My Thoughts on the MCM/MCSM/MCA Certification Debacle

I bet big on the Microsoft Masters certification. I put my job and reputation on the line to pursue a certification that was described as the pinnacle of Microsoft’s learning efforts. I convinced my employer that it was worthwhile to spend $20,000 to distinguish itself from other SharePoint consultancies. I signed agreements with my employer to foot the bill for retakes if I failed ($2,500), on a program that was so rigorous that normally less than half passed the first time around. I stuck my neck out FAR for the Masters program. So it certainly came as a shock (and a punch in the gut) when I got this email Saturday morning announcing the cancellation of the program:

(more…)

Continue ReadingMy Thoughts on the MCM/MCSM/MCA Certification Debacle

ASHX Generic Handlers and SharePoint – Now in CKSDEV

One of the more popular posts on this blog detailed how to create and deploy a Generic ASHX handler with your SharePoint projects. While you can still do this manually per that post, this is made much easier with the inclusion of a new item template that is part of the CKSDev tools extension.

(more…)

Continue ReadingASHX Generic Handlers and SharePoint – Now in CKSDEV

SharePoint 2013 Composed Looks – Custom Web Font Previews

When developing a custom composed look in SharePoint 2013, you can specify the font scheme to use via the .spfont file. In the Change the Look page, you can see previews of your fonts in action. For standard fonts, there isn’t anything extra to do, but for web fonts, you can specify font preview images to give your theme a little more polish. This post will show you how to create those preview images of your web fonts.

(more…)

Continue ReadingSharePoint 2013 Composed Looks – Custom Web Font Previews

SharePoint 2013 Composed Looks – Getting a Preview Picture to Work

When creating your own custom composed looks for SharePoint 2013, you can have your composed look appear in the Change the Look page, with a preview picture. This post will tell you how to get your custom composed look to be available, and cover some of the pitfalls with trying to get your preview picture to appear. (more…)

Continue ReadingSharePoint 2013 Composed Looks – Getting a Preview Picture to Work