I Wrote This With Live Writer
I've been trying out MS Live Writer and I'm quite impressed! It's certainly something I'll be recommending to clients who have started blogging.
If you're a Movable Type user like myself, you might find it useful to know that your API password will be different to your usual one. To set one up, follow these instructions:
- Login to MT as normal.
- Click your author name in the top right-hand corner
- Scroll down to the "API Password" box and enter a new password
- Use this password when logging into API services (such as MS Live Writer)
Now to test out image uploading:
Heh, that was pretty painless - although I'm not so sure about this drop shadow...
Ah, I think that's better.
Here's where I am right now -
I think I'm going to like this method of posting to my blog.
The "Web Preview" option is incredible - it inserts the post you're working on into your homepage, along with your other actual posts.
My only complaint is that it seems to have changed the order and depth of my categories, but I can live with that.
Comments
August 28, 2006 12:35 AM
As I told the last person that praised this tool: check out the validation of your blog now that you used this tool. Although you're not stating anywhere in this blog that you adhere to standards, if you truly wanted to, I would suggest not using this tool, and perhaps using something like Flock instead.
August 28, 2006 11:21 AM
Hey Brendon, good point!
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mattbrindley.com%2Fmisc%2Fi-wrote-this-with-live-writer%2F
I've used Flock before and didn't enjoy using it all - but I'll give it another try next time I post.
August 28, 2006 4:19 PM
Yeah, it's (Flock) definately not nearly as feature-rich as Microsoft's Live Writer, and no map-integration. But I definately prefer standards compliant posts if I'm going to be using any tool. If I find something similar to live writer that is more standards friendly, I'll definately let you know.
August 28, 2006 5:25 PM
> But I definately prefer standards compliant posts if I'm going to be using any tool.
Agreed. Completely. I'm a little disappointed, but I'm hoping this is just a beta hick-up.
> If I find something similar to live writer that is more standards friendly, I'll definately let you know.
Thanks!
August 30, 2006 7:01 PM
As promised, I found something...though it's not free, nor have I been able to test it's validity (as I have been able to test LiveWriter, thanks to others who've used it previously).
http://blogjet.com/
Surprisingly, this was really all I found.
August 30, 2006 9:31 PM
Thanks Brendon!
That does look better, although I think they need a trial or something - $40 and I can't even have a play with it?
Also, we don't even know if it validates :(
I was thinking about writing a plugin for Live Writer that can run a quick W3C validation check on the html at any time when writing a post.
I think this alone might be enough to make Live Writer a decent option.
August 31, 2006 4:59 AM
LiveWriter is, in my opinion, the best option out there for desktop publishing to a blog (at least as far as well-knowns go). The ability to create plugins is a definate plus. I'm afraid that unless they wrote in a way for a plugin to hook into the data stream right before uploading that it won't really work as hoped.
Now, I meant to say earlier (but can't edit and didn't want to spam) that from the looks of their blog, they are planning to clean up the HTML output. I just don't know if they're going to clean it up for standards, or clean it up for IE7 standards with available proprietary filters still in check. Otherwise, an HTML Tidy auto-clean would be good; unfortunately, that also has the possibility of changing certain formatting and layout from a post.
August 31, 2006 5:40 AM
Well, either I didn't submit my last response, or you have to approve it. Either way, I took some time and actually did a bit more research on competitors...though I didn't install anything as my blog isn't actually (specifically) supported. Now, before I continue, absolutely nothing has the same feature set as Live Writer, it's just chock full of stuff...oh, by the way, Word 2007 can publish to a blog, it probably uses the same basic engine as Live Writer.
First up, PostXING. It's lacking screenshots, documentation, information, or a community...but it was my first find:
http://postxing.net/blog/
Ecto: Made for both Macintosh and Windows alike, it's a pretty solid looking application:
http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/
Blogjet: they do offer a trial...click on the download link. There's a form for personal details, but they're optional.
Qumana: really not nearly enough pictures or documentation to see what this is all about -- in fact they only display the Mac OS X version in the screenshots (unless they made XP use the same skin). Either way, it's another free runner-up option.
http://www.qumana.com/
Zoundry Beta: Now this screenshot I like. Extremely simplistic interface, looks Delphi-esque. You can even earn cash when you post a referral link to Amazon or something with this blogging tool.
http://www.zoundry.com/
Once again though, Live Writer is still in a league of it's own, minus the standards compliancy.