Editor's Note - August 1999

Beta Believe It

Feedback on our Personalization Beta has been very gratifying. You've told us that you love choosing what appears on your TechNet home page.

With personalization, you can still access TechNet's regular content; however, you can also select products and topics according to your interests. For example, if you're a database administrator who just wants to look at the most recent information on Microsoft SQL Server and Windows NT, simply select them and the TechNet home page will display headlines for only those products

We're aware that IT pros wear many hats that change with new products and job responsibilities. As a result, we designed personalization as a dynamic feature. Edit choices as you shift from one product to another, or, better yet, from one phase of a product's life cycle to the next. Select links to local news and events in your area that can help you stay current with the technical issues that keep us all on our toes.

Accessing content made easier

Good news: As you may have noticed, only a few areas (Newsgroups, Product Reviews, the Puzzler and the Flash newsletter) still require registration. We've "torn down" the registration wall for most of the site, making it easier to access TechNet's comprehensive content.

HTML Auto Layout (HAL) for International Sites

Increasingly, developers are taking advantage of the richness of HTML to create an application's user interface. That's great for development, but it can cause severe problems (and great expense) for applications that need to be localized into multiple languages. To address this issue, Microsoft has developed a new document – including a live Web demo – that explains how to create HTML pages, dialog boxes, and user interfaces that need no resizing after translation.

Knowledge Management and Collaboration Training Roadmap

This new document maps out training options for developers and IT professionals who are designing, implementing, and/or supporting messaging and collaboration solutions or platforms. Included among its course recommendations Roadmap are Tom Rizzo's "Programming Outlook and Exchange" and the Exchange Hands-on Training (HOT) kit.

TechNet Talks

Last month, we launched a series of interviews with some of technology's most influential executives. Beginning August 16, TechNet will feature an interview with Brian Valentine, Vice President in charge of Windows for Microsoft. Valentine will discuss the Windows 2000 beta program, his favorite features and the challenges he faces managing the team that's developing this very high profile Microsoft product.

TechNet Flash

Subscriptions to the Flash continue to grow. Each issue provides valuable technical information on Microsoft products, plus the latest Service Packs and Knowledge Base (KB) articles from Microsoft Support. Find out about free TechNet Events in your local area by entering your zip code in the appropriate field when registering.

Feedback

We've added more members to the Answer Team. Whether you like what you see or think we could do something better, please let us know.

Tim McBride
Group Manager
Microsoft TechNet

Illustrated portrait by Elizabeth Anderson, MSN Staff