phlex

Archive for November, 2007

I’m writing this post using Windows Live Writer, a free desktop application from Microsoft.

It’s obviously early days, but I think this may be that rare beast; simple to use software from Microsoft that does what you want with little fuss.  The software has been in development for some time, and while that may not mean much when it comes to Microsoft (how long was Vista in development?), on this occasion it seems to have produced something that works out of the box. 

So far I’ve set it up to post articles to the phlex blog.  You can set up connections to a several blogs and switch between them.

Posting comments on line can be a frustrating business, mostly because the amount of screen space given over to the text editor in WordPress or other platforms is so small.  Windows Live Writer gives you a clean, uncluttered workspace; practically everything can be hidden.  There is a spell checker and various other utilities that help to speed up workflow, but no word count. 

If the wysiwyg approach is not for you then there is always the option of working directly in HTML; Windows Live Writer also claims to render correctly formed XHTML if required. 

Windows Live Writer is part of Windows Live, and to get it you have to go through a couple of hurdles, not least of which is registering for or remembering a previously registered Windows Live ID.  Make sure to only select Live Writer in your download, otherwise you will end up with several other Live applications which may or may not prove to be so useful. 

OK, its Microsoft and goes against the current trend for online applications, but it works. And its not as if you tied in to using it – you always write posts using another method whenever you want. 

There are probably still people out there who think that blogging is another ‘here today gone tomorrow’ phenomena – although there’s not likely to be many of them when you consider the number of blogs that are started daily.

But if you ignore the word ‘blog’ and consider what is actually happening, you see millions of people actively engaged in on-line publishing.  And while it may be the case many blogs, perhaps the vast majority, are no more than cyber-narcissism, there are many others that offer useful insight and comment.  Blogging is rapidly democratising the media. 

But more than that, the tools used for blogging such as WordPress  have moved beyond simple ‘web logs’ or diaries, and have become much more powerful publishing tools.  The ability to add static pages, photo albums, calendars and so on, blurs the difference between blogging software and content management systems.