Write it down, blog writer

Blame Microsoft.  I was moments away from shutting down for the night, when I decided to explore the “tool dock”  Microsoft 7 presents on the new desktop.  And I found “Live Writer, the “blog writing tool.”  And now here I am. Linking back to them in a desperate play for traffic.

Live Writer links to your blog service, pulls back your template, etc, and provides you with some very handy Microsofty tools that from this first paragraph are outperforming You Know Whoogle.

The workspace is not very big, but it doesn’t really need to be.  Tools live off to the right in a nav-bar, or up-top like in Word.  The graphics tools have a little more pizzazz,to the point where you could over-use them, but when you rob as many photos as I do in a post, you might want to mix it up, border and shadow-wise.  That above is the “reflection effect.”  It is not serving much purpose for that photo but maybe something like this.  That’s a little more dramatic.

The font formatting works much better here. You have all the MS fonts and formats to choose from, and I have not yet run into the Known issue on Blogger where fonts revert to Times Roman at the drop of a paragraph.  Plus, Blogger dropped its spellcheck in the last upgrade, and Live Writer brings that back.

Peep this – insert table.

Why would I want to?  I don’t know; I never could before.

Many of the same plug-ins/widgets are available, and many of them are just as silly.  MS sticks it to the Man by putting it an Insert Map feature and using Bing.  I suppose in a world where Google and Microsoft are fighting over which one is The Man, I am the patsy playing right into their hands with this post. 

But net-net it’s a win-win, because I have been considering leaving Blogger for a more flexible service, with better editing tools and a more accurate “Preview” of what I was really going to get.  You look back over the posts on this site and notice that formatting can sometimes go haywire.  Sizes and paragraph breaks are off, and photos don’t line up as expected.  maybe this will work better.

This song has no title, just words and a tune.  I have to be in bed now for my 14 hour commute.  But I am pleased to report that my iTunes have been restored.  long live Apple.  Now everyone is happy.