By Chris R. Chapman at April 25, 2010 12:47
Filed Under: office2010, sharepoint2010

Office2010_posters_pictureJust noticed this site on the #SharePoint twitter feed – excellent resource.  It’s a community-driven aggregation of those fantastic Office and SharePoint tech posters that MSFT publishes but makes incredibly difficult to find in one place.  While with MCS, I took to keeping copies of posters I found on a separate drive that I jealously guarded – I never knew if I’d see them again!

So, someone had an itch and scratched it with a wiki post over on the new-ish TechNet beta wiki with a “call to action” for the community to help add links and keep them current.  Hence:  DIY. 

Here’s a list of what’s there right now:

  • 64-bit Client Installation of Microsoft Office 2010
  • Microsoft Business Connectivity Services Model
  • Getting started with business intelligence in SharePoint Server 2010
  • Content Deployment in SharePoint Server 2010
  • SharePoint 2010 Products Deployment
  • Deployment Options for Microsoft Office 2010
  • Hosting Environments for SharePoint 2010 Products
  • Deploy Multilanguage Packs for Microsoft Office 2010
  • Databases That Support SharePoint 2010 ProductsExtranet Topologies for SharePoint 2010 Products
  • Search Technologies for SharePoint 2010 Products
  • Search Environment Planning for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
  • Search Architectures for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
  • Design Search Architectures for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
  • Cross-farm Services in SharePoint 2010 Products
  • Services in SharePoint 2010 Products
  • Topologies for SharePoint Server 2010
  • Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products Upgrade Approaches
  • Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products Upgrade Planning
  • Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 — Services Upgrade
  • Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products — Test Your Upgrade Process

I’ll refrain from reposting the links as they may go stale here – bookmark the wiki page and download your faves.

By Chris R. Chapman at April 25, 2010 01:23
Filed Under: sharepoint2010, office2010

Being a Saturday morning, I’m not on any official cases – however, in a tweet by Bil Simser earlier today I learned something rather disturbing that I thought should warrant a reference in my case files:

bsimser RT @sondergaard: Edit in Datasheet view not possible with Office 2010 x64 http://bit.ly/dD8aFI {among other x64 client restrictions}

Uh-oh.  I followed over to Ishai Sagi’s blog post from yesterday and learned the awful details:

I installed Office x64 - in hope that it would work better on my Windows 2008r2 machine, utilizing whatever it needed from its 12GB RAM (ok, honestly - I don't actually need 64bit office. this version is meant for excel dark wizards who need more power when working on worksheets bigger than 2GB). However, I almost immediately regretted that choice, as now I cannot use the datasheet view in SharePoint (both 2007 and 2010). This  technet article explains that this is because the 64bit version does not support the 32bit activeX that is used by the datasheet view:

"The Edit in Datasheet view functionality is not supported if you install 64-bit Office 2010. However, the functionality is available if you install 32-bit Office 2010. "

Definitely a caveat emptor for your deployments – and rather ironic considering how, for example, Adobe has been given the gears for not having a 64–bit version of Flash available and similarly emploring users to do the 32–bit hokey-pokey.  Diving in to the referenced TechNet Article (64–Bit Editions of Office 2010), there is a downloadable poster that outlines the deployment considerations you may need to be aware of when considering a 64x Office 2010 install – see the following capture:

Office2010_deployment_considerations

Highlights:

Advantages – more memory, Excel 2010 can have larger workbooks, Project 2010 can have larger projects (which, if you need it, suggests that technology isn’t your problem) and “enhanced default security protections”.

Disadvantages – 32–bit Access databases can’t be migrated directly to Office 2010 64x; 32–bit Active-X controls, COM Add-ins will not work; in-place activation of 32–bit components will likely fail; due to a lack of 64–bit Intel MMX support, GDI graphics rendering will be impacted; VBA code that uses the “Declare” statement to access Win32 API functions will need to be revised to use the PtrSafe attribute.

Something to bear in mind as you advise customers on migrating to SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010 – it’s always the legacy stuff that will get you.

About Me

I am a Toronto-based software consultant specializing in SharePoint, .NET technologies and agile/iterative/lean software project management practices.

I am also a former Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS) Consultant with experience providing enterprise customers with subject matter expertise for planning and deploying SharePoint as well as .NET application development best practices.  I am MCAD certified (2006) and earned my Professional Scrum Master I certification in late September 2010, having previously earned my Certified Scrum Master certification in 2006. (What's the difference?)