Comments on: Micro Persuasion’s Hot Tips for Bloggers

By: Amrit Hallan

Amrit Hallan — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 15:03:24 +0000

The only blogging desktop application I have constantly used is Windows Live Writer. I first I used to post straight from there but first, it doesn’t have the “excerpt” option, and second, it wasn’t sending the tracbacks. These days I use it to prepare my blog posts. After writing the post, I switch to the code view and then copy/paste the content onto my WordPress control panel post page.

I also used the Performancing FireFox plugin but after a while it becomes too slow — at least it used to, I don’t know about now.

I’m yet to see a good blogging application, online or desktop.

By: milo

milo — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 10:16:53 +0000

Unfortunately some of the “hacks” won’t work on the blogger beta tech until it’s fixed.

By: Armchair Anarchist

Armchair Anarchist — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 01:21:54 +0000

There are times where the whole formatting of my blog changes (like everything in italics) when there is some HTML code open!

Yeah, I’m hearing that. Using [hr /] is an utter no-no, which really sucks; doesn’t matter how many times you tweak the HTML editor, the save-and-continue-editing just screws everything up completely. Still, I can’t complain – WP is, in all other respects, the bomb (as the kids like to say these days).

By: Sharique

Sharique — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 01:00:39 +0000

I prefer Windows live writer than any other blog editor. The features are awesome and its much easier to play with HTML. I somehow hate the editor in wordpress. There are times where the whole formatting of my blog changes (like everything in italics) when there is some HTML code open!

By: Armchair Anarchist

Armchair Anarchist — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 00:13:21 +0000

Google Docs is pretty handy for those of us who do blog-work at the day-job on the sly … you usually need to hack around the resulting HTML in WordPress to get it perfect, but the regular autosaves mean that you can boss-close the window at necessary moments without worrying! The del.icio.us link dump feature is a must-have for me, as well.

By: Lorelle VanFossen

Lorelle VanFossen — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 23:12:22 +0000

Yes, but some of the tips are still valid, and a lot of people are still using this technique. Still, good point.

I love how some articles are timeless.

By: Aaron B. Hockley

Aaron B. Hockley — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 16:26:03 +0000

That Micro Persuasion article is over a year old (check the date), which would explain the Writely->Google Docs issue.

By: Lorelle VanFossen

Lorelle VanFossen — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 15:31:58 +0000

On this point, I had to agree. Firefox now comes with auto spell checking, so if your only reason to use Writely or other systems is to get the spell checking, why bother?

I do, however, agree that you should write your longer-than-two-paragraph posts in a text editor, with or without spell check, and copy and paste it into your blog’s editor as a click of the wrong button or your IP connection going down can lose a post you can never recover. WordPress.com blogs have an auto-save feature, but I’ve still lost work when something borked between the last save and hitting the save or publish button. So I’m paranoid about that kind of thing. I like having the backup.

By: Collin

Collin — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 15:27:16 +0000

Ok, I’m confused. If you’re gonna use writely then why not just type directly into the blog editor?

I looked at writely and it pointed me to Google’s Documents area. No thanks.