James Governor, a.k.a. monkchips, mentioned to me, not long ago, how I should have another look into Windows Live Writer as another powerful offline client, next to Qumana, which is my current default, for the time being. At the time I was not really very sure about it, so I put it in my to-do list. However, later on I found out Neville Hobson talking in very favourable terms about it, too. So that to-do item went higher up into the priority list.
And just this morning, one of my fellow IBM colleagues and good friend of mine as well, Andy Piper, blogged about it as well saying how nicely it is starting to integrate with IBM’s Lotus Connections. Thus right away, with all of those pieces of good advice, I decided to get rid of that to-do item and have a look into it today and test it out, once more.
And to sum up my overall experience with a single word, after having created a number of blog posts in all of my blogs, both internal and external, I think it would be impressed. And very much so, I must add!
There is this last beta client made available over the course of the last few days and so far from what I have been able to see it’s pretty stable. Its user experience and ease of use is at the same level, if not better, than Qumana (You gotta love that Automatically save drafts after N minutes).
However, the main reason that has helped me switch and ditch Qumana for good for the Windows machine is the fact that I just got the confirmation that one of my other fellow IBM colleagues, James Snell, and one of the folks behind Blog Central (IBM’s internal blogging engine) is actually working with the developers from Windows Live Writer to make it compatible with the Atom Publishing Protocol, which will help us walk away from the MetaWeblog API with all of its issues and problems, mainly, the exposure and non encryption of the login credentials.
That, to me, is a pretty good move to make the switch and start getting used to writing blog posts in WLW, so that when the right time comes for such offline blogging client to support APP I can make a smooth transition to it. And forget about Qumana who I have contacted several weeks ago around this very same issue of supporting or not the APP and I am still waiting for their answer.
Sorry, folks, but life is just too short to hang around and wait for something to happen. If you cannot pay attention to the constructive feedback provided by your end-user community that spends more and more time trying out and testing your tool(s), don’t be surprised if they decide to move elsewhere.
So far Windows Live Writer has made an impressive come back into the offline blogging client scene by staying one step ahead of the curve, that is, listening to their end-users and putting together some of the features that we have been asking for, is what will drag ourselves on to it, like I am doing and apparently like Andy, Neville, Monkchips and a whole bunch of others are doing.
They cannot be all wrong, right? … I don’t think so!
Goodbye Qumana, Hello Windows Live Writer?!?
(Oh, and the process of inserting a picture, one of the things I really liked the most from Qumana is just beautiful! As easy as it gets)
coolness. fwiw – its also very easy to set up borders around the pictures too…
Hi James! Thanks much for the heads up! Actually, I did that with the first attempt to insert a picture, but then something mixed up and had to re-do it and while doing that I forgot about the border (Doh!) and didn’t include it. Probably too long making use of Qumana, but it surely makes a difference. So thanks for bringing that up and for reminding me about it. Good stuff!
Thanks for dropping by as well and for sharing this tip! Appreciated.
I must admit I have been using WLW irregularly for a while now, and can only agree, I rather like it. Almost hurts to say that about a M$ product! 😉
I’m struggling with kicking the habit of going online to post though! Must try harder!
Hi Simon! Thanks a lot for the additional feedback comments! I know exactly what you mean 😉 heh But it is still very much worth while a try. And if you haven’t done any offline blogging, you surely should have a look. It makes such a difference being able to work in an environment where you are never going to curse the fact that the browser crashed while you were putting together a lovely blog entry. I tell you, I could not live without offline blogging clients. They make such a difference!
And when you are travelling, they are awesome for drafting blog posts you can then share as soon as you have got the connection going. Talking about productivity tools while in the air!