Setup
As soon as I launched the program it asked me if I already had a blog or if I was interested in creating a new one. I said I already had one and it went on to ask me the platform, credentials and URL. different from
the other 2 it asked me the home url and inferred everything else. I wonder what it would have done if my installation had been modified in any serious from from the base WordPress install. I’ll note that I was pleasantly surprised to find it had imported the CSS stylesheet from the site and my writing area now featured the same background, width, fonts and colors as would be displayed in the final post. This was a very nice step forward.
Posting
As I mentioned above this program is a custom built full solution specifically developed for blogging. I found it peculiar that Redmond developed this stand alone tool for free; independent of the add-ons to Word. Nevertheless the writing process is simple and comfortable. All the necessary editing tools are there and it feels like writing on a very basic word processor. It’s the extras that really shine. The fact that I am writing in the same context as my post will finally be presented is not a negligible gain. This fact alone helps one as a writer, to contextualize the content in the same way that the end-user will experience it.
As with Word, spell checking is included and the dictionary seems made specifically to correct blogs. For example, it corrected WordPress for WordPress when I miswrote it above. One significant difference between Live Writer and the other 2 are the 4 different views. I realize that it might not feel as much but you can switch on the fly, between:
- Normal; Black text over white background
- Web Layout; Text with site’s CSS applied
- Web Preview; full preview in final site context but not editable.
- HTML code; fully editable as well.
For testing purposes I wrote the previous table with <ul> and <li> tags through the HTML editor and it came out exactly as I expected it to. This is by far the most complete until now when it comes to a full blog solution.
Media
The media content options are ample and well made. I added the above image at an original resolution of 1024×768 I reduced its size to the one you see above and I expect it will resample and upload it with the White frame I added in the program’s effects pane. Edit: It did exactly as I expected
Amongst other media options available are maps and video. The maps are a simple integration with Microsoft’s Live Local service, which works well and is easy to use. The video just requires the video’s URL and it will refer to it without need of an embed code. As far as I can tell it only works with Flash driven video and not Quicktime or even WMA through windows media center.
Conclusion
Live Writer has been the best all around solution yet. I’m sure there is bound to be something better out there but until now this is the best I have found.
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Saludos, gracias por el comentario, tu blog es A++
Bye, Jeanette