Blogging on Windows Live Writer 2011 [Review]

wlw-mainFrom the first day that I’ve started blogging, I found that using the web interface for Blogger and WordPress is a cumbersome task. Although, most apps seem to be moving to the web, there are some things, such as blogging, that I still prefer to do on the desktop.

I have been a fan of Windows Live Writer (WLW), Microsoft’s desktop blogging tool, for quite some time. It allows me to blog from the desktop and relieve myself of the cumbersome web interface. With the release of its newest incarnation (WLW 2011), it is also a good time to provide a review of its features.
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Really Useful Web Apps Brings Useful Web Apps to Your Desktop And Integrates Them All in One Place

really useful web apps logoMany of us are on a quest for a great all-in-one tool do it all. We also know it is impossible to make such an application. So we try countless pairing of programs, gadgets and other productivity voodoo in the hope of finding the magic combination.

Really Useful Web Apps has put together a really great combination pack for bloggers. It packs together 5 different applications that every person making a living online needs. You can grow this offering with both free and paid add-on apps.
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3 Useful Plugins For Multiple Authors Collaboration

Collaboration in blogs is a growing need with more and more blogging teams, newspapers, and magazines using the Internet. Additionally, there are times that one post may be assigned to more than one author. In WordPress, the only way to co-author a blog post is to share login information or for the users to have a higher role than “Author.” Here are three WordPress plugins that will allow you the ease of collaborating blog posts between more than one author. Each of the three plugins have their pros and cons, so test them out and see which one is the best fit for you.
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Enhance Your Blog Posts and E-Newsletter With Zemanta

zemanta-logoYou have already spent time thinking and writing an innovative blog post. Now, you have to spend more time searching and adding links, images, and related articles. Don’t you wish there was a way to speed up the process? This is where Zemanta comes in.

What is Zemanta?

Zemanta provides a way to enhance your blog posts by searching for keywords within your posts and suggesting related content. Additionally, Zemanta suggests post tags that you can use, so that it’s easier for search engines to index your posts, or readers to find content within your site.

Zemanta helps alleviate plagiarism because all of the material is free to use or links back to the original.  Zemanta also works with Gmail and Yahoo! Mail. If you are writing e-newsletters, this provides a way to enrich your newsletters, so that your readers want to continue their subscriptions. It’s point-and-click approach is a timesaver that gives you more time to think up more blog posts or e-newsletter items. According to their site, they have access to over 5-million pictures, 5-million articles, and 10-million related content. Therefore, there are plenty of items to use.
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Scribefire: A Full Featured Blog Editor For Firefox Users

scribefire-logoNot too long ago I started looking around for an easy way to post to some of the blogs I write for. The first thing that came to mind, since I was already using it to write, was to use the publish option in Google Docs to post. If you use the free hosting sites like Blogger, WordPress.com or Livejournal to name a few, this will do the trick. This is also a viable option if  you post to a site using that uses the Blogger, Metaweblog or Moveable Type API. Where Google falls short is if you need to post to multiple sites.

I went on a hunt and found a couple different choices. To be honest, I tried the Firefox add-on Scribefire first; I never quite got to the second one. The reason I didn’t go any further is it did what I needed it to do and it did it well. Scribefire lets me post to multiple blogs, storing of notes and uploads images. I can work on multiple posts at the same time by opening different tabs. This smart little Firefox add-on auto saves my progress while I work and also when I close the editing window. [Read more...]