Is Microsoft Visio Too Smart ?

Disable the auto-align feature of MS Visio

While there are many open-source software and freeware alternatives, Microsoft Visio is still one of the most well-known diagram-drawing software by the students. It can be used to create various type of diagram and it is installed on most PCs with MS Office installed.

However, certain features of MS Visio is annoying. When you try to move one object onto another object, Visio automatically moves the existing objects away which destroys your layout.

Usually, we want the objects to be laid on the screen the way we draw it. To disable this auto-align feature, go to File -> Page Setup ... -> Go to Layout and Routing tab. And then remove the check in front of "Move other shapes away on drop" at the bottom of the screen. Click OK button to finish.

Summer' resolution

Tired from taking many exams last week (being a Thai student in a Thai university is not that easy, you know?), I decided to spend my very first time of my summer sitting in front of my computer, playing PS2 games with my brother and help my sister to prepare for upcoming Triamudom suksa school entrance exam.

At summers or any long vacations, I always make resolutions. ... I will do these, I will do those, I will learn C#, I will prepare for MCPD, ... blah blah. But up until this day, only 30% of all my resolutions had been done. So I will not make too many resolutions this summer ;)

My resolution for this summer is that I will finish reading my two new books within this summer. They are ...

Practical Object-Oriented Design With UML by Mark Priestly - After reading first few chapters of this book, I am really impressed at how the writer described the software engineering process. Compared to other books in the same category, this book explains SE in more friendly way. I really like this kind of books.

This book focuses at the use of UML with software projects. It first briefly explains the popular methodologies used in SE world which are Unified Process and eXtreme programming. After that, there is a real-world case study (restaurant booking system) and a UML tutorials.

I found this book at my university's book shop, the price is incredibly low for an English text book in Thailand (around 500 THB or 12 USD).

Code Complete 2nd Edition by Steve McConnell - Have heard of this book many many times, I decided to buy a copy. As a MSDN Connection Gold member, I could buy this book from MS Press partner with 35% off or around 1300 THB (Actually, I could asked someone I know who has a platinum card to buy this for me at 40% off!).

The book focuses on the best practices for everything in building a software from coding level to software project management. Some also says that this is a book every serious programmers should have.

Hope I can finish these before my third year at the university begins.