Today I received a nice surprise – a certificate for being a Top Contributor to Azure Documentation on Microsoft Docs in the Canadian Open Source Doc-a-thon.

According to the site, “The Canadian Open Source Doc-a-thon is an opportunity to collaborate virtually (via GitHub) with the Canadian technical community and build your reputation as an expert by reviewing and improving Azure documentation.”

The goal of the Doc-a-thon is to improve Microsoft product documentation hosted in docs.microsoft.com.

Check out the site for details on how to participate in the next phase of the Canadian Open Source Doc-a-thon.

On July 1st (Canada Day), I was re-awarded the Microsoft MVP award in Visual Studio and Development Technologies for 2018-2019.

I feel honoured to be recognised by Microsoft with this award. I love giving back to the developer community and this recognition is a nice feeling.

This will be my fourth straight year as an MVP and I am looking forward to continuing my work with the local community. Thanks to Microsoft for the award and to the Canadian MVP team for their support.

You can learn more about the program at mvp.microsoft.com

CC 2.0 image courtesy Antony Theobald on Flickr

A few months back I wrote a blog post about Column Mode Editing in Notepad++. In the article, I demonstrate how to edit multiple columns of text to add, edit, or remove information. After I wrote this I wondered if we could edit multiple lines at once in Visual Studio Code. It turns out we can and there are two different ways to do it.

Multi-Line Editing

Multi-line editing is similar to column mode editing in Notepad++. The idea is to edit multiple instances of text on contiguous lines and replace it with similar information. This is useful for HTML where you may want to change several hyperlinks at once or if you want to edit multiple rows in a JSON file.

To employ multi-line editing, use the following command for your OS:

• Windows: Ctrl + Alt + Arrow Keys
• Linux: Shift + Alt + Arrow Keys
• Mac: Opt + Cmd + Arrow Keys

Multi-Cursor Editing

To edit multiple instances of text within different sections of a document, you can use multi-cursor editing. This allows multiple cursors to be placed in different spots so text can be added, modified, or deleted.

To engage multi-cursor editing, press the Alt key (or Option key on a Mac) and use the mouse to place cursors throughout the document. Every click creates a cursor resulting in multiple cursors.

Summary

This article demonstrated two ways to make multiple edits simultaneously within Visual Studio Code.

Related Article

• Column Mode Editing in Notepad++

Microsoft Canada recently created a central page to merge all partner and community events in Canada so you can see local events happening in your area.

The event page is conveniently at aka.ms/EventsCanada.

The site lists developer, cloud, and data events taking place both online/digital and in-person. Filter events using region and topic drop-downs. Sort result sets further by:

• Audience (executives, professionals, etc.)
• Industry (manufacturing, retail, government, etc.)
• Product (Azure, Power BI, Visual Studio, etc.)
• Language (English, French, both)
• City (Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, etc.)

If you are looking for in-person sessions or webinar events to attend, check out the Microsoft Canada Events site.

Related Articles:

• Microsoft Azure Events Site

For technical writers and technical communicators, the Microsoft Manual of Style has been one of the main resources of style guidelines for writing about computers and technology. It was an essential manual for content developers, creators, journalists, communicators, and editors. After the 4th Edition was published in 2012, I thought for sure Microsoft would continue to release paper versions of this essential book.

In February 2018, Microsoft took the radical approach of publishing the next version of the guide as a free, web-based resource. Now branded the Microsoft Writing Style Guide, it brings Microsoft writing guidelines “up-to-date for 2018 and is an evolution of the Microsoft Manual of Style from 2012. The principles and guidelines in the guide are the same as those used by internal Microsoft writers, which allows consistent quality and style across all apps and content.”

The new guide is “to help editors, technical writers, developers, marketers, and anyone else in IT write better content”. It also has tips for developers on how to “write code examples and reference documentation, and how to format text elements”.

Overall, it’s designed to help you communicate clearly, consistently, and accurately about technical topics—across a range of audiences and media.

You can read more about the announcement of the new Microsoft Writing Style Guide in this blog post.

You can find the new Microsoft Writing Style Guide at the shortlink: aka.ms/microsoftstyle

CC 2.0 image courtesy Rosa Menkman on Flickr

The Windows 10 Fall Creators Update came out in Fall 2017 and already 85% of PCs have it installed. This release, version 1709, has lots of new features and updates. So, how do you know if it’s installed or not on your computer? This article shows you two methods to verify if the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update is installed.

System Settings About Page

To see which version of Windows 10 your device is running, click Start > Settings (the gear icon above the Start button) > System > About tab.

This page can also be launched from the Run window by specifying Windows Key + R. Then type ms-settings:about and hit Enter.

The About page displays basic specs of the device, including processor, memory, and operating system info, as well as what edition of Windows you’re running. Check the Version field under Window Specifications to see if 1709 is the current version on your computer.

Using winver

Winver is a command displaying information about the Windows operating installed.

To check the version, click Start and type winver to search for the program. Open it.

It can also be launched from the Run window by specifying Windows Key + R. Then type winver and hit Enter.

Check the Version field and look for 1709.

Summary

This article has shown you two different methods to check if the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update is installed on your system. Doing so lets you know if you need to install it or not.

In March 2018, I will be heading to my third Microsoft MVP Global Summit. Just like in past years, MVPs from around the world converge on Bellevue, Redmond, and Seattle, Washington for several days of technical sessions and camaraderie on the Microsoft campus.

While the majority of MVPs attending are returnees, a good portion is new to the experience. While I am no expert at attending Summit, I have learned a few things along the way and have also picked up some travel tips. So, I thought I would share this information with all who could benefit from it.

However, instead of having a static list live just on this blog, I have posted the general checklist to GitHub as a Markdown file in its own repository. This way MVPs can print it, fork it, or contribute their ideas back via pull requests.

You can find the list at this repo: MVP Summit Checklist + Tips

I encourage everyone to check it out and submit their ideas. There are people who have been travelling to MVP Summit longer than me and I know there are some great suggestions out there. So, let’s hear them!

On Wednesday, March 7, 2018 at 9:00 AM PST Microsoft will host another Windows Developer Day live stream featuring a keynote speech from Kevin Gallo, Vice President of the Windows Developer Platform.

Gallo and the Windows engineering team will discuss upcoming features and improvements with the next Windows 10 update.

Although the agenda has not been set, the event will focus on two key areas:

• Building for the modern workplace
• Making your applications part of the intelligent edge

RSVP for the Windows Developer Day live stream Windows Developer Day today! By registering, you will also be notified when the next Windows SDK is available.

CC 2.0 image courtesy mightymightymatze on Flickr

If you are like me and have been using Visual Studio for a while, you have probably used the Microsoft Web Platform Installer (Web PI) in the past. Yet, with Visual Studio Code providing a more streamlined development experience, the Web Platform Installer has slowly taken a back seat.

If you used the Web PI a lot, you may be surprised to learn it caches the installer (.msi) files on your system and leaves them there taking up hard drive disk space.

This article shows you how to remove these files from the local folder cache.

Manually clearing the installer cache

When the Web PI downloads an install file, it’s saved to the Web PI installer cache folder at:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Web Platform Installer\installers

Note: %LOCALAPPDATA% is the LocalAppData environment variable that refers to the location of temporary files of applications.

The full folder path is:

C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Web Platform Installer\installers

Note: %USERNAME% is the UserName environment variable that refers to the name (login ID) of the user currently logged on.

You can safely delete all files in this Installers folder as each item can be downloaded again from Web PI as needed.

Using the Web Platform Installer

If you have the Microsoft Web Platform Installer program installed on your machine, there is a second way you can clear the cache.

1. Launch the Web Platform Installer.
2. Click Options on the bottom bar.
3. The Change Options dialog appears.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the dialog.
5. Click Delete Installer Cache Folder.
6. Click OK to exit Change Options.
7. Click Exit to close the Web Platform Installer.

This method deletes the cached files by removing the entire Installers folder within the Web PI installer cache.

Summary

For me, cleaning the Microsoft Web Platform Installer folder cache freed up almost 1 GB of disk space. I suggest you check your folder cache to see if there is space you could gain on your hard drive.

CC 2.0 image courtesy Rebecca Siegel on Flickr

Twitter makes it easy for you to see how many lists you are Subscribed To. However, finding out how many users have added you to a Twitter list is trickier.

Here are two methods for finding out how many Twitter lists you are a member of.

TweetDeck

If you have TweetDeck (either the Chrome app or access via the website), you can easily see the number of Twitter lists someone is on.

To find the number of lists, click anyone’s profile (including your own) on TweetDeck to see the number of lists. The total value is displayed on the right under the value Listed.

Counting on Twitter

The second way to find the number of Twitter lists you’re a member of is through your Twitter.com profile. To count the number of lists you’re on, follow these steps:

1. Browse to your Twitter.com profile. Click Lists and then Member Of.
2. Alternatively, you can browse directly to the Member Of page via https://twitter.com/USERNAME/memberships
   (Replace USERNAME with your Twitter handle.)
3. Scroll to the bottom of the page or press the Page Down key until you reach the end.
   This ensures all lists are displayed.
4. Press Ctrl+F to open the search box.
5. Enter “Members” as the search string.
   Each list on the page has the number of members providing a unique value we can count.
6. Press Enter to see the total number of lists returned in the search box.
   Note: This method counts every instance of the word “Members” on the page including those appearing in the Twitter List description.

Summary

In this article, we have seen two methods for calculating the number of Twitter lists you are a member of.

Related Articles

• How to schedule tweets for a presentation using TweetDeck