Sunday, January 4, 2009

A few things I like ..


A funny thing happened after I mentioned Windows Live Writer on my blog. I was messing with it and I was trying to find what benefit it would have for me to post from there instead of posting directly from Blogger.


I got an email from one of the developers at Microsoft. I know, right?


He asked me what I didn’t like about Live Writer and what would make it better for the next version. He also gave me some links to some tutorials so I could see more of what it can do. I actually found it all very interesting.


I am going to continue to mess with is to see if it is just my resistance to change that makes it hard for me to accept or if it really isn’t for me. It does have that cross out strike thru feature that Blogger doesn’t have, and God knows that’s something I can make good use of. And you can set it up so you can post on one blog, and switch over and post on a different one – all from the same spot.


One thing I do like and I have been using, is that you can post pictures by copying and pasting or just by freaking dragging a picture from a folder or someplace! That alone was enough to get me to take a second look. And another cool feature – you can do a watermark right there on your post – no problem.2344512567_bc08ae61fe_o


I’m not sure how people who use watermarks normally do it, but this is ridiculously easy. You can also put a frame around your picture, do the shadow like I did on this one and you can do some basic photo editing right on your post. That’s some cool stuff.


What I still don’t like is that if I actually hit publish from Live Writer it doesn’t keep my paragraphing. My paragraphing may not always be in the right places but I still want it where I put it. Still – I am going to save this post to draft on my blog so I can go in and edit it, make sure my paragraphs are in the right places and the font is right and I will publish from Blogger.


I’m wondering if some of my formatting doesn’t stay because my blog is not a Blogger template, but whatever. For me it depends on whether or not I am using pictures in a post or not. Right now. I am still exploring the other features because I like to fool with stuff. If you want to see more info you can go here, here, here or here. And no, Microsoft isn’t paying me.


4 Comments:

Stimey said...

Apparently you're a mover and a shaker! Good for the Windows people for getting in touch with you.

Ring by Ring Designs said...

Cool to be contacted by Microsoft. Someone from Rings and Things left a comment on my blog and I was flabbergasted!
I might look into Live Writer with the information r gave about pictures. Blogger drives me nuts sometimes just waiting to post a picture. The paragraphing in blogger sometimes disappears on me and I really don't get it since it will show correctly but not in the preview. I finally figured, once at least, that it had to do with the placement of my pictures. Go figure!
Thanks for your "review"
Bev

The Beading Gem said...

Great review! Very helpful too. They must have improved things since I last tried it out. It was ages ago. Like you the one major issue I had with it was the formatting. I'm off to check it out again.

Heather "Hev" said...

What a shame you cant get a Bill Gates salary - even for a couple of hours ;)