Drawings & Sketches

I've been testing Microsoft's new blogging tool Windows Live Writer this morning, over-all I'm pleasantly surprised - especially on the price point: FREE!  :-) I've looked at a few other free and paid desktop blogging apps out there but was never really sold on any. Performancing for Firefox was the closest but PFF lacks advanced imaging features, probably in the effort to maintain it's simplicity.

As an illustrator & sketchblogger, I've found uploading and manipulating images with WordPress always a bit cumbersome... so much so that it aids in post procrastination, as if I needed more help with that. Live Writer picks up the ball and runs with it when it comes to imaging and a few other areas. It has me 98% sold for regular use (sorry PFF) The other 2%? Here's my wishlist ...

General Blogging:

1. Editor window sizing is strange but I'm sure this fix is in the works.
2. Too many windows... Tabs would be great for all open post drafts.
3. More than 3 visible drafts in the sidebar. I'd like to view 15 or 20 in there.
4. Need to be able to edit the post title in "Web Layout" mode.
5. The ability to add categories on the fly.
6. Retrieve unlimited number of posts from my blog instead of just 25.
7. I have over 75 drafts in my WP dashboard, it would really be nice to download these as well under the "draft" category.

Imaging & Uploading:

1. I want to specify what folder my images upload to on the server.
2. More control over image effects. All effects should have a slider control to adjust the level of the effect. The default sharpen effect for instance goes too far and is unusable to me.
3. An image browser for my previously uploaded images, similar to the WFW flickr plugin.
4. Control over image quality. Some images tend to blur too much. Maybe a simple quality slider control would do the trick here as well.
5. More variation on watermark font sizes.  I'd like to go smaller than 8pt.
6. An option for a watermark image instead of just text so I can use my logo as a watermark. A simple browse for image button.
7. Remember what I used for my last watermark - maybe a "save as default" option?

Plug-In requests:

1. A "Blog This" button for Firefox. :)
2. Amazon and Ebay associate ID plugin.
3. Embed Video plugin
4. Flickr Plugin
5. Tag Plugin

Conclusion:
I like this application a lot and I'm looking forward to using it with high hopes it'll kickstart my blogging back into gear. I'll be on the look-out for the next release of Live Writer where I'm hoping these issues will be addressed. I recommend it highly, especially to all you artists, cartoonists, illustrators, and photobloggers out there. This could be the perfect solution we've been waiting for.

 

tags: livewriter, microsoft, performancing, rocketpost, blogging, wordpress, live+writer

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