How do you blog?

Do you simply go to your blogging web site, create a new blog post, and start typing away? And during your typing you add this and ling that, blah, blah, blah.

Well, have you ever fallen victim to the page reloading, or the page timing out, or a host of other problems that exist while you enter your blog? If you weren’t careful and the page was lost while you were typing, you more than likely lost your blog entry.

In fact this will/can happen with any blog hosting web site you use. If you’re not careful when inputting/posting your blog, the page you are using can be lost, can disappear, connection problems, etc.

So I ask you how you go about ensuring the safety of your current blog? Do you save them to your hard drive? If you save them do you save the blog post ‘as-is’ with just text, or do you edit the HTML and save the HTML code to your computer? Or do you save your blogs on the internet?

For the longest time I was saving my blog entries, meaning the text, to my Microsoft One Note Program.

After I type up my text for my blog, I copy and paste the text to my chosen blogging platform on the internet. I then go through the process of picking pictures that I have uploaded to my Flickr account. You either have to insert a hyperlink with the picture’s URL, or you have to have some working knowledge of HTML. The other nice thing about Flickr was that they provided HTML for every pic you have if you so chose to insert pics into a blog or website.

As you can see that my blogging always took multi-steps, from multiple websites, and multiple programs.

Then, some time ago, I stumbled upon an article on Mashable.com. It talked about 10 new desktop blog editors. Well you know what curiosity does to a cat… so I had to check them out.

Well Microsoft lured me in yet again.

Microsoft had a desktop blog editor called Windows Live Writer, as a free download. (FYI, it used to be an individual download, it’s now part of a package that you can customize)

I’ve used this program since it’s inception. I must say it’s pretty darn slick, and very user friendly. The user interface is workable even for us individuals who know nothing or know very little about HTML & CSS, scripts, etc. It has easy an easy to use sidebar for adding in hyperlinks, or pictures (from your computer if you host your own website, or from any online storage website). You can enter in maps, videos and tags. It’s been updated numerous times, and now you can view and/or edit by typing good ole’ fashion HTML code if you so desire without ever leaving the same screen. It now has a tabbed interface.

TAGS

That was one aspect of my old method that I still had to enter every time I copy/pasted my blogging text. Now there is a place to add my tags, and when I upload my blog it automatically adds the tags.

PLUG-INS

Windows Live Writer also is open source and has a number of plug-ins that help with convenience when posting a blog. Everything from adding images, formatting text, to including social media web 2.0 bookmarks per post.

And it’s adapted over the past year or so. Just like all other Windows based programs, it originally could only upload and/or post your blogs to a handful of blogging platforms. Namely Windows Live Spaces, SharePoint, WordPress, Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, Moveable Type, & Community Server. Now, the last time I checked, it’s pretty much compatible with ANY blogging platform out there. It automatically integrates/updates with your chosen blogging platform. (I’m no expert on this, so don’t take my word for it, check it out yourself.)

I also guest post over at Change Forge. (Sorry Ken, I’ve kinda shirked my duties there) Ken discovered how user friendly it can be when inserting and formatting pictures on a blog post and now uses it for his blog posting.

It’s food for thought, especially for those individuals who have a weak knowledge base for HTML & CSS code. Oh yeah, I forgot. It also saves your blog posts to your computer as well as auto-saving your blog post entry as your creating it. You have the ability to leave it and come back to it, right where you left off!

Best of luck

Carpe Diem

Tags: blog posting, windows live writer