General Stuff

What has been, what is now, and what is coming!

Heather Solomon — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 04:13:36 GMT

Wow, it has been awhile since I posted on my blog. This is an update on the past, the present and the future. Thanks to everyone for your support, comments and care.

2009 was a challenging year for me and I went through several personal changes and challenges. I stayed super busy between being a Mom and helping to run a business. Any leftover time I came across I generally used to catch up on sleep! Many people reached out to me to see if I was OK and sent me very caring sentiments and just really nice comments. I appreciate that and it means a great deal to me. Thanks for being such a cool and tight-knit community!

Moving forward I will be posting about SharePoint 2010, and I am excited to do so in a completely new space! This blog has served me well, but honestly, it’s dated. My blog is also running on an older version of SubText and I don’t have the time and resources to properly upgrade and maintain the blog itself.   Very soon I will be moving to Word Press (don’t get me wrong, SubText is great!) AND changing URLs.   Fresh year, fresh product, fresh blog! All of my existing posts will stay intact and I will definitely keep my CSS chart and base master pages posted for your use. In addition to SharePoint, I am going to focus on CSS as well. Now more than ever it is important to know CSS to successfully brand SharePoint.

I am currently writing a new SharePoint Branding Bootcamp for 2010 course and the first delivery will be in Anaheim, March 29 – April 2nd. A lot of people ask me about writing a book. My class is my book. The cool and different thing about it though is that my course is living and continually growing. Every new thing I come across, every trick I create and new even brand new content is constantly being added to my course materials. And as Bootcamp alumi, you will get all of those updates moving forward. Paperback books can’t deliver new materials to your inbox ;-).

This year I am also going to be supporting the new Virtual SharePoint User Group. I have kids. I work. I have a house to keep up. I don’t have the energy to go to a user group meeting every month, especially in the evenings when my kiddos are home. How many of you feel like me?

Matt Passannante is heading up a new solution that will provide presentations, forums and a lot of great resources to our growing virtual community. The Virtual SharePoint User Group will function a lot like user groups located in cities, except it will offer more resources and doesn’t require chugging through rush hour traffic! Plus it is available to anyone, regardless of geographic location.

One last thing… you gotta check out our new site! Dustin Miller and I collaborated on creating a new SharePoint Bootcamp site that uses WordPress as a content management solution (what, no SharePoint? Yes… we don’t use SharePoint for the sake of using it. I believe in honest assessment of which tool is the best for your needs). The design and CMS system is one thing, but the bigger thing is the ease of access to information.  Subscribe to our RSS feed or iCal for the course schedule, and check out our courses by track, product and audience.

One last, last thing… I am on Twitter now.   @speheather Thanks to everyone out there who bugged me about it. ;-)

Learn how to brand SharePoint

Heather Solomon — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:23:52 GMT

In two weeks I am headed to sunny Anaheim California to teach my SharePoint Branding Bootcamp. There are still seats available and I would love to have you join me for a week (April 27 - May 1st) learning how to effectively brand the SharePoint interface.

A lot of my materials have been updated to include the latest tips and tricks I have discovered. This class covers more than just where SharePoint CSS files are or how to create a theme, we delve into master pages, WCM page layouts, customizing the content display and how to brand all the various components of SharePoint that are not otherwise caught by a master page change. We also go outside technical aspects and discuss how to start your branding process and gotchas for SharePoint design.

This class is for designers, developers, business managers with technical skills and anyone who needs to understand how to change the SharePoint interface. We use SharePoint Designer (SPD) to complete all tasks so you will additionally get a lot of time and experience with SPD.

Also in Anaheim will be Dustin Miller teaching the Original SharePoint Bootcamp and Matt Passannante teaching the SharePoint Administration Bootcamp. You will have access to both of these great guys to ask random SharePoint questions or just about anything in general. :-) We have a great time together, and hey we are staying inside of Disneyland!

To learn more about our classes, check out the web site: http://www.sharepointbootcamp.com/

Looking for people with ActionScript skills

Heather Solomon — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:11:22 GMT

I am looking for a few good people with specific skills.... My day job is serving as the Director of Creative Services at SharePoint Experts. We have an immediate need for consultants with ActionScript skills who can write components in Flash. We have short term contract work for a specific project, and we need someone with strong code skills, you don't have to be a designer, we got that part covered. :-)

As a side note, if "SyncSWF" means anything to you, please contact me!

If you are interested, please submit your resume and portfolio to the SharePoint Experts Contact Desk, using this form will allow you to upload files. Thanks!

Article about Designers returning to roots

Heather Solomon — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:28:13 GMT

This has nothing to do with SharePoint. :-) I found this article rather interesting... it is about designers getting back to doing things with their hands in this uber electronic, hands on activity depraved world.

Digital Designers Rediscover Their Hands

It struck particularly close to home with me, as I have picked up a new creative hobby and totally banned using computers in any way. Good stuff for the right side of your brain. The object of the article are designers from Adobe, which I also found interesting and inspiring. Maybe what SharePoint needs is a heavy dose of wood shop class!

Wherefore Art Thou Heather?

Heather Solomon — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 03:15:21 GMT

A few things....

I survived March! Thanks to everyone who took a minute to introduce themselves at the New York SharePoint User Group, the MVP Summit, the Houston SharePoint User Group and SharePoint Connections. It was a whirlwind month, but I met a lot of great people and learned a lot of new things. March Madness doesn't even begin to describe the month I had, but it was all good.
I survived the first 30 days of being an independent consultant! Just over a month ago I made the decision to have a go at my own business. I would like to again thank all my friends and family that have supported me during the last month. And a special thanks to my husband Drew who has braved QuickBooks, proof read way too many documents, and researched long into the night on my behalf. I could have not done this without him.
If you have emailed me, I have not responded, and for that I apologize. A lot of great comments and questions have come my way and I really wish I had the time to address each one promptly. I will handle what I can as soon as I can and I appreciate all the great feedback.
I have been a neglectful blogger, and that will change, I promise. I have lots of design stuff I want to get out here and with the first month of my biz under my belt and an actual plan to be in my hometown for more than a week at a time, I am going to start posting stuff again. :-)

Cheers all -

I got new digs!

Heather Solomon — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 15:49:07 GMT

Thanks to everyone who took a minute to let me know my site was having issues over the past few weeks. I do appreciate the heads up!

Thankfully I am now upgraded to a much more recent version of SubText (thanks AC) and I have changed hosting providers. After nearly two years dealing with sub-par service at WebHost4Life, I have moved to OrcsWeb, and I have to say their service has been outstanding. I have literally been floored by the fast and friendly responses and the quick way they handle support requests.

So now my contact page is back working, and my page load times are back to normal. Yay!

I am going out on my own...

Heather Solomon — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 13:30:00 GMT

I have made the decision to take the leap and become an independent consultant. This is an exciting time in my career path and I feel this is a great time for me to venture out and do this on my own. I have certainly put a lot of thought into this and it is something I have wanted to do for quite some time. I certainly appreciate the time and people I worked with at Fidelity and ShareSquared, those experiences have helped to focus my career and my knowledge.

As for my services, my specialty and focus is SharePoint branding, but I also provide web and graphic design services, as well as other SharePoint services such as education, administration, taxonomy and web content management. If you have other SharePoint needs, I can certainly help refer you to some excellent resources for development, training, infrastructure, executive planning and SharePoint champion advice and expertise.

January and February have been very interesting months, and I have to thank some people who have really been there for me and helped me with the next step of my life. Chris Regan, Andrew Connell, Bob Fox and of course my wonderful husband Drew... thanks guys. :-)

Happy New Year and 5 Things About Me...

Heather Solomon — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 13:36:00 GMT

Gak! I have been tagged…..

Nothing like trying to think of 5 things people don’t know about you first thing in the morning, but here it goes:

I am not a developer! Haha, no really, I’m not. Please stop asking me developer questions :-P. I graduated top of my class from the Art Institute of Houston, with an Associate degree in Visual Communications (no, I don’t have a Bachelors) and started work when I was 20. So when all my friends were passed out in their dorms, I was pulling a steady paycheck and getting grief from co-workers that I wasn’t legal yet. I actually have a degree and background in print, and didn’t learn web stuff until my first job, when my co-worker (now my husband) taught me HTML.
My belly button is pierced. My ears are pierced 3 ½ times… no worries, that is it. :-)
I am a step-mom, and have been for nearly 8 years. My step daughter lives with us full time. It has been quite the experience and has seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. And I would do it all over again.
I own a freaking zoo. Nearly literally…. 2 horses, 2 dogs, 2 cats, 2 rats, and a bunch of fish. Many kisses to all my babies… Quincy, Dixie, Katie, Austin, Tiger, Tipsi, Snow White, Jasmine and all those unnamed fishes. I am a huge animal lover and I just melt every time I see a rescue/adoptee animal.
I never lived in the state I was born in… the town I was born in sat on the South Carolina-Georgia border and my Mom worked at the hospital on the Georgia side, but lived on the SC side. I moved to Houston when I was one, and have never returned to my birthplace. I grew up in Houston and have lived here all of my life, except a 4 year stint in Little Rock (yes, Arkansas). My daughter was born in Little Rock, and has a high chance of never returning to her birthplace since we have no family there. But I hope that won’t be the case. Don’t knock Little Rock, it is actually very pretty.

Ok, my turn to tag:

Happy New Year!

Microsoft Ready for a New Day Launch Event - Houston

Heather Solomon — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 19:35:00 GMT

Microsoft's Ready for a New Day Launch Tour is hitting Houston on February 13th, 2007. It is a free event hosted at George R. Brown Convention Center and has several IT Pro tracks and a Developer track. If you are in the area, you should come! I will be there :-)

Ready for a New Day Information

Houston Event Information and Sign up

ShareSquared is looking for SharePoint Developers, C# Developers, Business Analysts, and Project Managers

Heather Solomon — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 11:31:00 GMT

ShareSquared, Inc. is looking to hire full time employees to help support our expanding customer base.

We are looking for individuals with core competencies that include any of the following:

SharePoint Architecture, Design and Implementation

SharePoint Development

C# Developers (we will train you on SharePoint)

Business Analysts

Project Management

If you are looking to work with an energetic and dynamic team please send an e-mail to info@ShareSquared.com.