Microsoft have recently done their best to become resurgent to some degree; and one of the new innovations as it were is an update to Windows Live Writer. This new version is installed by a new version of Windows Live Installer, which also offers a new and updated version of Windows Live Messenger as well as Windows Live Sign in Assistant.

Although I’d heard reports that the beta versions “sucked”; I tried a download to one of my comps when I noticed that a final retail version of the new WL Messenger was advertised in my Hotmail account. On clicking the link I wasn’t surprised to see that a new WL Installer loaded.

When this was activated I noticed that the softies had added Parental Controls to the choice of programs. I myself didn’t need any parental controls as my computers are never used by non-adults, so I didn’t bother with them and therefore have no idea how good or otherwise they are.

I did install the new WL messenger, Sign-in Assistant, and Writer though. I haven’t actually properly used the new messenger, although I have had a look at it and I am impressed by the sleeker look and the curviness of it: It appears more feminine as far as style is concerned. It also has a much gentler notification sound: Something softer and noticeable, rather than a harsh “DING!” that makes me jump out of my skin if I’m not expecting it. 

One thing I did notice, on the flipside of that, is that after installation it returns to the default blue. – Which is a lighter blue than before. I didn’t try it out for long; but during the 10 minutes or so I was messing about with it, I didn’t find anything that allowed me to change the colour back to pink, as I usually have it.

Hopefully it’s not operational on the Rubik’s-Cube principle: The longer you play with it, the harder it gets. ( – Yes I am aware of exactly what some of you are thinking about at this juncture. )

Anyway; rather than mess with Messenger at that point, I decided I’d rather write with Writer: -

Once again a nice curvaceously styled GUI; which actually this time did retain its previous pink tone. In fact it enhanced it somewhat. On this module I immediately noticed the colour-settings icon, not that I needed it in this case. The GUI is much the same as the old GUI but with a much sleeker appearance, It also uses the term “blog” rather than “weblog”, which is something that used to annoy me: Like OK it’s called a BLOG. I know that it’s an abbreviated version of the word “weblog”; but please don’t try to sound clever…Plus you’re just confusing people who aren’t aware of that.

What else has changed? Ooh lots; more than I have room or time to tell you all about here. One more main point though; and something quite important, a bug-fix from the previous version: - __________________ <——– I snagged this pic from cybernews.com . I thought it was rather creative to be frank. I don’t know whether it’s a Microsoft original or a creation by the aforementioned. Credit to the creator whichever.

When using the last version I’d alternate views between Web View and Text a lot. – Because I write and edit my articles partly in web-preview and partly in html. That was fine, but with the last version I’d have to ensure everything was finished totally and ready to be posted to blog before I inserted a Google Adwords advertisment in html. The reason for that was that if I inserted a Google Adwords ad in html and then switched back to Web View from Text it appeared initially that nothing was wrong. However if I then uploaded it to blog or returned to Text view the Adwords ad had multiplied. Every time I switched between Text and Web View it multiplied again!

This bug has now been fixed; and I can now change between “Edit” as it is now labelled, (Microsoft love to be as confusing as possible.) and “Source” as it is now known. (Ditto.) Everything else seems to work as before. It’s retained the add-ons from the previous version, and, after a single session getting used to the new look, I must say that I prefer it to the old one.

‘Would love to tell you more, but don’t have all day and night to write. I thought I’d just squeeze this post of a few notes into my blog-writing session, before I get on with other things.

Do try out the new Windows Live apps for yourself. Yesterday (10th January 2009) the latest WL apps weren’t exactly easy to find on Google: Everything led back to the older WL Installer with its previous versions. – But it’s there somewhere.

Do leave a comment and let me know what you think.

The Windows Live Services can be somewhat of a conundrum in themselves. Microsoft appear to be producing everything and anything under the handle “Live” in the way of services; some of which are scrapped virtually as soon as they’re off the production line: “That was a stupid idea; put it in the trash.” Others seemingly last and remain in circulation within a specialist market: Some even hit the bigtime; such as Windows Live Messenger – MSN messenger with a redesigned GUI under a different name, or Windows Live Spaces; which has taken off in a major way amongst the freeloader amateur bloggers. One Live application which hasn’t been overly recognised, however, is Windows Live Writer; Which I’m using  right now, and I’m going to tell you a bit about my impressions whilst doing so…

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Although this picture (Left) has absolutely no relevance to this article whatsoever; I just thought I’d include it for the hell of it. It’s of a computer undergoing testing on the bench at Kustom Komputa’s workshop. (http://www.kustomkomputa.co.uk)

I’m a relative newcomer to the world of professional blogging: You’ll notice that, even though I’ve been churning out articles on an almost daily basis over the past weeks; they’ve tended at least at first to lack presentation style and appear very basic: Text upon text with very little if any proper formatting, and maybe an illustration centred top and bottom of text. Whilst the retro style may be nice in the eyes of those viewing the Internet from 1999 through a time-portal; it’s legibility may leave something to be desired by readers in the current time-stream.

Windows Live Writer extends the limited functionality of the normal blog editing interface; which in my case is WordPress, by allowing a full manual pre-formatting using functions that you’d find in programs like M$ Word; but that WordPress just doesn’t have. The article called “CRT Conundrum” was edited in Microsoft Word 12 and I was rather comforted by the extra functionality that Word provided, even though I didn’t use it much as I was experimenting to see if I could transfer from Word to WordPress, and I made a bit of an untidy job of it at the end of the day. The problem appeared after the article was finished and I wanted to transfer the draft from Word to WordPress for finalisation. Solution: Save the .rtf or .docx file  as a .html or .htm document; then copy and paste it into a new blank post created in WordPress. Yes it works and it works well. The associated issues are: 1) Too much hassle. 2) Too much mess left behind: a .rtf file, a .htm or html file, and a <filename>_files folder full of graphical images etc left behind cluttering up the desktop and using up more HDD space. Yes these can be deleted or stored but it is really too much hassle.

<Windows Live Writer>; A lot of the functionality of Word, combined with a direct interface to one’s personal blog: For example you can create tables, change the colour of the font, change the font, font size, italicise, bold, both if you like, and everything else that Word can do. unlike Word 12 in Office 2007 it’s not possible to see the changes as they will be before you make them; but who’s complaining? The functionality increase over WordPress standard is colossal when pre-editing using Windows Live Writer…And when the editing is complete just upload it straight from Writer to your blog – And this is where I find a slight conflict appears: In Writer; no matter how exactly perfectly and whatever degree of precision one formats it with; when it’s uploaded to WordPress it just ain’t the same – Ever. There’s always at least one minor correction I find I have to make after transfer; so I’ve found the answer to be that I don’t take ages formatting it perfectly in Writer; rather I do things that WordPress can’t do; like draw tables to put text and pictures in for formatting purposes and justify text within the table framework, in Writer: (I know: I boobed.) I make it look as good as it’ll ever be with emphasis upon those things that WP just doesn’t have the functionality to do…And then I upload it to WP from Writer. having done so I can adjust the formatting in WP and eradicate that extra line-break that mysteriously appeared. or add the paragraph formatting in the html window of WP to a piece of text that looked fine in Writer but appears all cramped in WP.

Probably as new versions of WP appear these bugs and compatibility issues will be ironed out. Maybe they’ll also introduce the functionality of Writer to WP; in which case this subject becomes a whole new ball-game

Another minor, or maybe major, incompatibility that I’ve noticed is causing all that space to the right of this text to be wasted, is the default table sizing in Writer: Now before we continue any further I will admit that there is a certain degree of laziness on my part involved here: But look at it this way: That space can be taken up by widgets. I know it’s not this far down the page but it can be. I’m writing inside a table to stop the text flowing into the widget space – So why don’t I just fence off the text inside a table until the widgets run out and then use the entire page? That may on the face of it appear a logical conclusion to draw; but guessing exactly where the widgets end in Writer without being able to see them is dodgy stuff. Also the table width may change just slightly on upload, as may the font sizing; and what if I want to add more widgets at some point? Oh dear I’ll have to go and reformat my article(s). The theme that I’m using may have some bearing upon this also; but I like this theme; it very “me”; and I’m not going to change it. A positive point of this formatting style using near the default Writer 1Row x 1Column as a margin is that it’s better for mobile devices. If you haven’t viewed this blog through a mobile device I suggest you give it a try and you’ll understand what I mean. Of course the default table size can be dragged to slightly larger as I’ve done herein. It’s also a lot easier to create links and link text and images in WL Writer.

Then of course there’s always the option of splitting the table to divide the written area between text and illustration: Bugs here can be incorporated into the main text area and annexed off into his own little partition, which is something that simply can’t be done using WordPress alone. (If it can then either I’ve missed a biggie or I’m using an old version of WordPress.)

If I was using WP alone I’d have to place Bugs (Above) between lines of text which span the entire page and end up with something with a retro-feel to it once again.

I could ramble on ad-infinitum with an in-depth analysis of Writer vs WordPress issues, and no doubt bore you, my readers, to tears – So save to say that I’m getting quite familiar with WL Writer and using it in conjunction with WP, I’ll say no more.

The title of this article may appear familiar to some of you as I did attempt to write on it before and posted an incomplete article by mistake in June of this year. When I noticed my error I took it down again and it remained in WL Writer Drafts section until now, when I thought that I may as well have a go at rewriting it rather than waste it: hence what you’ve just read.

Right I’m saving this into the Drafts and I think I’ll publish. I may as well do so as not… Actually I think I might make Bugs into an icon.. But that’s something of no vast consequence as yet which may or may not be in the pipeline.

I wasn’t too happy with the way the first draft of this item was going; and I’m still not too happy with it now to be quite honest – But I’ve gone ahead and published before in such a case so in for a penny – It’s something to read after all. David Risley has a much better and more detailed article on the subject at PC Mech, so I’ll do him a favour and link it here:

http://www.pcmech.com/article/how-to-manually-edit-blog-styles-for-windows-live-writer/

It might be and probably is in the members-only section, so you’ll have to buy membership – Which is well worth it for the price believe you me. I have no advertising contract with David Risley or PC Mech, so it makes no difference to me whether you do or not; but I reckon it would be a good idea; especially if you’re a geek and even more so if you live in the USA.

I’ll doubtless be back with something equally; hopefully a lot more fascinating, in due course. For now that’s yer lot.