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I've been putting together Development Guidelines for my employer and in the process have reviewed many published standards (in the .Net arena) from around the world. In each category, the suggestions at SSW are always among the best. Leon Bambrick -
 

Do you agree with them all? Are we missing some? Let us know what you think.

  1. Microsoft do not spend enough time going back and updating old pages....
  2. Allow users to copy and paste threads from MSDN forum to an Outlook email
  3. Provide a means for users to link to a specific entry in a forum thread or comment in a blog

  1. Microsoft do not spend enough time going back and updating old pages....

    Go to Virtual PC 2007:

    VPC 2007 download page
    Figure: On the VPC 2007 download page can't find any link to VPC 2007 SP1.

    How would anyone know there is something newer at Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 SP1:

    VPC 2007 SP1 download page
    Figure: The page whick can download VPC 2007 SP1.

    The documentation team, needs a new policy:

    When you add a *new* Service Pack page, the original page should have strike through text with a big link....

    Microsoft do not spend enough time going back and updating old pages....

    SSW Diagnostics
    Figure: FYI this is how I knew there was a newer version of this software

  2. Allow users to copy and paste threads from MSDN forum to an Outlook email

    Either by making the HTML look nicer or by allowing users to see a "Print preview" and copy the content from there. Due to the security issue, Outlook doesn't support rendering all kinds of CSS. It's a good idea to supply users with different styles for printing or pasting in Outlook.

    Styles are missing and it's hard to read
    Figure: Bad example - styles are missing and it's hard to read (http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/wpf/thread/e30556c4-fbcf-4799-8f53-f119e7e4cb6e)
    Choose the different style for printing
    Figure: Good example - choose the different style for printing
    the style is simple but readable
    Figure: Good example - the style is simple but readable

  3. Provide a means for users to link to a specific entry in a forum thread or comment in a blog

    There are times when I want to send a link to someone else regarding a specific entry in a thread on MSDN, but there is no way to get a link to a single entry.

    Styles are missing and it's hard to read
    Figure: Bad example - there is no way to find the link to this explicit entry in the thread (e.g. http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/tfsgeneral/thread/039d03d7-4936-4431-9227-a7b549cc9648)
    the style is simple but readable
    Figure: Good example - hovering over "link" on StackOverflow reveals a link to the specific entry in the thread (e.g. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/661389/tfs-vs-svn)

Acknowledgments

Adam Cogan