether Microsoft and jQuery could work together. Microsoft ASP.Net team shipped jQuery with every release of MVC and we already include jQuery in the Visual Studio 2010 templates for Web Forms and MVC. Now, Microsoft and the jQuery project have announced that three plugins developed by developers on the ASP.NET team – the jQuery Templates, jQuery Data Link, and jQuery Globalization plugins – have been accepted as official jQuery plugins. In addition, the jQuery Templates plugin will be integrated into jQuery 1.5 which is the next major release of jQuery.

Relevant info:
=============
– Scott Guthrie’s blog: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2010/10/04/jquery-templates-data-link-and-globalization-accepted-as-official-jquery-plugins.aspx
– jQuery team’s announcement: http://blog.jquery.com/2010/10/04/new-official-jquery-plugins-provide-templating-data-linking-and-globalization/
– Stephen’s blog: http://stephenwalther.com/blog/default.aspx.
– Video @ Channel 9 : Web Camps TV #5 – Microsoft Commits Code to jQuery!
– Support for jQuery from Microsoft Product Support Services (PPS): http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/09/28/jquery-and-microsoft.aspx 

Developer info:
===============
– Sample article from: http://www.borismoore.com/2010/09/introducing-jquery-templates-1-first.html 
– MSDN Magazine article (Web Site Improvements Using jQuery and jQuery UI): http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd898316.aspx
– MSDN Magazine article (Explore Rich Client Scripting With jQuery) – http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd453033.aspx

As i pointed our earlier jQuery is a fantastic library; using that you can do really cool things with only less programming efforts.

Try this out. Happy Programming!!

Microsoft Excel 2010 Developer Challenge – Soccer Edition

There is just over a month to the kickoff of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and under a month to the launch of Microsoft Office 2010-  coincidence?

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Cool apps that surprise and delight users—built by developers like you—are a big part of the Microsoft Excel 2010 vision.    

If you’re into developing Excel-based applications, then participate the Excel 2010 Developer Challenge- Soccer Edition, sponsored by Microsoft Excel team. You have chance to win an Xbox 360 Elite Video Game Entertainment System and a copy of the Xbox 360 game: FIFA 2010  and get a chance to get !  

You can create and submit Excel 2010 solutions that will help the millions of soccer fans around the world enjoy the 2010 World Cup.  Any application qualifies so long as it includes VBA code and prominently uses at least one of the new Excel 2010 features.  Winners will receive some great prizes.

So bring together your passion for soccer and Microsoft Excel, and submit your application!  

HOW DO I ENTER?

In order to submit an entry to the contest, you must do the following:

1 – Create an Excel application using Excel 2010 and post it online. You could download Office 2010 beta for free to create your application.

2 – Complete the short entry form

3 – Send an email with your entry form attached to emanb@microsoft.com with Contest in the subject line.

Please submit your entry by 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time on July 4th, 2010. 

What is the Judging Criteria?

· 50.00% – Use of new Excel 2010 features and VBA: How well does the solution utilize the new features of Excel 2010 and VBA.

· 30.00% – Superior utility and thoroughness in the solution. Outstanding ease of use and elegance in design

· 20.00% – Relevance to 2010 World Cup South Africa™: Overall solution relates to the 2010 World Cup South Africa™ and helps users enjoy the experience more through Microsoft Office Excel 2010

What are the Contest Prizes?

· One (1) First Prize: An Xbox 360 Elite Video Game Entertainment System and a copy of the Xbox 360 game: FIFA 2010

· One (1) Second Prize: National team jersey of winner’s (your) choice

· Twenty-five (25) Third Prize: “I Love Macros” T-shirt.

Please read the official rules of this challenge. For full contest rules and prize distribution details visit the official announcement post by the Microsoft Excel team. Also you can download Official rules: Microsoft Excel 2010 Developer Challenge – Soccer Edition Official Rules.doc!!

I remember the saying, “…Some people think football is a matter of life and death…I can assure them it is much more serious than that…”  Bill Shankley, ‘The Sunday Times’ (London), October 4, 1981.

Participate in Developer Challenge. Post your cool apps and win Xbox 360 and other goodies.

Release-to-Manufacturing (RTM) : Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Visio 2010 and Project 2010

Earlier this year Microsoft announced that they will officially launch Office 2010 to the business customers on May 12 with Stephen Elop, President of Microsoft’s Business Division, delivering a keynote as part of our virtual launch. The virtual launch will allow people from around the globe to participate in the launch by going to http://www.the2010event.com. The virtual launch site will showcase product demos, customer and partner testimonials, and interviews with product managers and executives, and hope this will give the users another great way to explore, learn, and get excited about the 2010 releases.

April 15, 2010 Microsoft reached the release-to-manufacturing (RTM) milestone for Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Visio 2010 and Project 2010! As you know that the RTM is the final engineering milestone of a product release. Since the start of public beta in November 2009,  more than 7.5 million people downloaded the beta version, which is  more than 3 times the number of 2007 beta downloads!

Office 2010 will first become available in retail stores in June in the US, and customers can pre-order these retail versions of Office 2010 at http://store.microsoft.com/OfficePreorder today to receive Office when it becomes available.

Fixed : Issue with Message size in Outlook 2010

Earlier one of my customer reported when he created a simple HTML e-mail using Outlook 2010 beta. It contained a hyperlink and some text with bullet lists, but the size of the message is quite big. He tried with Outlook 2007, the message size was relatively small. It’s researched by Outlook 2010 product team and yesterday we got the updated detailed blog post regarding this, stating it’s fixed in latest Outlook 2010 builds.

General : Windows 7 & Windows Server 2008 R2 has Been Released to Manufacturing

Some time earlier, Windows 7 Has Been Released to Manufacturing. You can get a detailed information that’s available in the Official Windows Blog by Brandon-LeBlanc.

Also i found the Microsoft Press pass release info…

 

More information about today’s news is available via the following links:

•Windows Team Blog

•Windows Server Blog

•Partner Web sites, http://readyset7.com and http://talkingaboutwindows.com/Default.aspx

•Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 for businesses

Hope this helps!!