Documentation

While developing custom SharePoint solutions there is a big chance you need to look into the SharePoint SDK on regular. To keep off continuously surfing to the on-line reference, the SharePoint Team have provided us with the compiled CHM files. I admit that the off-line help files do simplify finding the information on a particular class, method or property. They have however two serious flaws: the content is outdated and there is no community content included in the off-line SDK.

To simplify the process of optimizing websites for search engines, Google has published yesterday the Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide. Although this is the first time that Google publishes such document, the guide contains many different practices which should help you get the most of your site and reach your audience. You should definitely check it out no matter if you are a developer, a designer or a content author. As long as you have anything to do with web technologies, the guide applies to you.

Recently I've been looking at various extensibility possibilities of Visual Studio 2008. After having successfully done a proof of concept I have thought, that ideally, I would never want to have to leave my development IDE while working on a SharePoint solution. Preferably I would like to have all the tools I need and all the shortcuts inside Visual Studio and run them with one single click. Wouldn't the life be great?

Last week I have started documenting the Imtech SharePoint Enhancement Toolkit. The toolkit consists of a module which increases the performance of Internet-facing web sites built upon SharePoint 2007 and a module which addresses accessibility and standards compliancy related issues - also in SharePoint 2007 based Internet-facing web sites.