As I power-up this blog o’mine, after several years of not blogging, I was confronted with the need for a blogging client. Yes, you can use WordPress’s client (if you can call it that), but it is overloaded with obscure commands and a messy interface. As my blogging guru, Michael Hyatt, says:
Consider using an off-line blogging client. This isn’t a necessity, but it will make blogging much easier. An off-line blogging client is like a word processor for blogging. It enables you to write when you are not online and then up load your post when you connect to the Internet. You can also schedule posts to run on a specific day and time, which is a very useful function when you schedule is tight. The two most popular are BlogJet for Windows and MarsEdit for Macintosh.
The problem is this: I spend most of my time at my desktop with Windows 10. When I am away from the desktop, I usually have my MacBookAir or iPad Pro, but the bulk of my writing is done at the desktop, so a Windows blogging client is what I really need. But BlogJet simply did not live up to the hype. For instance, the inability of BlogJet to support simple font sizing. I mean, really, how hard should that be? And their interface is the absolute opposite of WordPress’s in the sense that BlogJet’s is TOO simple. This comes down to a Three Bears proposition: Finding a client that is just right, not too simple nor too hard, but just right. You know?
For years, Microsoft shipped a free client called Windows LiveWriter and I loved it. But then, all of a sudden, they stopped making it. Not good.
A simple search of the Web, however, revealed that Microsoft had simply embedded it in something called Windows Essentials, which while no longer supported, does include LiveWriter and which does work on Windows 10. In fact, I am using LiveWriter (“LW”) right now to write this post. There is no end to the functions but the interface is Word-like and therefore very easy to navigate. It linked seamlessly to WordPress and seems quite stable. It doesn’t have a preview function, and inserting a comments field is apparently not there, but these are things I can add from within WordPress after drafting the entry here in LW. Bottom line: I will use LW from this point forward. It is precisely what I need. And I have asked BlogJet for a refund.
I wonder why Microsoft has given up on being a front-man for everyday bloggers?
