July 3, 2013

Visio 2013 – new shapes and color scheme

Today I opened Visio to draw a simple network topology. The default shapes are different from Office 2010 and have taken more of a Windows 8 (“Modern UI”) look. Below are some an examples and stencil downloads for drawing the newer style of Microsoft diagrams.

Downloads

Exchange 2013 Office Visio Stencil.vss http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36448
FLEX_Stencil_112012.css https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35772
Technical diagrams for SharePoint 2013 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263199.aspx
Cross-product solutions with Exchange, Lync, and SharePoint Server http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn262744(v=office.15).aspx

December 26, 2012

Office 2013 – Save to My Computer by Default

While working in Office 2013, it became clear I was regularly clicking “Computer” for save location. This is the first edition of Office to save on Skydrive by default.

To save locally click File > Options > Save and check the box “Save to Computer by Default”

October 16, 2009

Extracting hyperlink destinations from Excel (Document Library item URLs)

I recently needed the destination URL for several hundred items across layers of nested folders in a giant SharePoint Document Library. Right clicking with “copy link location” just wasn’t going to work here. The datasheet view, Excel, and Access all came to mind as possible tools. In then end a quick Excel UDF (User Defined Function) helped get the job done. This is easily done against SharePoint Document Libraries because the default Title column links to the file item URL.

Choose “Export to Spreadsheet” from your document library
Open the .IQY file when prompted
Press Alt+F11, then Insert > Module
Paste in this code:

Function GetAddress(HyperlinkCell As Range)
    GetAddress = Replace _
    (HyperlinkCell.Hyperlinks(1).Address, "mailto:", "")
End Function

Save the workbook. Note: You might be prompted to save as XLSM for a macro enabled workbook, change the file type, and save.
Use the =getaddress(cell) function to see the URLs (screenshots below)

Sources Cited

http://www.ozgrid.com/VBA/HyperlinkAddress.htm

Function GetAddress(HyperlinkCell As Range)

GetAddress = Replace _

(HyperlinkCell.Hyperlinks(1).Address, "mailto:", "")

End Function

July 7, 2009

Drag and drop .XML files to Excel 2007

Working with SharePoint daily I see a great deal of XML data. System configuration, user data, feature definition, list schema, usage, etc. SharePoint is a product that lives and breathes in XML format for nearly everything.

I personally find Excel 2007 very handy here.

If you didn’t know it is possible to drag a plain XML file onto a blank workbook and follow the Excel 2007 defaults to view in a grid layout (sample below). From there it’s …