I have been extremely irritated with Blogger lately. Half the time you can’t upload photos. The other half you can’t post comments. When will it ever end?In the interest of stress-free blogging, I am experimenting with a number of blogging tools. I’ve tried Windows Live Writer. It’s a nice blog editor, but I’ve had some problems posting photos with it. Mike showed me a way around it - by posting photos from my Flickr account to my blog - but then I discovered another problem. I can’t seem to center my photos! Arrghh.
Next I tried WordPress. It has some great features, but once again, I had problems when it came to photos. It was easy to resize them, but I couldn’t seem to find an easy way of centering them. I am also rather peeved at the font size when you log into WordPress. It makes me feel like I’m back in Kindergarten, writing with those big, fat pencils on that extra, extra, EXTRA wide-ruled paper! Remember that stuff?
Now I’m experimenting with Flock. So far I am impressed, but I have yet to post to my blog. I have the right to reserve judgment until the publish button has been pressed!
Flock is a web browser among other things. I like the web browser. It is integrated with Flickr, allowing you to see your Flickr photos across the top of your browser. And when you compose a blog post, you can just grab one of the photos and drag it onto your workspace. Hmm. I wonder if I can center my photos?
YES! I just went right into the html and added some tags! Awesome!
I’m almost afraid to hit the publish button. Wish me luck! If this post appears on my blog, I’m converting to Flock for good!
Blogged with Flock
October 25th, 2006 at 7:59 am
If this post appears on my blog, I’m converting to Flock for good!
It looks like you are hooked to me! Congratulations on being willing to experiment and on finding something that works for you.
October 25th, 2006 at 8:17 am
Thanks, Perry! I’m anxious to do some more experimentation with Flock. It took me a while to get the settings configured so that I could post, but once I did, I was a happy camper! And as for the browswer, I like it more than IE! By the way, that’s a great pic of you!
October 25th, 2006 at 8:23 am
Btw, Perry, I changed my settings so that you don’t have to log into Blogger to post comments to my site. That way you can leave the link to your new blog.
October 25th, 2006 at 9:46 am
I glad flock is working for you… there was a time where I was a programmer working on it, though I think they have had the good insight to rewrite anything I did =p.
For centering an image in Windows Live Writer, it can be done but it’s not straight forward. After you put the image in, click off the image (don’t have it selected) and have the cursor right next to it. Then you can select Align -> Center from the Format menu. (What you are doing is centering the paragraph with the image, not the image itself). I agree that’s awkward, and if you like Flock stick with it! It’s got one of those news readers built-in so you can have instant updates of Kevin Smith right in your browser! lol.
October 25th, 2006 at 9:57 am
Thanks for the Live Writer tips, Mike!
I’m definitely going to have to add Kevin’s blog to the news reader!
Speaking of Kevin, he put up a new post yesterday! Did you see it?
October 25th, 2006 at 1:15 pm
You’re such a geek!
I have found all sorts of sites that are helpful for bloggers. Now I just need to sit down and learn them.
October 25th, 2006 at 1:23 pm
Flock… yeah, I’ve heard some good things about it. Let us know how it goes.
October 25th, 2006 at 1:58 pm
Good luck! I hope Flock meets all your blogging needs.
October 25th, 2006 at 6:59 pm
Welp, it looks like it worked. I’ll have to check it out. I’ve had less problems posting photos on Blogger since I started using the Firefox browser.
October 26th, 2006 at 12:49 am
Red ~ I sure am!
Lecram ~ Sure will! Maybe you’ll make the switch too!
Andi ~ Thank you! You should give it a try!
JC ~ Thanks! I’ve had problems with IE for quite a while now. I can already tell an improvement in web browsing since starting to use Flock!
October 26th, 2006 at 2:04 pm
Cool I will have to try that!
October 26th, 2006 at 7:27 pm
Network servers have been not right lately. Sunday, the picture thing wasn’t happening with blogger. prior to that, i lost my gallery’s ability to show pictures - 2100 of them. I have been trying to rescue them and getting page zone to help me find a way to restore it with old versions of the page. i am not impressed. tomorrow after school, i am going to be calling them again and hoping for the best.
good luck with your ability to find something safe and reliable. if that happens, let the world know so we can move to greener pastures.
October 26th, 2006 at 8:23 pm
Hey Tish,
Hope you really love Flock!
Cheers,
Will Pate
Community Ambassador, Flock
October 26th, 2006 at 10:49 pm
Looks like we have the answer then!
I noticed Blogger was playing up the other day too - I was never so happy to be on Livejournal! Just sorry I have had to lock out most of my old Blogchums with half of the entries I’ve been writing…