johnvisiomvp

I got a wedgie from Microsoft?

For the past year, I have been working with Windows 8 and Office 2013 and have been able to install it on several old laptops, including an old Windows XP tablet (yes, there were tablets BEFORE the iPad). Windows 8 is a new paradigm, but it worked well on these old machines. The only bigContinue reading “I got a wedgie from Microsoft?”

It is Thanksgiving. Is that why Windows 8 is acting like a turkey?

For the past month, I have been trying to get a Windows 8 machine ready for Windows Phone 8 development. Luckily, the WP8 SDK has been delayed. I guess it is my fault for using two laptops I had lying around rather than buying a new machine. I have been able to install Windows 8 onContinue reading “It is Thanksgiving. Is that why Windows 8 is acting like a turkey?”

Why bother?

Yesterday was my second double header this week at the Ottawa Microsoft Office. The first was a lunch time presentation on Visual Studio and then an evening meeting of the SharePoint user group. The second was the launch of Windows Server and an evening meeting of the Ottawa Windows Server User group. So why doContinue reading “Why bother?”

Bevel* cells in the Visio shapesheet?

Recently I was exploring the new Visio 2013 shapesheet and came across a series of cells starting with Bevel*. Thanks to Jim Sun on the Visio team, I received the following answer: The cells in the Bevel Properties row are grouped into 6 concepts: Top bevel (BevelTopType, BevelTopWidth, BevelTopHeight) Bottom bevel (BevelBottomType, BevelBottomWidth, BevelBottomHeight) DepthContinue reading “Bevel* cells in the Visio shapesheet?”

WP7 Tracking down an error?

I finally got some feedback on one of my WP7 apps and decided to implement the suggestions. The code compiled well, but failed when I switched pages. I rechecked what I had changed and there was nothing there that would have caused the error. It eventually turned out to be some code I started toContinue reading “WP7 Tracking down an error?”

WP7 Migrating to Metro

Though it is trivial to create a Windows 8 Metro styled app, converting from WP7 is not really simple.Existing WP7 apps will be recompiled to work under Metro, but nothing has been said whether this is a one time event or the developers will have the oppurtunity to continue to modify the WP7 code. AContinue reading “WP7 Migrating to Metro”

WP7 Stack Trace?

Coding is like riding a bike. At some point you are going to crash. So what happens if you do crash your WP7 app and get a Stack Trace? When you open the report in Excel, the results are in a bit of a mess, so the first hing to do is to apply aContinue reading “WP7 Stack Trace?”

Converting from PowerPoint to Visio

Every so often I get requests about copying from PowerPoint to Visio and confusion about why it is not easy. The problem is that PowerPoint, like several of the other Office apps (Word, Excel and Publisher) have the ability to create Visio like drawings. These are not Visio drawings, just drawings that have Visio featuresContinue reading “Converting from PowerPoint to Visio”

Windows 8 – Where do you start?

In Windows Phone seven, it was easy to find the starting page, you just looked in WMAppManifest.xml and look for the NavigationPage tag of the Tasks sections. The file is small and there isusually only one task. Unfortunately in Windows 8, it is not as straight forward. Like WP7 apps, the real start is inContinue reading “Windows 8 – Where do you start?”

KEY features of Windows 8?

Programming Windows 8 is fun, but if you do not have a proper touch screen, the following short cut keys should help out. ALT + F4 Close the app Arrow Key, ALT + Arrow Down Move Metro App Down Arrow Key, ALT + Arrow Left Move Metro App Left Arrow Key, ALT + ArrowContinue reading “KEY features of Windows 8?”