johnvisiomvp

Visio’s How do the background shapes work?

When dropped on the current page the background shapes automatically adjust to the size of the current page. This is more obvious when the page has a landscape orientation. This same feature is also used in the border shapes. To make your own background shape, create a shape that has no problems being stretched andContinue reading “Visio’s How do the background shapes work?”

Visio’s Headers/Footers or Background Pages?

Anyone new to Visio may not be aware of why Visio has both Headers/Footers and background pages or know that there is such a thing as a background page. In Visio 1, the developers created the concept of type basic types of pages; foreground and background. The foreground pages were the pages that were actuallyContinue reading “Visio’s Headers/Footers or Background Pages?”

Visio’s Only one Background Page?

In several online tutorials (non Microsoft), it is usually mentioned that you can only have one background page. This is partially true. A page can only have one background page. This is often interpreted as meaning only foreground pages, but background pages can also have background pages. So it is possible, that a foreground pageContinue reading “Visio’s Only one Background Page?”

Help with Visio

I subscribe to Google Alerts to known when items using the word “Visio” on the net. Most of the time it is about Visio TVs (Seems by the number of police reports, it is a favourite device of thieves), copies of Visio for sale or mentioned as a job requirement. Occassionaly there are a fewContinue reading “Help with Visio”

WP7 Full samples May Not Be Enough

Though some of the features are pretty straight forward, some of them require having hooks all over the place. So I try to find fully working examples. Recently I came across a sample app that creates a statistics page that can be used to display information for an About’s page. The good thing was that itContinue reading “WP7 Full samples May Not Be Enough”

HELP! What is that ABOUT?

Or The Frustions of Development… I know that the Windows Phone is a new environment, but life would be easier with some good examples. Of course, actually finding these examples is also an excercise in frustration. Since the original C langage (aka COBOL), the use of compound words has been prevalent. Names like BRINGFORWARDDAILYREVENUETAXAMOUNTS wereContinue reading “HELP! What is that ABOUT?”

WP7 Flipping Dice – Part II

Thanks to a suggestion by Peter, one of my mentors, I abandoned the idea of tapping and went with capturing the flicking gesture. One of the problems with using a button was hiding the animation caused when the button pressed. There also was other issues. It just did not feel as natural as flicking. WithContinue reading “WP7 Flipping Dice – Part II”

End of the Zune HD devices?

Early this summer Zune Originals closed down and yesterday Jessica and Matt closed down the Zune Insider podcast. If you look at the Zune.Net website, using a Zune device is not one of the displayed options. I picked up my Zune HD at Fry’s in Renton and Fry’s no longer has any Zunes on theirContinue reading “End of the Zune HD devices?”

WP7 Flipping Dice

I have been working on a Dice game for the Windows Phone and had to figure a way to let the user change the value of the dice. I had considered using a slider, but the size of the slider made it a bit finicky to change the dice and the process was a bitContinue reading “WP7 Flipping Dice”

WP7 – I miss ActiveSync!

This is my first Windows Phone, but I have used an Ipaq for years to act as my PDA. The big thing I miss is being able to drop the Ipaq into a cradle and let ActiveSync take care of keeping the iPaq in sync with Outlook. This is not possible with WP7 if youContinue reading “WP7 – I miss ActiveSync!”