Add Some Cloud To Your Blogging.

Blogging by its very nature puts you at the heart of the Internet and the latest web based technologies. As such it makes sense to have a good snoop around to look at what is out there that will ensure that you spend your online time profitably both in terms of financial gains by switching from PC based software to cloud computing platforms and the more effective use of your time.

As you would expect some of the offerings out there are slick, professional platforms from competent developers while others are so rough around the edges you run the risk of needing medical assistance! What I intend to do over a series of blogs is look at some of the cloudware that I use or that I have looked at, been impressed by but not brought into use because it didn’t fit in with the way that I worked.

For a blogger the writing input tool is the primary human interface with one of the most important people – you! Putting pen to paper to create your blog can vary from typing it in to a text editor and then cut and pasting and formatting within the blog interface. You may have found out the hard way that using Word to write, cut and paste your post into the blog interface is a hazardous way to go because Word inserts hidden formatting that can, how can I put this gently, really screw up any formatting you try to impose. It is more practical to use Notepad which is built into Windows or to use one of the many text editors that enable you to enter some formatting such as hyperlinks. Or, as a real coal face solution, you can type your text right into the blog interface directly.

An alternative is using a specially designed blogging facility to create, format and publish and here two offerings stand out (R) ScribeFire and Live Writer.

ScribeFire is a small bolt on goody for Firefox which enables you to write your blog copy, spell check, format text, insert graphics and tables, etc and publish to the web. It has a phenomenally small footprint which makes it very fast and won’t be a drain on your PC’s resources, an important factor to consider you are using a low power Netbook. One of the impressive quick formatting functions is the option to choose the type colour. Too often the choice you get is a text description such as “green” but is it light green, dark green or lime green! ScribeFire allows you to choose from a colour pallete in a simple double click sequence.

You can add categories and tags to each article which, when published, is stored on your terrestrial PC.There is also the facility to allow ping backs from the likes of Technorati, IceRocket, bl.ogs and the like.

One nice touch is that if you have written your blog in another manner when you link ScribeFire to your blog’s URL it downloads the articles so you can edit previous posts and re-publish.

Live Writer is a Microsoft offering that comes free as part of the Microsoft Live family of web based services which is surprisingly good and has a more heavyweight feel than FireScribe. Unsurprisingly it feels like a cut down version of Word with a web publishing. In most respects it works in pretty much the same way as ScribeFire with input and formatting options being identical but Live Writer has some extra tricks up its sleeve. For example, you can add not just a single photograph but a whole album either by dragging and dropping photographs from your desktop or by linking to an existing album – just think of the benefits if you are a photography or travel blogger!

Other add in options include maps, videos and tables. As with ScribeFire you can run multiple blogs from the one interface, a good way to keep track of blogs if you have multiple online personalities and are a proficient blogger. Live Writer also saves individual posts in a folder under your My Documents which is useful if you want to do extra online backs using a program like Mozy or Dropbox.

I confess to being torn between these two options. I love ScribeFire because of its small footprint and quickness but Live Writer, despite being a bit of a resource hog, offers a more solid blogging experience.

One final word on a program that seems to have stagnated is wBloggar. In its day it offered the ultimate in blogging input but there has been no development for almost two years. As the program was free I cannot criticise the developer but I mourn the waste of what could have been the best blogging tool out there. Even now it offers a broad spectrum of facilities and options and is worth looking at even it is to see what could have been.

Related posts:

1. Choosing Which Lifestyle Design And Blogging Road To Take.
2. No Blog Is An Island.
3. Interview: Mike Cliffe-Jones On How He Built His Successful Blog.
4. Interview With The “World’s Strongest Librarian”.
5. 10 Great Sites For Lifestyle Designers, Bloggers, And Entrepreneurs.