Recently I was asked by a teacher from one of the Singapore School Clusters on how do we create a video using Microsoft Powerpoint 2010. Teachers want to use the feature so that they can create a video for their class. I thought it will be interesting to share how do we go about doing it since i found no clear resource on how we can do this online.

I created this screencast hoping to assist people on how to create a video from powerpoint in Powerpoint 2010

Note: You can record narrations into the video and laser pointer as well.

You can download the sample file here:
http://cid-29f099c37b76ca59.office.live.com/self.aspx/Blog/Office%20Demo/Lim%20Guo%20Hong.pptx

Should you have any question, please feel free to contact me at guohong@limguohong.com

Do visit Tutorials page for more tutorials!

The first thing I thought of was the Green App project which I did during codeXtremeApps 2010 Its a Windows Phone 7 project where we direct our users to the nearest recyling bin around Singapore for them to recyle their waste product. There are more functions which I will not elaborate on here. I will be updating my project/portfolio page soon! I was playing with the Bing Maps Direction Task API just this afternoon. Thought it will be useful to post a tutorial on how to use it. Should you face with any problems, feel free to contact me via the Contact Me form or email me at guohong@limguohong.com

Step 1 : Adding using Microsoft.Phone.Tasks and using System.Device.Location into references.

Step 2 :  Adding the Microsoft.Phone.Tasks and System.Device.Location into the project

Step 3 : Initialize a BingMapsDirectionsTask and create a start and end LabeledMapLocation . Note that start is optional. Should you not provide start location, the API will use the current location by default.

At the end of it, .Show() it and it will show the map.

BingMapsDirectionsTask Direction = new BingMapsDirectionsTask();

LabeledMapLocation start = new LabeledMapLocation(“Hougang Ave 4 919 Singapore , Singapore”, null);
LabeledMapLocation end = new LabeledMapLocation(“Paya Lebar Air Base, Singapore”, null);

Direction.Start = start;
Direction.End = end;

Direction.Show();

You can download a usage demostration of the class here. Source code included.

Please note that this is written for WP7.1

Bing Map Direction Task Demo Source Code Screenshot

P.S: These 2 classes caught my attention, when I have some spare time, I will look into if I will be able to use it in my Slime Sweeper 2! ShareLinkTask class and Share Status Task Class!

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me via the contact form, comment or email me at guohong@limguohong.com

Do check out the tutorial page too!

Missing sln file in Solution Explorer - 1

Apparently, what we have to do is just to go into Tools > Options in Visual Studio and go into Projects and Solutions and select General. There is an option called “Always show solution“. Check it and save and you will see your solution file!

Missing sln file in Solution Explorer - 2

Missing sln file in Solution Explorer - 3

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me via the contact form, comment or email me at guohong@limguohong.com

Do check out the tutorial page too!

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint-help/embed-in-or-link-to-a-video-from-your-presentation-HA010374729.aspx

One of the common questions are what are the different format available,

Note Videos in the .mp4, .mov, and .qt formats can be played in PowerPoint
if the Apple QuickTime player is installed.

File format	Extension	More information
Adobe Flash Media	.swf	Flash Video This file format is generally used to deliver video over the Internet using the Adobe Flash Player.
Windows Media file	.asf	Advanced Streaming Format This file format stores synchronized multimedia data and can be used to stream audio and video content, images, and script commands over a network.
Windows Video file	.avi	Audio Video Interleave This is a multimedia file format for storing sound and moving pictures in Microsoft Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF) format. It is one of the most common formats because audio or video content that is compressed with a wide variety of codecs (codec: An abbreviation for compressor/decompressor. Software or hardware used to compress and decompress digital media.) can be stored in an .avi file.
Movie file	.mpg or .mpeg	Moving Picture Experts Group This is an evolving set of standards for video and audio compression developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group. This file format was designed specifically for use with Video-CD and CD-i media.
Windows Media Video file	.wmv	Windows Media Video This file format compresses audio and video by using the Windows Media Video codec (codec: An abbreviation for compressor/decompressor. Software or hardware used to compress and decompress digital media.), a tightly compressed format that requires a minimal amount of storage space on your computer’s hard disk.

Note The third-party products discussed in this article are manufactured by vendors independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding the performance or reliability of
these products.

Quoted from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint-help/compatible-audio-and-video-file-formats-in-powerpoint-2010-HA010336709.aspx

If you want to give it a try, you can download the sample files from here
http://cid-29f099c37b76ca59.office.live.com/self.aspx/Blog/Office%20Demo/Remove%20Background%20Sample.zip

Should you have any question, please feel free to contact me at guohong@limguohong.com

Microsoft Excel 2010 – Combing 2 charts into one ( Using same data source )
If you are looking for different data source, please look here
http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-excel/archive/2007/08/24/combining-chart-types-adding-a-second-axis.aspx

You can download the sample file here :
http://cid-29f099c37b76ca59.office.live.com/self.aspx/Blog/Office%20Demo/Double%20Chart%20Sample.xlsx

Should you have any question, please feel free to contact me at guohong@limguohong.com

We were posed some questions, I realised that it is useful to post some of them in a form of guide here so it will help teachers. How do we protect some cells and not allow editing on them while allowing some others to be edited. It will be useful when ICT HODs or teachers want to do up an excel document with the formulas and wish to send to his/her team to use but they do not want them to mess it up.

1. First, lets open up Microsoft Excel 2010.

2. In this example, we will add first and second column and show the result in the third column.
Select A3, go to Formulas tab > AutoSum > Sum

3. Select A1 and A2 for your data range.

4. On the bottom right of the cell, you will see a enlarged black dot, click on it and drag it all the way down to 20th row. ( In this example, we will just make use of 20 rows for the calculation. )

5. You will see something like this.

6. Right click on the 20 cells and go to Format Cells

7. Go to Protection and make sure Locked is ticked. This means these cells are not allowed to be edited.

8. Now Select A1 to B20

9. Right click on the selected cells and go to Format Cells

10. Go to the Protection Tab and untick Locked ( This means these cells can be edited )

11. You might want to color the cells so that your end user will know that these cells can be edited by going to Home tab > Cell Styles > choose Input.

12. Go to Review tab > Protect Sheet

13. Input a password into the dialog box which appears. Please remember the password as you require that to unlock.

14. Another dialog box will appear to confirm the password, input the same password in again.

15. Try inputing values in A1-B20 and you will realised that you can do it but you cant do it when you try on other cells.

This concludes the tutorial on how do you protect selected cells in Microsoft Excel 2010. I have attached the sample document which you can download and have a look.

http://cid-29f099c37b76ca59.office.live.com/self.aspx/Blog/Office%20Demo/Protecting%5E_Selected%5E_Cells.xlsx

Should you have any question, please feel free to contact me at guohong@limguohong.com

We can see this here, http://create.msdn.com/en-us/education/basics/developer_resources

Silverlight for Windows Phone
XNA Game Studio and XNA Framework
Windows Phone Developer Tools and Device Unlock
User Experience and User Interface
Application and Execution Model
Input, Touch and Gestures
Launchers and Choosers
Security
Frame and Page Navigation
Isolated Storage
Performance
Advertising Services
Camera and Photos
Media – Audio and Video
Push Notifications and Live Tiles
App Bar and Controls
Location and Mapping
Networking and Web Services
Sensors
Globalization and Localization
Porting Your App or Game to Windows Phone 7
Application Publishing and Marketplace

Based on Theme Resources for Windows Phone, under Theme Visibility and Opacity.
By checking Resources, I am able to check if its Visible or Collapsed for the dark or White theme by doing this

Visibility isLight = (Visibility)Resources["PhoneLightThemeVisibility"]; // for light theme
Visibility isDark = (Visibility)Resources["PhoneDarkThemeVisibility"]; // for dark theme

Then we use if else to check,

if (isLight == System.Windows.Visibility.Visible)
{
//We are on light theme
}

Light Theme

or

if (isDark == System.Windows.Visibility.Visible)
{
//We are on dark theme
}

Dark Theme

Attached is a sample code to show how do I detect Windows Phone 7 theme, before the Mango buuild ( I am unsure if there is a change after Mango ).
Detect Theme on Windows Phone 7 Sample

Allowing incoming ICMP Echo messages in Windows Firewall will allow others to ping your computer but note that your server might then be vulnerable to attackes that make uses of ICMP Echo messages like Ping Flood. Do disable it when you dont need them.

To enable ICMP Echo messages, enable the inbound custom rules to allow ICMPv4 and ICMPv6 Echo Request packets.

1. Go to Control Panel

Windows Server 2008 R2 Control Panel

2. Go to System and Security

Windows Server 2008 R2 System and Security

3. Select Windows Firewall

Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Firewall

4. Select Inbound Rules

Windows Firewall Inbound Rules

5. Under File and Printer Sharing (Echo Request – ICMPv4-In) , right click on it and enable rules.

Windows Firewall Enable Rules

6. Under File and Printer Sharing (Echo Request – ICMPv6-In) , right click on it and enable rules.

Afterwhich, you should be able to ping the server, its recommended that you disable the rule after use.