Did I tell you I switched to a new blog editing software? Do you care?
No to both questions, I am guessing, but it is rather exciting to me. As well as a tad stressful, but that is just because change is scary and that part is over now THANK GOD.
I used to use ecto. I tried it because Wil Wheaton recommended it ages ago on his blog and he is funny. That is pretty much all the criteria I needed. What I did not realize at the time is he was using the Mac version. I do not have a Mac. I never will have a Mac, mainly because Steve Jobs is the Devil but also because we have PC’s at the office and I like free software.
My screen did not look all pretty like the one you see when you follow the ecto link above. It was functional and had the basic add-ins I use but it was just not sexy. I could live with that until two things happened:
- It stopped reading my blog theme so I could no longer see what my post would look like on my blog until I actually posted it. It was just a big screen of text with no header or sidebars.
- The software creators parted ways and stopped supporting the Windows version of ecto.
As for #1, I had to manually set up the code for ecto way back when to format my drafts so I can see what they will look like on my blog before actually posting them. That was almost two years ago. I am not a programmer and all I remember about setting it up back them was I had a bunch of trial and error to figure it out. My coding is all still there yet it no longer displays correctly. I have neither the time nor the patience to figure this out, especially when there are so many other blog editors out there these days.
As for #2, the new website says the creator is still fully supporting ecto 2.x but the program is no longer for sale and he has no plans to develop ecto 3. The last ecto update I have is dated July 2007. Again, after two years and with so many other blog editors out there, I think I got my original $15 investment’s worth. And besides, most of the other ones are free!
So I have been posting with Live Writer for almost two weeks now. I rather like it. It recognized my blog theme automatically. No coding! My only peeve is it does not keep a list of my tags like ecto did so I can simply choose one I previously used. Instead, I have to manually type tags with each post, which requires remembering how I tagged things previously. For example, “install ceiling fan” or “ceiling fan install?” One must maintain some semblance or order, you know.
Do you blog? What blog editing software do you use? Do you have a separate desktop program or do you simply use the online editor that comes with your blog, like TypePad, Blogger, WordPress, etc? The switch was so easy I would do it again in a heartbeat if I found something I liked better. Do tell!
