behindthewillowtrees » Blogs and blogger

Windows Live Writer 2010

John Smith — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 10:18:52 +0000

I’m a big fan of Windows Live Writer. I use it all the time for my blogging. Microsoft have just released the 2010 beta which now has a cracking Office 2007/2010 feel to it, including the ribbon bar. It is much easier to see layouts and the HTML styles. Definitely worth the upgrade.

Also included, if you so choose, is Windows Live Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Mail, and several more useful apps. Just watch out you don’t download want you don’t need!

I especially like the new Outlook Connector Pack. It added what’s called the "People Pane" to my Outlook 2007. That in turn integrates social networking (although FaceBook isn’t yet available, but coming soon) but better, it aggregates all messages from a sender under the preview pane and when you open an email. A very convenient option and similar to Xobni, which I never took to.

Windows Live Essentials beta

Happy birthday!

John Smith — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:44:25 +0000

To celebrate the second birthday of behindthewillowtrees, I’ve moved the site to a proper hosting server and started using WordPress. Hope you like the make over. More to come in due course!

Blog This in Windows Live Writer :: Firefox Add-ons

John Smith — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 22:02:00 +0000

Adds a button to Firefox which starts a new Windows Live Writer blog post prepopulated with content and title from the current web page. Blog the whole page, or just selected snippets. Interacts with other registered plugins to parse and structure web content where appropriate. Blog quickly when you find something of interest on the web.

Blog This in Windows Live Writer :: Firefox Add-ons

I’m trying out Windows Live Writer

John Smith — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 11:59:00 +0000

Recently I discovered that Microsoft have created a better text editor for Blogger than Blogger has done. Which seems nuts! Despite my reservations about using Microsoft products if there is a free alternative available, it is much much easier to use! In fact I love it.

At first I was unable to create a carriage return! Even typing the source code

made no difference at all. [Shift]+[Enter] worked fine to create
. After a lot of Googling, I discovered what was wrong. Not obvious and not well documented. My css template had this code in it:

.post-body p {
/* Fix bug in IE5/Win with italics in posts */
margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
padding: 1px 0px 1px 0px;
display: inline; /* to fix floating-ads wrapping problem in IE */
height: 1%;
overflow: visible;
}

Since no-one uses IE5 any longer (!), it was safe to take that code out, and Live Writer now works perfectly.

Raychy's blog

John Smith — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 22:35:00 +0000

I’m impressed with Raychy’s blog. She writes from her actual experiences and struggles with finding God in them. Honest and real.

On blogging

John Smith — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 09:36:00 +0000

Bryan Appleyard reminds us that the blogscape is not for the faint hearted. There is a false sense of security in the ease by which you can type something, hit publish, and it is out there for 1.7 billion people to read. There is a shocking disconnect between one fact (sitting at your computer) and another (instant visibility to the whole Internet community). Appleyard gives the example of stepping out of the toilet only to discover you are standing on the centre spot of Wembley stadium.

But that’s the point, it’s it? Blogging, and social networking generally, is a broadcast and not a publication, ‘a spontaneous expression of instant thought’. True blogging is done in the moment, it is unconsidered, in the mood. I’m too cautious to do that! But it does seem to me that a blog needs to be read in the light of its authorship. Lightly and tentatively.

The cloud of labels

John Smith — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:38:00 +0000

Although I’m not using it at present, this is the way to create a Label Cloud, on Blogger, (for the “I’m writting about”… section): link.