Thursday, May 31, 2007
legible

p

{

line-height: 150%;

}

p.dropCap:first-letter

{

font: bold 700% 'party let', 'comic sans MS', fantasy; margin-right: 12px; color: red; float:  left;

}

not legible

p { line-height: 150%; }
p.dropCap:first-letter { font: bold 700% 'party let', 'comic sans MS', fantasy; margin-right: 12px; color: red; float: left; }

posted by Aaron Fischer on Thursday, May 31, 2007 12:47:56 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)   #    Comments [0]
 Wednesday, May 30, 2007
posted by Aaron Fischer on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 8:19:54 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)   #    Comments [0]
Random test data generation.  If you generate random data how good is your test?  If your just testing load this practice is fine but for any thing else you need some semblance of real data.  How can you run a report and validate it if your returned a random assortment of string data?  What would really be the golden standard would be a database of real data such as street addresses names email... A good seed to base your Test data off of.
posted by Aaron Fischer on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 3:25:19 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)   #    Comments [1]

My fist post with Live Writer beta 2.  Quite different looking. Cool new inline spell check sadly it doesn't extent to links.  I just wish during the install process they didn't try to set my home page to MSN.

Windows Live Writer Beta2

This is going to take some getting used to...

posted by Aaron Fischer on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 3:20:02 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)   #    Comments [0]
 Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Resales Fall; Unsold Homes Hit 15-Year High

Single-family existing-home sales fell 2.4% in April, and the supply of unsold homes on the market shot up to the highest level in 15 years, according to the National Association of Realtors. The NAR reported that sales of previously owned single-family homes fell from a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.35 million in March to 5.22 million in April. Compared with the level recorded in April 2006, sales were down 11.2%. NAR senior economist Lawrence Yun said the April sales continued to be affected by weather issues and the problems in the subprime market. However, he said he is seeing data that show improved sales in early May. And he said it may indicate that the subprime problem will turn out to be a "short-term disruption to the homebuying process" as buyers find other mortgage products. Meanwhile, the supply of unsold single-family homes jumped by 11.5% to 3.6 million in April, which represents an 8.3-month supply at the current sales pace and the highest monthly supply since 1992. Sales of condominiums and co-ops fell 3.8% in April, but inventories rose by only 4.1%. The NAR economist said the condo market has strengthened thanks to "bottom fishing" by investors.

posted by Aaron Fischer on Tuesday, May 29, 2007 10:47:39 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)   #    Comments [0]

Introducing  a new step in web 2.0 maps Google's new street view. check it out.

posted by Aaron Fischer on Tuesday, May 29, 2007 9:08:30 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)   #    Comments [0]

Erika wrote a couple posts worth a look regarding Data driven document generation.

Data-driven document generation with Word 2007 and the Office XML File Formats: Part 1

Data-driven document generation with Word 2007 and the Office XML File Formats: Part 2

Also If you wanted to take a Mail Merge word doc and port it over to XML

Migrating Mail Merge Fields to Content Controls ( I republished the code so that its legible)

 

Private Sub Document_Open()

    If (MsgBox("Convert Mail Merge fields to Content Controls?", vbYesNo, "Convert Mail Merge Fields") = vbYes) Then

        ConvertMailMergeFields

    End If

End Sub

'** Traverse Mail Merge fields collection and convert each mail merge field into a content control
'** while preserving its font style and format.
Private Sub ConvertMailMergeFields()

    Dim i As Integer, Count As Integer
    Dim currentFont As Font
    Dim mergeFieldname As String
    Dim field As MailMergeField

    For Each field In ActiveDocument.MailMerge.Fields

        '** Select Mail Merge field to process.
        field.Select
        Set currentFont = Selection.Font

        '** Set name for content control.
        mergeFieldname = GetMailMergeFieldName(field.Code)
        Debug.Print ("Processing [" & mergeFieldname & "]")

        '** Remove Mail Merge field and replace it with addition of new content control.
        Selection.Cut

        '** Add new content control.
        AddContentControl mergeFieldname, currentFont
        Count = Count + 1

    Next

    Debug.Print ("Number of Mail Merge Fields converted to Content Controls: " & Count)

End Sub

'** Add new content control.
Private Sub AddContentControl(ByVal mergeFieldname As String, ByVal currentFont As Font)

    Dim newControl As ContentControl
    Dim fontStyleName As String

    Set newControl = ActiveDocument.ContentControls.Add(wdContentControlText)

    '** The Title property only allows for 64 characters.
    '** If name is longer, we will put the rest in the Tag property.
    If (Len(mergeFieldname) < 64) Then

        newControl.Title = mergeFieldname
        newControl.Tag = "" 

    Else

        newControl.Title = Mid(mergeFieldname, 1, 64)
        newControl.Tag = Mid(mergeFieldname, 65, Len(mergeFieldname) - 64)

    End If

    newControl.SetPlaceholderText , , "Click to add."

    '** Set font for content control.
    fontStyleName = GetFontStyleName(currentFont)
    SetFontStyle newControl, fontStyleName, currentFont

    '** Allow carriage return.
    newControl.MultiLine = True

End Sub

'** Quick and dirty way to check to see if the given font style exist; if it does not, create it.
Private Sub SetFontStyle(ByRef newControl As ContentControl, ByVal fontStyleName As String, ByVal currentFont As Font)

    On Error GoTo Error_FontStyleDoesNotExist

    newControl.DefaultTextStyle = fontStyleName

    Exit Sub

Error_FontStyleDoesNotExist:

    AddNewFontStyle fontStyleName, currentFont
    newControl.DefaultTextStyle = fontStyleName

End Sub

Private Sub AddNewFontStyle(ByVal newFontStyleName As String, ByVal currentFont As Font)

    Dim fontStyle As Style

    Set fontStyle = ActiveDocument.Styles.Add(newFontStyleName)

    With currentFont

        fontStyle.Font.Name = .Name
        fontStyle.Font.Size = .Size
        fontStyle.Font.Bold = .Bold
        fontStyle.Font.Italic = .Italic

    End With

End Sub

Private Function GetFontStyleName(ByVal currentFont As Font) As String

    Dim fontStyleName As String

    With currentFont

        fontStyleName = .Name
        fontStyleName = fontStyleName & .Size
        fontStyleName = fontStyleName & .Bold
        fontStyleName = fontStyleName & .Italic

    End With

    '** Return result.
    GetFontStyleName = fontStyleName

End Function

Private Function GetMailMergeFieldName(ByVal fieldCode As String) As String

    Dim mergeFieldname As String: mergeFieldname = ""

    '** Name of Mail merge field: MERGEFIELD MailMergeFieldName \* MERGEFORMAT
    mergeFieldname = Replace(fieldCode, "MERGEFIELD", "")
    mergeFieldname = Replace(mergeFieldname, "\* MERGEFORMAT", "")
    mergeFieldname = Trim(mergeFieldname)

    '** Return result.
    GetMailMergeFieldName = mergeFieldname

End Function
posted by Aaron Fischer on Tuesday, May 29, 2007 7:36:12 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)   #    Comments [0]

Another Microsofties take on Financial Services OBA and some useful links.

Office Business Applications: Financial Services(Erika Ehrli)

Webcast: Building Compelling Financial Applications with VSTO 2005 SE and Excel Services

posted by Aaron Fischer on Tuesday, May 29, 2007 7:26:42 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)   #    Comments [0]
 Sunday, May 27, 2007
posted by Aaron Fischer on Sunday, May 27, 2007 3:35:22 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)   #    Comments [0]

In the inbox today.  Notice the use of BOA actual images.  FireFox and IE did recognize this as a phishing site.  It might be good for email to start checking links against known Phishers.  It never hurts to be more preemptive.

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posted by Aaron Fischer on Sunday, May 27, 2007 3:29:13 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)   #    Comments [0]