[PDC 2008] – Show off selection

An article by Laurent Kempé 2 Comments

Finally my video didn’t make it for the ShowOff contest at the PDC 2008. Here is the answer I’ve got:

I wanted to thank you again for your ShowOff entry. Unfortunately, due to the overwhelming response to ShowOff, we had to make some hard decisions about which entries we would be able to show during the event. We really liked your video, but unfortunately it didn't make it into our final cut this year.

So here the video I sent in which I demonstrate some of the possibilities of the Tech Head Brothers authoring tool based on Word 2007 and Open XML!

Video of Tech Head Brothers new authoring tool based on Word 2007

An article by Laurent Kempé No Comments

In the following video I present the different features of the new authoring tool for my portal Tech Head Brothers.

First you will see the use of ClickOnce to enable easy installation on the author computer. This will also allow an easy update scenario. A great plus compared to the past.

Then you will see the Word 2007 template using to author the content of an article. It shows:

1. Definition of the Title
2. Definition of the Description
3. Definition of the Keywords
4. Writing of the content of a section of content with bold, italic, list, hyperlink
5. Adding some sample code directly copied from Visual Studio 2008
6. Inserting sample code in a zip
7. Adding a picture captured using SnagIt yo the article
8. Offline preview in Internet Explorer
9. Posting to the Tech Head Brothers web site with Tags selection
10. Online preview of the posted content

Enjoy the video! (Without sound, I couldn’t find a micro at home :()

New step in my authoring tool using Word 2007

An article by Laurent Kempé No Comments

This evening I took the time to implement a new step on the new version of Tech Head Brothers authoring tool.

Now I am able to write an article in Word 2007 and post it using Web Services.

The next picture is the result of posting from Word 2007 on the web site using Web Services:

Here is how it looks like in Word:

To insert some source code sample as you can see on the Word 2007 picture or the web site, it is really easy. Go in Visual Studio, copy the code you want in the clipboard. Switch to Word 2007, then use the Source Code button:

To insert a picture, either use Windows Explorer to copy a file into the clipboard and paste it into the Word 2007 document, or use a tool like SnagIt from TechSmith (Thanks for the license by the way!!), make a screen shot, copy result into the clipboard and paste into Word 2007.

Is that easy!

This tool will make the authoring process on Tech Head Brothers so easy.

Wowwwwww effect of my new Word 2007 authoring tool

An article by Laurent Kempé 1 Comment

I have reached now another step on the new authoring tool for Tech Head Brothers portal by having some authors installing this new version and starting beta testing it. Has you can see, with the following twit, it seems that the tool is on the good way:

From Rédo (french blog)

Just try the new beta tool of publishing for http://www.techheadbrothers... .... that's the Wouawwww effect !!! ... sorry, it's NDA ;p about 23 hours ago

From Jon Galloway (blog)

@laurentkempe Like I said, I'd pay money for it, and I'm very cheap. Very cool. about 15 hours ago from web in reply to laurentkempe

This tool let all authors write articles using a customized Word 2007, preview it offline in Internet Explorer as it will be seen on the portal and finally post the article to the portal directly from Word 2007. It is a replacement of THBAuthoring, my old tool found on CodePlex.

To achieve this goal I am using quite some technologies. First Word 2007, Ribbon, .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, VSTO 3.0, OpenXML, WordML, XML Schema, XSLT. Than for sure C#, Linq to XML, Linq to Object.

For the installation I use ClickOnce. That’s a great improvement! I had so much issues with THBAuthoring.

From an author point of view you are using a almost normal Word 2007 document with different predefined styles, bold, list… There is two exceptions:

1. Source code
2. Zip with sample code

The usage scenario for the inserting Source Code into the Word document is as following:

1. Copy the code into the clipboard from Visual Studio 2008/2005
2. Position the cursor into the Word 2007 document where you want to insert the Source Code
3. Click on the button Source Code on the custom Ribbon
4. That’s it, easy no?

This brings clear text of the source code into the document and colored source code into the HTML preview.

The usage scenario for attaching the Zip with the sample code is also easy:

1. Click on the button Zip in the custom Ribbon
2. In the opening File selector dialog browse to your zip file and select one
3. That’s it, easy no?

Finally there is another usage scenario; inserting pictures:

1. From Windows Explorer copy a picture file
2. Position the cursor in the Word 2007 document
3. Paste
4. That’s it, easy no?

So, how does it work technically!

It works by doing a projection of the WordML to a well formed Tech Head Brothers XML document defined by an XML Schema. Then it uses a XSLT to produce HTML.

I hope to find the time to make a little video soon to demonstrate the way it is used!

Here is a picture of the tool

Finally the new CTP April of the Open XML Format SDK is online

An article by Laurent Kempé No Comments

This is something I was waiting to continue my work on the new publishing tool for Tech Head Brothers.

You might read more about this version on the MSDN web page

This SDK is built on top of the System.IO.Packaging API and provides strongly-typed part classes to manipulate Open XML documents.

You can download this CTP on the following page.