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Thinking about taking a Microsoft Certification Exam?

Or perhaps one of your friends / colleagues / students is thinking of taking an exam?

What tools are available when you take an exam, how do you maneouver? 

When you take an exam you should not need to worry about any of that.

Prepare!

Here's a 'snack' that you can use to get an idea of what to expect.

The "BYTES" series of videos (filmed at Tech.Ed) are great.  However, one of the most recent releases captured my attention:  Patrick Butler Monterde, Sr. Consultant at Microsoft, discusses how NASA uses the cloud to search for Martians.  If you need a "constructive" break from the daily grind, don't miss this fascinating 5 min interview with Chris Henley and Patrick Butler Monterde as they discuss Martian landscapes, mortgages, drug studies and pizza. Learn how NASA is outsourcing workloads for free, and why Domino’s is avoiding data center meltdowns on Super Bowl Sunday, by leveraging Windows Azure. Patrick and Chris cover many possible applications for a Windows Azure platform, and compute time opportunities that extend way beyond NASA and the financial services industry. A must see!

Many of you have been involved in beta testing new versions of Microsoft’s software products. But have you ever considered getting involved earlier in the process, before all the features and functionality are locked? Microsoft’s User Research group is specifically interested in finding more CERTIFIED individuals to give feedback on new products and services.* You can get a sneak peek at the earliest versions, while providing guidance and direction for the product development. Participants may also receive a new Microsoft hardware or software gratuity for participating in specific studies.

Don't live in the Redmond area? Not a problem. Many of the usability studies can now be done remotely.

Here it is!  The September list - this time with product numbers!  

Please note:

1. Microsoft Official Courses (MOC) are instructor-led training courses offered by our Certified Partners.  Not all classes will be offered by all partners.  Find a training center through Class Locator and see if they will be offering the course you need.

2. Community Courses (CC) are instructor-led training courses offered by our Certified Partners wherein the content is authored by our learning community.

3. General Availability for MOC and CC is dependent on our Certified Partners, but the earliest is Ship Date + 7 days.

4. Products with no link currently don’t have a URL – search for the course in the training catalog

5. Release dates are always in flux so in the unlikely case that a product is delayed, we will try to let you know - post a comment if you can't find something

Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009

Microsoft Dynamics C5

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009

Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step

Microsoft Office 2007 & 2010

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010

Microsoft Expression Blend

Microsoft Online Services

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

Microsoft SQL Server 2008

Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 & 2010

Windows Server 2003 & 2008

Windows 7

How time flies... 8 Years ago I joined Microsoft and joined the Microsoft Press team. With many strong series in print, the Inside Out books were my favorite as these books are really the encyclopedias on the topics they cover. Fans of the 'Inside Out' series will know the incredible detail that these books include, they are a 'must have' for anyone that wants to get the most out of (or support!) applications.We’re pleased to announce the release of Microsoft Office 2010 Inside Out, we just sent the RTM text to the printer and the book will be available in a bookstore near you soon.  I've listed the table of contents below and you can review a sample here.

Part 1: Office Fundamentals
Chapter 1 Inside Office 2010
Chapter 2 Installing and Updating Microsoft Office 2010
Chapter 3 Using and Customizing the Office Interface
Chapter 4 Managing Office Files
Chapter 5 Entering, Editing, and Formatting Text
Chapter 6 Working with Graphics and Pictures

Part 2: Word
Chapter 7 Inside Word 2010
Chapter 8 Working with Complex Documents
Chapter 9 Reviewing and Sharing Documents
Chapter 10 Word 2010 Inside Out

Part 3: Excel
Chapter 11 Inside Excel 2010
Chapter 12 Managing Lists and Data 
Chapter 13 Charts and Data Analysis 
Chapter 14 Excel 2010 Inside Out

Part 4: OneNote
Chapter 15 Inside OneNote 2010
Chapter 16 Tagging, Organizing, and Finding Information
Chapter 17 OneNote 2010 Inside Out

Part 5: PowerPoint
Chapter 18 Inside PowerPoint 2010
Chapter 19 Polishing and Delivering a Presentation
Chapter 20 PowerPoint 2010 Inside Out 

Part 6: Outlook
Chapter 21 Inside Outlook 2010
Chapter 22 Organizing Outlook Information 
Chapter 23 Outlook 2010 Inside Out 

Part 7: Sharing and Collaborating
Chapter 24 Security, Sharing, and Collaboration
Chapter 25 Using Office in a Web Browser
Chapter 26 Working with SharePoint 2010

If you're an IT Pro or Developer blogger, a user groups lead or if you run an IT Departments, then Microsoft Broadcaster will be of interest to you. You probable spend a few hours a month looking for content, and there is a LOT of content out there. Microsoft Broadcaster makes life easy as it enables you to download key Technical content ( Webcasts, podcasts, white papers) aggregated across Microsoft assets that are relevant to the IT Pro and Developer adoption lifecycle and to embed them in your own sites/blogs/internal training for richer content postings.

Key Features of Microsoft Broadcaster include:

• Permission and ability to download and embed content on your sites without sending traffic away from your site.
• Customize by product e.g. Windows®, SharePoint®, Microsoft Office 
• Customize content by keyword
• Customize content by form factor e.g. webcasts, videos, podcasts
• Set alerts for content updates

DreamSpark is a fantastic resource for students. As the tagline states, DreamSpark is about giving students Microsoft professional tools at no charge. If you are a high school student or teacher, you may want to take a closer look at DreamSpark here.

I just heard that DreamSpark has partnered with Windows Marketplace for Mobile and students can now get the same tools the professional developers and designers have and sell mobile applications and make money! To help get you started, we're waiving the $99 registration fee and giving you the first 5 application submissions for free!

By the way, have a look at this clip where a fellow developer tells a great story about the app he's working on.

The tagline for this post is relatively lame, but you can consider it a lead in to one of my big journeys for the coming year.  In a recent conference where I had the privilege to spend a lot of time with trainers and partners, we talked a lot about Author Enablement (what might have the tagline, but it is way too pretentious...).

There are a number of forums and places online today where content authors, publishers and those who have a vested interest in the quality of their work can meet and discuss the quality of courseware in general and Community Courseware in particular.  While at this conference we brainstormed a number of ways that the resources available (or referred to) on the Authoring Resources page of the Microsoft Learning Courseware Library site could be more rich.  They included:

• Videos (3-7 minutes each) on:
  • How to write solid course objectives
  • Figuring out how long a course should be
  • How to prioritize feedback
  • Update and revision strategies
  • How to get good quality OOB (Out Of the Box)
  • NOTE: these would be interviews with Microsoft Learning professionals, master trainers and existing Community authors.
• Lists of relevant online resources
• A Publisher's/Author's Forum as part of the existing Born To Learn forums
• More blog posts on:
  • How do you start?
  • Straddling the box of ILT (Instructor Led Training) - that is, how to think about innovating while keeping a solid eye on what your customers' expect.
  • Strategies on ramping up on technologies

This is a pretty good start.  What else would you like to see covered, and in what kind of context (video, forum, blog/comments, etc.)?

If you’re thinking about going to TechEd Europe, now is the time to save money while committing to your ongoing professional development. Register for TechEd Europe 2010 by 31 August and receive a €200 discount off the €1895 price! The event is scheduled for 8-12 November in Berlin, Germany. Also, if you book your hotel room by 31 August, you’ll receive a free public transportation (BVG) travel pass, valid for 6 days.

If you had to list your continuing education efforts on a resume today, would you feel like you’d invested enough in your future? Does your professional development history show enthusiasm for your field through continued learning? Are you up to date on the latest technologies? Are you ready to be a technology leader?

If the answer to any of the questions above is no, or sort of, then invest in your career and attend TechEd Europe. You will walk away smarter.

This week, York was the place to be for our Microsoft Certified Trainers. 130 MCTs from 30 countries gathered and shared their tips and tricks, content, leads as they prepared for a new wave of technical training. The event was set up by two MCTs, Andrew Bettany and Daniel Sorlov, and it was a true Labor of Love. Great content, energizing and expert speakers and a keen eye for detail ensured that we all learned a lot during 3 intense days of trainer preparation. The event once again demonstrated the incredible (Please visit the site to view this media)dedication and passion of the MCT community, I'm a lucky man for getting to be the 'community lead' for this worldwide league of technical trainers.

I would like to thank the University of York for hosting us and of course we are all also very grateful towards all speakers that gave us their time and expertise. MCTs that did not attend; stay tuned as you will see the recorded sessions show up on your MCT Readiness site soon!