Visual Studio “Orcas” will feature a new Web Form designer codenamed “Quartz” based on FrontPage technologies replacing the one of Visual Studio 2005 codenamed “Trident” based on IE (MSHTML):

Sapphire: New Web Form designer in Visual Studio Orcas
http://blogs.msdn.com/mikhailarkhipov/archive/2007/01/20/sapphire-new-web-form-designer-in-visual-studio-orcas.aspx

If you have tried to make your Visual Studio add-in to work with WebForms or HTML pages, you know how difficult it is. So, I have opened a suggestion in the Microsoft Connect website for feedback:

Add extensibility support for WebForms/HTML forms in VS Orcas
https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=254426

You can visit it and add your vote to my suggestion. Hopefully we can have a better extensibility for Webforms/HTML pages in VS Orcas. The February CTP will be the starting point to test it.

In a previous post I mentioned several tools that are part of my toolset as an add-in developer. In this post I would like to mention Microangelo, an icon editor that I use to create the icons/pictures for the command buttons of my MZ-Tools add-in. Once created there, I copy and paste them in the image editor of Visual Studio to change the background to almost green (R=0, G=254, B=0) that you must use for command pictures as explained here:

HOWTO: Creating custom pictures for Visual Studio .NET add-ins commands, buttons and toolwindows.
http://www.mztools.com/articles/2005/MZ007.htm

I have been using MicroAngelo since almost 10 years ago, when I started working at my current company where we purchased it. I liked it, so years later I purchased a license of version 5.x for my own use on Windows XP and I used it to create the TrueColor icons of the version of my add-in for VS 2005, which was very easy thanks to the tool (I am not very talented for graphics but I got managed to create some gradients). But several weeks ago I got a new laptop (a very nice Sony Vaio SZ3) and I installed Windows Vista, Office 2007, but alas, the capture feature of Microangelo 5.x did not work. Today I have got a new version 6.0 of Microangelo that is compatible and certified for Windows Vista 🙂

It has been several weeks since my last post but December 2006 was a quite hectic month, apart from the Cristhmas I got a LASIK operation for myopia on December 1 and I worked hard to get a new build of my MZ-Tools add-in with many optimizations for January 1. So, Happy New Year!

I also got the MVP title one more year on January 2 so the year could not start better…that means my 4th year as MVP, still in the generic “Visual Basic” category since there is no enough people for a “VS extensibility” category. But it doesn’t matter, I am commited to VS extensibility and this year I do plan to write many more mini articles (HOWTO, BUG, etc.) on my web site that I will announce here.