Plagued by some really unseemly, annoying bugs in both Zoho Writer and Google Docs as of late, I'm test-driving Windows Live Writer, hoping it'll play better with my flow. My style just can't stand to be cramped by HTML quirks or code-stealin' deficiencies — I detest pasting a snippet in, only to have it disappear or mess up other elements later. Thus, I'm here.
I'm using 1.0.1 (6), and setup was a breeze. What's even nicer is how it autodetected my WordPress settings, so I now find myself writing in a preview box which very closely resembles how the post would actually appear on my blog. It even looks like it's retained the exact column width. Smooooth.
Quirkiness thus far: it appears to make Google Desktop's sidebar flash annoyingly, even when I'm not doing anything. I also may miss my ability to easily style text's background color.
Test
Hmmm… let's see how that blockquote turns out — it shows as Georgia here but should be Verdana. Still, a closer fit overall than what's come before.
What's also nifty is the interface is overall like the MS Office suite, with the familiar gradient bleu blue bars with extra options, but this feels more responsive and tactile. (On a tangent, I've long lamented the painful lack of antialiasing when making Excel charts, I'm hoping the next version solves that.)
I'm eager to test the Insert pane…
OMG (funny how that acronym tends to elicit so much emotion), that's near Linden Lab!
Now what happens if I insert a picture from my hard drive— I wonder how it'll get uploaded…
Time to publish!
Post-publish observations:
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- Inserting a map aligns it to the left, even if centered in Windows Live Writer.
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+ Nice! Images I put in here automatically get uploaded to my WordPress storage. Purrhaps I should use it more, in addition to Flickr and Photobucket and ImageShack and gosh knows what else I'm into.
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+ Retention of Categories from my blog is golden. I can check 'em off without having to type their whole names, and can select multiples too.
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- Can't see an easy-click way to indent without making it a blockquote. Understandable, tho.
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+ Retains my extra spacing between lines. (WordPress's own TinyMCE richtext editor doesn't do this.
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+ Firefox-friendly! I was actually motivated to use Live Writer after hearing that the Blog This extension for Firefox became available, and feel some of the ol' IE-monopoly cliches are already dead.
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++ Republishing a post seems like it's going to make a new article, but updates the old one. This is wonderfully convenient for me!
Overall, a really nice experience. I'll keep using it and see what transpires… and inspires.
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Hi Torley!
Hope you catch this!
This should just AMAZE – been dying to tell you – Phil Hartnoll of electronica band Orbital fame has been working on a little something, and Caledon has been slightly involved *cough* music video *cough*!
There is going to be an SL concert – here's a taste of what it's like, and WOW… WHAT a project – this is one of the coolest things I've kept under semi-wraps for a while!
Have a listen to what the project will sound like, here:
http://www.longrange.tv/music/
Brace yourself for something incredible!
Warm Regards,
Desmond Shang
Caledon
Hi Torley! Yeah, I like Windows Live Writer too. You should take a look at some of the plugins (sites here and here). There's one that allows you to browse Flickr and insert an image from there. There's another one that handles acronyms, and many more.
Des! Got yer message, thanx a lot. OMG… that is too exciting that there's gonna be a Caledon music video! This totally makes me think of Orbital's track, "Mock Tudor"… Rohan has told me how awesome you are. I hope I can make it to the concert!
andyp, you bet I will look at the plugins. These are really handy; I'm looking for one that adds the "Allow Comments" and "Allow Pings" option which WordPress has natively, and also, the ability to edit timestamps; I like publishing posts in the future!