Windows Live Writer?

[jkgourmet]

Windows Live Writer (http://download.live.com/writer)

Anybody familiar with this download? I haven't researched it much, for those of us that use WP and have trouble with images (quite common from reading the threads on this forum), it seems to be a solution.

So - those who are more WP tech savvy than I am - thoughts?

[Suzi]

I have been using it recently to write my drafts and insert my images, I then upload the draft to my blog and carry on in there. For some reason I am not comfortable in publishing directly from LiveWriter.

One advantage I have found is that if I insert an image in livewriter, it displays properly in RSS feeds, i.e. the text wraps around the image, which it doesn't seem to do when I don't use it.

I am sure I'm not using it to its full potential, but I have made a start...

Suzi

[cindybidar]

One advantage I have found is that if I insert an image in livewriter, it displays properly in RSS feeds, i.e. the text wraps around the image, which it doesn't seem to do when I don't use it.

That's funny. I have the exact opposite problem. When I've used LiveWriter in the past, I couldn't get images to work properly. Finally gave up on it and went back to writing my posts in a text editor and then uploading via the dashboard.

[BrittMalka]

I've used Ecto for years (Mac version), but I had to put my images inside iPhoto to be able to add them easily with Ecto. So even though I love that program, which has some smart features like you can create your own HTML snippets, it's far from perfect.

Lately, I discovered Quamana, and I'm almost sure it's for both Windows and Mac. That program makes it easy to add images, but it lacks the HTML snippets thing.

So I normally stick with Ecto, and then I use this smart image trick. I have a program called LittleSnapper, which I can use to take screen shots. With another mouse click, I can upload those pictures to my domains, and then it gives me a link to copy and paste into my blog post.

That technique works for me :)

[wade_watson]

I like Windows Live Writer a lot. I find entering a post in it much easier and quicker than the clunky WordPress WYSIWYG editor. I haven't had a problem with images and I suspect that is due to the theme you use. Different themes handle images differently.

It also makes it super easy to switch between different blogs. I can just bring it up and quickly do entries for my different WP and Blogger blogs without opening a browser.

The only thing I don't like about is that it doesn't allow you to save entries as exportable local files. It will save locally, but you can't find or move the files and can only open them from inside Writer.

I recently set up a not-to web savvy JV partner with it. She simply enters her test in Writer and I handle the WordPress Dashboard. The arrangement works well. I especially like the way it shows the actual them styling on the page, too. Since it's free from Microsoft, I recommend anyone blogging give it a try.

BTW, Writer is probably the best of several local blog entry editors available, but some of the others do things it doesn't. I reviewed a few awhile back here (http://www.wordpressbusinessreview.com/free-blog-editors-compared/).

Wade Watson

[jkgourmet]

Wade, couldn't the LiveWriter files be saved to say, Dropbox?

Thanks all for your opinions. Sounds like this might be one thing that's worth adding to the list of things to try that might make my life easier.

[cindybidar]

I'm a sucker for new gadgets - especially free ones - so I decided to test this out on my lunch today. You can see my revised opinion here: http://cindybidar.com/2010/05/windows-live-writer-review/ Turns out this tool works pretty well. I'm looking forward to playing around with it some more when I have time.

Thanks everyone for bringing this up. :)

[MaryGallagher]

I installed this a while back and hadn't used it. I like it - just tried putting up a short post on my Stressfree Ideas Blog (http://www.stressfreeideas.com/now/). I like the quickness of the preview, and the fact that it works with the actual theme, the ease of inserting the photo, and aligning it properly. I like the flexibility of choosing the font with more ease.

I have Scribefire installed on my Firefox browser, but haven't got the hang of using it easily. This seems to flow more.

This very well may be an interface that encourages me to be more consistent and to use 15-20 minute intervals to put a blog post together.

Thanks for bringing up the discussion here.

Best,
Mary

[wade_watson]

I've not used Dropbox, Jeanette, but it appears to be an online backup service. Of course with WordPress and most other blogs systems you can back up files posted online using the XML backup (under "Tools" in WP). Writer serves it's purpose well, but I just thought since it's a local program it would have been nice if they'd included a normal local file save feature. Maybe a future revision will.

Wade

[wade_watson]

Cindy made a good point in her aforementioned review. If you download Windows Live Writer, remember to uncheck all the Windows Live stuff other than Writer during the install-- unless you've looked over the other Windows Live things and want them (which is unlikely). Such is the price of getting something free.

Wade

[jkgourmet]

Wade, dropbox allows me to put files into a online cloud (I may not be using the correct terms here).

I install dropbox on all my computers, which allows me to access my files from all my computers. It has a limited amount of space on the free version, so I can't use it as a backup per se, but it sure is handy for my document files that I need to grab from one of two notebooks and my desktop.

It's probably the best free tool I've ever found, most particularly if you use more than one computer.

[StephenT]

I tried LiveWriter and found it to be more of a hassle than doing what I was doing. I don't use it anymore.