Felicity at All Things Bright and Beautiful has put together a fabulous series of blogging tips for new bloggers, including many tips from various guest bloggers.
There’s some fantastic stuff there, but I’ve been astonished at how many tips include very complex HTML instructions for things like setting up tables, resizing pictures etc. etc.
I’ve got a slightly vested interest in the following, since, as you know, the Husband works for Microsoft (though in a completely different part of the business) but a year or so ago he introduced me to a small downloadable app called Windows Live Writer which has transformed my blogging experience.
Essentially, it’s gives you a WYSIWYG interface for blogging, much like Word in Microsoft Office. So you can drag images and text round the page, line them up side by side, make them bigger and smaller, just with your mouse. To insert a link, you just right-click on the link text and post in the URL. It’s all easy peasy lemon squeezy and doesn’t require an ounce of HTML knowledge. (The only time I use HTML is to add polls and other widgets to my posts).
I use Windows Live Writer with Typepad but believe it’s compatible with Blogger and WordPress as well. Don’t think it works for Macs though. It’s also now just out of beta, and doesn’t have any glitches that I’ve come across. It’s also the most intuitive piece of software I’ve ever used (much better than the usual overcomplicated Microsoft offerings – and don’t tell the Husband I said that.)
Here’s what this post looked like in Live Writer, just before I hit ‘Publish’ . The toolbar is down the right hand side.
I’m off to check this out. It sounds fantastic. thanks
Very cool. Windows Live Writer sounds interesting.
I just downloaded it and published my first post with it! Thanks so much for the tip!
Thanks for the excellent tip! I will try it. And hope the television program went well (wish I were still in London, so I could see it).
Mirror!! thank you for sharing this I’m off to try it out!!
Dear Mirror – I was wondering is there a Mac
version as the PC version doesn’t download.
PS I linked this post to my blog post this weekend
Hi Felicity,
No there definitely isn’t a Mac version. I asked my husband about it and he said that there wasn’t much incentive for Microsoft to produce a free download for Mac users… Sorry!
Thanks so much for linking back to this post. I left a comment on your post though, because the link here appears to be broken.
Great post that is helpful..
That is halpful for us. so thanks a lot for share.