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The SQL Server, Business Intelligence, SharePoint and .NET Developers vConferences are just around the corner – be sure to get registered to save your spot and stay up to date as we work to build out these great online resources.
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SQL Server Show Available
SelectViews: SQL Server 2008 Upgrade Experiences, Departmental Databases, What is Growing Your Database? Uptime and Downtime Planning, Upcoming Events, xp_cmdshell Tips and a Lot More.
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Office and SQL Server
(Send in your thoughts about Office and SQL Server here)
Jamie writes: "I have helped clients use Excel, Word, Access and even PowerPoint to extract data from SQL Server for years. I like your idea of a “freshness date.” However, I also found the need and wrote a macro/VBA in Excel to automatically refresh the data when the sheet was opened. This helped out tremendously for my non-techie clients. In an Introductory SQL Server course for Learning Tree, I included a small chapter to show pulling data into Excel and creating ADP in Access on the database. Students also rave about this chapter. And it is all so easy. Analysis Services and Excel go hand in hand especially with Pivot tables. My course covers that too and it energizes the students to all the possibilities. I would like to see Word ditch the mail merge and get a bit easier to pull data into documents.
Now for changes, we have to write VBA code to send data changes back to SQL Server from inside Excel. It would be cool since the query is saved in the sheet if Excel could take a change back through the connection that would be awesome. Well maybe. It could also be a nightmare."
Clay: "I would be especially interested in this. I work at a college and higher level administrators are always concerned about enrollment overall in certain programs etc. They don’t want numbers per se just quick visual confirmations unless it is red and they have to look at more detail. I know there is dashboard software out there but if I could accomplish this sort of stuff in Excel I would love that because they all know how to use Excel. Sounds really cool. I am going to have to play with this."
Jeff: "In my organization, we’ve been working with having SQL Server communicate with Exchange and ultimately Outlook 2007. Our project manager sets up tasks for our techs, and then we have the SQL Server communicate some of that information to Exchange so that the task shows up on the techs calendar the next time they open Outlook. We use the SQL Server for the techs to enter in their time worked for billing and reporting purposes. Now we’re still working the kinks out and doing lots of testing, but the end results look promising for our scheduling of resources."
Webcast: SQL Server Database Snapshots: Are They Right for Me?
In this webcast, sponsored by Quest Software, SQL Server expert Tom LaRock will discuss SQL Server database snapshots and how you can implement them in your environment. He will outline the advantages and limitations of using these snapshots and investigate common use cases where they can successfully be deployed. Tom is a DBA manager with ING Investments and a member of Quests Association of SQL Server Experts.
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> Live date: 9/9/2008
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