Okay, so here’s where I get all cranky…
I’m testing out Windows Live Writer (beta) and using it to post about an altogether different package.
Those who have long been meandering around my blog will remember that I was a huge devotee of RocketPost, until it started to do all sorts of weird things and eventually do nothing but crash.
So, frustrated, I searched for another blog editor; along the way I tried out ecto, Qumana and a host of others, including the latest, Bleezer, but eventually settled on Zoundry, although it is well recognised that the icons in Zoundry are appallingly small for old and tired eyes like mine.
[You can see the whole sorry series of posts by following the links back from these few: here and here and here and here]
My long-term and long-suffering colleague in the quest for a better offline blog editor, Dave Briggs, is sticking with BlogJet as his preferred option, although he too is trying out new engines.
I even tried to get the Word blog software to work in the Beta2 version of Office2007 but couldn’t. At least LiveWriter connects seamlessly.
What struck me as interesting is that the chap behind RocketPost, a product firstly loved then finally lambasted by myself and many other bloggers as a ‘great idea that failed because of terrible support’, has continued to work on it (obviously ignoring any pleas for ’help’ from clientele) and continually upgrade it.
I downloaded and installed the latest version two nights ago — it still does nothing but relentlessly crash (even on my brand new pc).
It’s latest version reads like a ‘Wish List Come True’ for offline blog editors, so I include parts of it here.
- wysiwyg editing
- full local editing
- auto picture upload
- in-document spell check
- multiple word Auto-Correct
- highlighter
- save as draft
- auto insertion of affiliate code (e.g. Amazon)
- auto-linking to your related posts
- full text search to allow for quick finding and linking to previous posts
- web tags: technorati, delicious, flickr, etc
- quote tracking and auto formatting
- pull quotes, drop caps and spacers
- auto formatting (curly quotes, for example)
- auto list formatting (e.g. ‘*’ becomes a bullet, ’1′ becomes a numbered list)
- insert videos from YouTube easily
- auto thumbnail images
- insert yahoo! maps
- drag-and-drop text and images from web pages into a post
- hyperlink tooltips (links to previous posts automatically have the date and title added into the link)
- one-key shortcuts
- multiple windows (create two or more posts at the same time, create one, view an old post, etc.,)
- full picture editing (resize, position, margins, etc)
- photo captions – automatically add captions to your inserted images
- full table editing
- word count
- special characters (such as umlauts, etc.)
- auto save and recover in event of computer crash
- auto backup
- comments and trackbacks
This is a ‘dream list’ of requirements, and RocketPost has them all and more besides.
If only the software actually worked… [sigh]
Which is why I’m not linking directly to it.
