digitalizes

Inspired by a blog post by WPDude about publishing to a blog using a remote device I decided to download and try out Windows Live Writer. WLW is one of the methods suggested in the article, along with email updates and a couple of browser plugins.

Windows Live Writer is a desktop application that connects with your blog to enable you to write and publish content without the need for a browser to be open.

The real beauty of Windows Live Writer is that it replicates the theme being used on the live site, thus allowing you to see how the post is going to look without having to publish or preview the post online; just click on the preview tab. Alongside the preview tab is another, this one contains the source code. Ideal for article distribution etc.

What about tags and categories?

All of the tags and categories are downloaded as well and can be accessed through the jump menus at the bottom of the app. It is even possible to add new tags as long as there is an internet connection. Tags and categories are added to the post just by ticking the box.

What about other formatting?

Everything you can do from the admin interface of your blog can be done through Windows Live Writer. If you want to add some code or additional div tags to the post, you just tab over to the source code view, enter the information you want, then tab back to edit. 

Hyperlinks can be formatted in the usual way and can have the usual attributes applied – nofollow, target, title etc.

Pictures can be added to a post and can adjusted to suit your requirements – this one below had square corners, but Windows Live Writer can apply a rounded corners effect to it:

It can also apply other options: DROP SHADOW

PHOTOPAPER

REFLECTION

3 PIXEL BORDER

You are not restricted to one blog

It is possible to add and manage multiple blogs through Windows Live Writer – just click on Blogs >> Add blog account, enter the settings and let WLW download the information it needs.

I have only been using WLW for a very short while (about an hour) but it does seem to have a lot going for it. For people who manage a number of blogs the ability to add content to each of them through one interface is surely one Windows Live Writer’s major selling points.

This entire blog post has been written in Windows Live Writer and, apart from a test post, it is the first time I have tried it. In the preview tab the page looks fine, so I am going to publish.

Download Windows Live Writer

ChethStudios has recently released a nice set of social icons which features 19 services including Blogger/Blogspot, Delicious, Digg, Facebook, flickr, Design Float, LinkedIn, Mixx, MySpace, Netvibes, Reddit, RSS, StumbleUpon, Technorati, Twitter, Visualizeus, WordPress and Yahoo!

The icons are all round in shape and come in two sizes; 64×64 and 128×128. The icons are free to use and can be downloaded from the ChethStudios blog.

The Guardian is one of the most popular newspapers in the UK, but it looks like the print version will cease to exist in the very near future as it has announced that all future editions will be published solely on Twitter.

The newspaper is 188 years old and this brave move will take the media world by storm! It will also require quite a lot of editorial changes given that Tweets can only contain a maximum of 140 characters!