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I like to think of myself as a bit of a techie. I can't write code or anything hard-core like that, but I could set up your home network, install a new hard drive (or any other peripheral) in a desktop chassis, upgrade the RAM in anything, and wipe a hard drive and install a new operating system with no problems (including Linux!). My career, before getting married and having kids, was selling computers for Dell (back when all their tech support, sales, and everybody except the people who built the machines were housed in just three buildings on the outskirts of Austin, TX, if you can imagine such a thing). I'm the kind of woman who keeps a wish list of audio, visual, and computing electronics, not jewelry, shoes, or clothes. All of which is why my official blogging start-date is way back in 2005-- I heard about these new-fangled "web-log" things and thought I ought to get in on that.
A lifetime of computer love before and since starting my blog and the after-effects of coordinating a "Room Of Your Own" session at BlogHer '10 on Editing Photographs For Your Blog, has inspired me to start a monthly feature of on-line (preferably free) services that can make your blogging life easier and more refined, while also helping you with technical aspects, i.e. setting up a feed for your site. They will be Tips for Smarter, Better Blogging, for short.
I am kicking off the series by reviewing a free service called Windows Live Writer that has me extremely excited because it is a HUGE time-saver and lets you take more creative control of your blog.
A little background: I have been blogging regularly since 2008 and consider myself pretty seasoned in the mechanics of blogging. I have also been a die-hard Mac user since I converted in 2006. Which is why I was floored on two levels when I met with the Microsoft Windows 7 team at BlogHer '10 and they showed me some of the new programs available for free in the Windows Live Essentials Beta suite.
First, I was blown away by how great Windows 7 looks and by what an impressive package of free tools they had put together (a package that reminded me a lot of the iLife suite on a Mac, quite honestly). Seriously, if you are still using XP or Vista and have a system that can handle the requirements of Windows 7: switch. As soon as you can afford to. It is downright elegant in comparison with any of the older versions of Windows.
Second, I had never even heard of "off-line blog editors" until the moment they showed Live Writer to me. I don't know if this a type of program that other people know about and I just missed the boat or if it is a tool that is still relatively unknown. Either way, I figure that if I haven't heard of it, then a lot of you might not know about it, either. And you should.
Here is what Live Writer does: It is a program, like Word, which is linked to your blogging account (via a very simple set-up when you first open the program) and you use it to write, add photos, and do the layout of your blog posts. When you're done writing, you press a publish button and it automatically connects to the internet and publishes everything directly to your blog. What makes it special is that it allows you to write in a WYSIWYG (pronounced wizz-ee-wig, meaning What You See Is What You Get) environment: so what you see while typing up your post in Live Writer is exactly what your post will look like published on your website! This is a really big deal for anyone that likes to add lots of photos to a post. Photos text-embedded to the left, to the right, then to the middle, etc. are a bear to deal with in the Blogger and WordPress editors (the two editors I have experience with), trying to get them not to overlap or cut off sentences in strange ways and you have to hit publish to truly know how it will end up looking
