For years now I've composed the blog entries that appear on this site using w.bloggar. The process relies on an XML-RPC processing agent in this database which handles requests posted to it that are based on the Blogger API. This lets me create and edit blog entries without me needing to open a browser or the Notes client. This is something I talked about more than five years ago! Damn.

While the process works it has its shortcomings and five years on I've finally got round to improving how I post. Wbloggar itself had promise but never really went anywhere and hasn't changed much in the time I've been using it.

Blogging anything other than plain text has always meant opening a browser, logging in, finding the relevant "resource" document and uploading an image to it. Then I have to copy the link to the image and switch back to wbloggar where I then link to it form. It's enough of a pain to stop me uploading images unless I really need to.

Then there's the fact you write in HTML. Not that I mind doing this but I'd rather WYSIWYG it. Then there's the spell checker, which is just plain awful. I could go on...

So, I've now updated the XML-PRC agent (uses MetaWeblog API rather than Blogger) and, as of today, am switching to using Windows Live Writer (WLW).

Now I can write without the HTML. I can insert inline images and have them automatically uploaded to a resource document when I press the Publish button in WLW. Spell checking works and is just like in Word with the squiggly lines). Life is so much easier now.

Until now I've stored ideas for future blog postings in .post files which open with wbloggar. I've got them scattered all over the place. Like any type of file you create them and forget they're there until they're no longer relevant. I must have not posted loads of stuff just because I forgot about the idea I stored in a .post file somewhere.

WLW stores your drafts nice and tidy in its own folder and displays them to you in a manageable fashion so can easily edit and post them at any point.

I tell you all this as what I'm getting at is that this is another change I've made that I'm hoping will make it easier for me to write here on a more timely basis. I wanted to test the theory too. Hence the screengrab above!