Windows Live Writer 2011 vs Wordpress web editor

In part I of my series on the various ways to manage your WordPress blog I'll be comparing the WordPress website with Windows Live writer 2011.

If you have got a wordpress.com or even host your own blog using the wordpress.org Blogging software (for more on wordpress.org visit the official wordpress.org site here) you are probably using one of two options for writing your posts and that is either the basic QuickPress editor widget in your Dashboard or the more powerful enhanced editor that allows you to add url links either showing the full url or to mask the url link in a word that describes the link as well as to be able to work with the post using html code if you are proficient in working with raw html.  The downside of this is that you can only write posts while you are online.

Windows Live Writer 2011 enhances the online wordpress editor by allowing you to write your posts offline.  You also have more options for the layout of your post as you can change the colour of the text or highlight text as well as select different text styles such has heading style and paragraph style embed a hyperlink, picture or video into your post.  If you need to insert a table into your post you have the ability to that along with a map or emoticon.  You can even preview what your post will look like within the application, set what date your post will be dated as posted as when you publish it, e.g if you write a post today while off line and post it tomorrow you can set the post date to be today, can’t really se much point in why you would want to set  the post date before or after you have posted it beats me.

Windows Live Writer 2011s interface is very much like Microsoft Office 2010s interface, and the tabbed editor is very much like Microsoft Office SharePoint 2010s/ the Old Microsoft Office Frontpage XP

Main Windows Live Writer 2011 Editing Screen

Blog Preview in Windows Live Writer 2011

The Windows Live Writer 2011 HTML Editor

The Windows Live Writer 2011 Insert Menu Ribbon

The Windows Live Writer 2011 Blog Account Menu Ribbon

The Menu Ribbon changes to a Web Preview one when you are in the Preview tab, the  Edit and Source Ribbon Menus are exactly the same.

List of logging services supported by Windows Live Writer 2011

As you can see from the blog service list screenshot Windows Live Writer support more than just WordPress.  This review is a comparison to the WordPress online editors as I don’t use any of the other blogging services in the list, but as Microsoft have seen a a gap in the offline blogging applications market and created Windows live Writer I’m guessing that the other blogging services online editors are lacking in features.

Windows Live Writer 2011 is part of the Windows Live Essentials 2011 pack available  from here.

Roland

An alternative option to Microsoft Office Outlook

If you are looking for an alternative to Microsoft Office Outlook I would recommend IBM Lotus Notes 8.5, it comes with a thee application Office Suite called Lotus Symphony that consists of Symphony Documents, Symphony Presentations and Symphony Spreadsheets.

I’ve still not worked out how to set it up for non IBM Lotus Domino server use, but since I’ve also got a copy of IBM Lotus Domino Server 8.5 I’ll probably add that to my server project along side Microsoft Exchange.

When you first run Lotus Notes after Installation you get the choice of using it with a Domino Server or as a standard PIM application.

 

Roland

My move from iDeneb 1.6 Mac OSX 10.5.8 to Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat

After my failed project to put Mac OSX 10.5.8 onto my Advent 4213 Netbook I’ve decided to Install Ubuntu Linux 10.10 Maverick Meerkat onto my Netbook instead.

I’ll do a full review of  my findings as well as a full review of Maverick Meerkat tomorrow  or Saturday hopefully.

Roland

Installing and using Mac OSX 10.5.7 on Advent 4213 Netbook

I've managed to get iDeneb Installed onto my Advent 4213 Netbook, but it will not boot past the Apple boot screen.  So therefore I've abandoned this project until I've got the time to trouble shoot it.

Roland

Installing and using Mac OSX 10.5.7 on Advent 4213 Netbook

Due to a technical problem with the DVD image I was unable to burn a working Install disk to start my project.  I'm having to re-download a new DVD image, once this is done I'll start my project.

Roland

Installing and using Mac OSX 10.5.7 on Advent 4213 Netbook

I’ll be doing a project that will turn my Advent 4213 Netbook into a mini MacBook.  I’ll be using iDeneb v 1.5.1 that will Install Mac OSX Leopard 10.5.7 along with patches and fixes that will make it run on the x86 PC Architecture.

The spec for the Advent 4213 Netbook can be found here.

I’ll be Installing Mac OSX tomorrow hopefully as I’ve got to re burn the Installer DVD tomorrow morning as it did not burn right.

 

Roland

Using the Advent 4213 Netbook as a Server

Part 1: Choosing your OS

The choice of OS to use for a server is huge, there are free and paid for options.

Free

For the free options you have mainly Open Source options that are Linux-based OSs such as:

Red Hats Fedora Core

Novell's OpenSuse

Conical's Ubuntu

Mandrivia's Mandrivia Linux

Open Suse, Fedora Core and Mandrivia are all mainly Desktop based OSs but also have the capability to be used as Web, Email, File Servers and more, they all have a graphical Desktop so configuring the server is easier to do.

Ubuntu Linux comes in to versions the standard Desktop Os that can be used as a Server or the dedicated Server version.  The Desktop version of Ubuntu has the graphical Desktop but can also be configured to be used as a dedicated server by uninstalling all the desktop applications, where as the server version is a dedicated server OS and does not include the graphical Desktop and is configured using the CLI so it's basically like running the pre Windows Microsoft DOS OS and having server applications installed that don't have a graphical interface.

If you go the Open Source route with your server then I would recommend staying well clear of Ubuntu Server unless you are used to using Linux and feel comfortable using the command line.

There are many more free Open Source OS's than the ones I've mentioned that are available but mentioning them all would take up to much space.

Paid

For the paid option you have mainly proprietary OS's but there are some Open Source options that offer paid for versions of their OS.

OpenSuse is a free download from there website but they also offer a paid boxed option that includes the DVD and CD needed for installation along with a user manual and 90 days of free support once you register your installation.

Mandrivia also has a paid option that gives you more drivers than the free version and support as well

Red Hat and Novell also offer dedicated server OS's but they are mainly used in Enterprises and would be impossible for a consumer to get hold of.

Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7 can all be used as a simple web and file server and with the right third-party software could also be used as an email server.

Apple's Mac OSX Server (but as the Advent 4213 is a non Apple piece of hardware that is not an option)

Windows Home Server meant as a simple Home file and streaming media Server, mainly comes on dedicated Home Servers but can sometimes be picked up on ebay as just the OS without the Server Hardware.

Windows Server 2000/2003/2008 are all ment for businesses and enterprises but can still be picked up by the consumer on ebay.

Compared to Windows XP/Vista and 7 Windows Server is a dedicated Server OS but is still user-friendly thanks to the familiar Windows Desktop.  Windows Server can be used as a simple Web, File and streaming media server as well as being used for email (using Microsoft Exchange Server), it can also be used to push email to BlackBerry Smartphones using the free BESX software or the paid for BES software.

For this project I have chosen to go down the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Route with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Enterprise and BESX as I've got a BlackBerry Smart-phone.  I'll also be adding a wordpress.org Server as it's a free piece of software along with a phpBB run forum (free software again) and a MySQL Database Server (also free).

In part 2 I'll be covering configuring Windows Server and installing Exchange and BESX Servers as installing  Windows Server is exactly like the installation of Windows XP.

Roland