Live Writer 2 (Installation)

This is part two of my series on Windows Live Writer by Microsoft.  It is part of an ongoing moderately comprehensive tutorial set for Live Writer.  In part one I gave a detailed overview of what the program was and what it does, specifications and so on.  In that light I present the second part of my Live Writer series, pertaining the installation and setting up of the program.   The next post will run through the basics of using Live Writer to publish a blog post.

 

 

Live Writer has good and bad points on its installation in my view.  To be honest its installation annoys me more than anything else about it.  But not to throw beginners off.  Its clunky in its way, cumbersome but very simple and not that much to click through or change.

To begin you seem to have two choices: 1) download the Windows Live Suite or 2) the Windows Live Writer file directly.  Wrong, the Live Writer file will only download the same file.  Windows Live comes as a package.  The first download is an installer program.  This program will download and install the selected parts and programs from the internet.  The initial program downloads very quickly but in the end of the day its not Writer at all.  Instead a program that will download it.

A way around all this is on the download page.  Press the try again button and the entire package is downloaded as one file, easier for some connections.  But there are reasons not to do this as I will show below.

The package that is Windows Live includes the following programs: Family Safety, Messenger, Mail, Photo Gallery, Toolbar, Writer, Silverlight, Movie Maker Beta.  Basically you click on all of items you wish to install.  It is a very big package and the more you include the longer it will take.  After installing it on three systems each time it took me well over an hour.  Once the installation kept cutting out.  That is the reason that, if possible, the standalone installer, as mentioned above, should be avoided.  If the install is restarted it continues from where it last left off.  Which is quite helpful.

Another thing to keep in mind, in this day and age programs update themselves and come out with new versions every few months.  Normally when a program updates itself it goes on in the background or takes a minute to fix itself up in a small continual bursts.  Not so Windows Live.  Just last month I was asked to upgrade Writer, reasonable, but downloading and upgrading every program the Live Suite offers takes a lot of time and hassle.

As I said earlier though, once begun you can sit back and let the program do all the work, until the end there is no need for decisions – which in this kind of stream lined program is good I feel. (Read Bradbury for ideas on smart software.)  You are presented with a number of options after your programs have been installed.  Such as setting your homepage to msn, helping to improve windows live, set Microsoft search as your internet search provider and sending bug reports.  Helping to improve windows live will send non-confidential information about how you use their programs to Microsoft.  In theory they can then improve on what people use, sending bug reports is automatic as well and tells Microsoft what is going wrong with their programs.  Setting your search to MSN has a strange guard feature.  Some programs have an automatic restart to search with one provider – Yahoo, Google, MSN.  This guard allows you in theory to change to Microsoft without the program undoing it.  You can undo it yourself if you go into your settings.

Once clicked through that is it.  All that remains is to start Live Writer.  If you click your Start or Windows key in the corner, enter “All Programs”, near the bottom should be a folder named Windows Live and all of your new programs reside in there.  Including Writer.  Start her up and all needed is to sign into your blog.

Not got one yet?  Don’t worry!  This is one of the real beauties of Live Writer.  If you have a hotmail account, windows live or msn email address or messenger account you can use that to sign in and create a “Windows Live Space” and your blog will automatically be posted up there.  With absolutely nothing needed for you to do.

Of course it will be very plain.  But in time if you are happy with this you can go into Windows Live Spaces in your internet browser and adapt the themes and look to your own taste.  If you continue to use Writer, as I do, your theme will remain on.  And further by pressing the preview button you can see it applied in action.

To summarise on the good, its quick to download a large selection or programs and with minimum effort.  No hassle involved with setting up or installing the programs.  They are ready for use straight away.  Setting up your first blog is nearly automatic it is that easy.  On the bad points to download the whole suite takes an inordinate amount of time, which is done with every new version.  The lack of settings and places to install the software can be massively inconvenient for power users.  The download tool is a nuisance as well, having to click to download a file only to find out its only going to download the real file is a serious pain.  On the whole though it avoids a lot of confusion that normally installations can cause.

Live Writer I (overview)

I have already published a post on Windows Live Writer by Microsoft but with the intention of putting an entire and moderately comprehensive tutorial set for Live Writer.  In that light I present this first (or rather second part) of my Live Writer series.  This post will pertain to the basics about what the program is, where to get it and so on.   The next post will pertain to the installation of the program.

 

Live Writer is in basic terms a blog writing program in much the same way that Microsoft Word is a paper writing program.  In its own words “I am a desktop application for publishing to blogs and work with almost any blog provider in the world including Windows Live Spaces, Blogger, Wordpress and more.”  For those of you who don’t know what a blog is read up on it here on Technorati, or here in Wordpress.  Blogs in basic terms are websites that display their articles in reverse order of publication – that is articles are published from most recent to eldest.  In that way it can be used as a diary or as a review site or even simply a normal website!  Writer is a very easy to use, simple to set up and helpful program.  It has every feature most users will need and democratises the power of publishing to everyone and not just the tech-savvy.  On top of all that its free so available for everyone to download.

Writer is part of the Windows Live suite, which will mean nothing to most people until explained.  Messenger or Msn as its commonly known is part of this suite as well as the old Hotmail brand, now Windows Live Mail.  Windows Live is Microsoft’s answer to cloud computing – that is using programs that are not on your computer but on a computer you connect to through the use of the internet, generally your internet browser.  As part of this Live Writer hopes to allow the user access and publish blogs simply and easily – if you have ever wanted to make a website now is the best and easiest time.

Most free-hosted sites these days have their own interfaces with which you can manage and run your blog.  Running multiple blogs I use a few different varieties and with the exception of Wordpress they all are confusing and less than adequate at times.  Let me state again Wordpress is definitely my recommended choice!  Outside of my Wordpress sites I generally use Live Writer to publish all of my other blogs.  After looking about the only other program online I have found that does this from your computer and not the internet is Zoundry which is still in Beta (though that word means less and less these days!)  As I haven’t actually tried it out myself here is a review from elsewhere.

 

 

Much touted elements are the simple way in which it helps you publish videos to the web either through Soapbox or YouTube and then ability to work with them.  As well as the ability to resize and the basics.  They also advertise their picture abilities and the ease of publishing a series of photos, like a photo album.  For me though is the ease in which a map, through Virtual Earth, can be inserted and selected.  It has three tabs so you can switch between edit mode, source mode and in ways best of all preview mode – showing a full preview including site theme.

Plug-ins.  Those little ad-ons used to adapt a program for customised and personal use.  The official site very amusingly only lists one plug-in for Firefox.  No plug-ins for its Writer itself and none for Internet Explorer, although they probably exist for the forthcoming Internet Explorer 8.  An independent site Windows Live Writer Plugins is a small site but with a nice selection of plugins and other information – the portable information is interesting.

Speaking of which comes one of the major flaws of Live Writer, its dependence on the .Net infrastructure.  This is ok with bigger systems – laptops and up but smaller than this and there are problems.

It can publish a blog on most common platforms including Windows Live Spaces, Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, Wordpress, Community_Server, PBlogs.gr, JournalHome, MetaWeblog, Movable Type as well as supporting any  RSD (Really Simple Discoverability) system.  For those starting out, I would suggest begin with this tool, it will quickly and simply set you up a blog relieving all that messy side.  Until you comfortably understand what you are at you are able to leave the browser out of the equation altogether.

 

The greatest help for using Live Writer I found online was in its own pages.  It has a video tutorial set that takes you through all the major issues you need to cover.  Its also nice to see that the program itself has its own blog.  Its funny how so many blog sites don’t!  As well as that three of the team members have their blogs listed on the main page as well - Becky, Joe and Ron - and its own Live Space, Microsoft’s partial equivalent of sites such as Facebook.

Microsoft in 2008 joined the Open Source Alliance and expressed a definite interest in moving forward in that direction.  Part of that process is collaborating with the public and opening up the programs to be developed further.  As part of that they have released their SDK, the system development kits where people can work on parts of the code.

 

Below is a Google result for the top searched results for Live Writer.  All being from Microsoft websites except for result four, Wikipedia.  The majority of the Microsoft sites are much of a muchness and all link back through each other with the exception of the final site which is more official and no nonsense download information page not at the Live project pages.

TO DOWNLOAD GO HERE

Windows Live Writer

OK so whats this post about? One of the pieces of software that Microsoft releases freely, Windows Live Writer, part of the windows live suite.  Now a lot of people may expect a microsoft bashing or a simplicity bashing.  But I don't think so.  Yes its not open source but ok yes its free and yes it is released by Microsoft one of the biggest proponents to lock in previously.  In my belief previously.

 

Its a simple bit of software.  Simple and yet it works.  It allows simple access to blogs - I'll add to what it supports, but so far I know it works with blogger, wordpress and livespaces (obviously). And you can add multiple accounts.  This allows you to simply and quickly post upon multiple blogs.  And the editing ability in it is simply designed and from what I can see better than any of the online editors of the above mentioned.  It provides a link from offline software - office or graphics software - to the blog itself, an interface.  And unlike most online blog editors a view of how it will look published, as you type.

 

In the end of the day it is designed for everyday users.  For non-IT people and gives them a simple but advanced set of tools for use on a blog - can this not be good?  To add to the blogosphere and push it forward?  The pro-am (professional amateur) movement depends on people from many spheres of interest, many of which are non-IT people being able to publish and interact with us and with each other so that we can benefit from them also.  For IT people it benefits productivity - smart software is not predictive its stuff that gets out of your way and allows you work easier.  This speeds up my blogging and makes it easier.  Is that not positive?

 

Definitely I would push this product and suggest everyone who wants to start blogging to use it and get a feel simply for the blogging world.

 

Windows Live Writer

Should the government pay for open source?

The most serious lock-in is still CAD.  Why do I say this?  Because there are no alternatives.  All CAD software is proprietary and all their codes are reverse-engineer legally proof.  Thats to say it is illegal to reverse engineer it, as far as can be told on a very messy and unclear situation that the companies in question promote.  CAD software is used for engineering work be that buildings or items - electronics, chairs, cars.  The individual has unprecedented control and ability in the modern age.  We can make our own circuit boards from Italy for example and have a small batch of a few hundred made!  But without a CAD program we, the public, are still locked out from this.

 As I have heard a compelling argument more recently - open source software, free software is about democracy.  It may not do the job of its commercial counterparts, it may be superior but it can work even if it does the job longer and messier.  As a user of open source programs and commercial programs I can without a doubt say that many of the open source programs do the job as quickly and cleanly as their counterparts.  But the argument is, now everyone in the world no matter where you are can buy a computer and with free (permitted access rather than free as in cash) internet access can download programs to make music, pictures, edit films, publish, write, compute and edit photos.  Everyone in the world now has a free voice.  But for CAD software.

In the interests of the nation things such as IPlayer was paid for by the BBC - it gave the people access to view BBC online, power to the people, freedom to the people - should the government in such interests not then promote and sponsor open source development as a means for, not the average person, not the common person, for EVERY PERSON to be able to do and take part in what they wish.  The American Ideal was that if someone worked hard enough they could make it, that everyone was equal and that the 'lowest' could train to become whatever they wish.  That is outdated.  Today why can everyone not partake in what they wish WHEN they wish.  Let us become once more Renaissance Men and Women.  Well rounded and knowledgeable and able in all things.  And if not - let us at least have the choice to be able to do so!

Creative Copyrights

Safe Creative Beta

Safe Creative is a beta site created for the masses out there to preform copyrighting functions.  Copyright for us in Europe is a simple affair for the average user mail yourself a signed sealed and dated copy of your creative endeavour.  But what about electronic forms?  Such as the ever-more common blog.  As well as electronically published media what about the ever growing market of creative commons.  How can you prove something has a copyleft license without taking full control.  Safe Creative electronically stores and dates your media that you submit and has a bulk register for blogs - although read its fine print blogs are a different form of copyright.

Copyright law basically states that the author has full parental rights to do wish as he chooses.  Allowing others use and reproduce from your work is your right.  Hopefully the likes of Safe Creative can give the average home user this ability.  So far they have only a certain amount of media that they will accept for now - in future they hope to be able to support all forms of creative material.  Don't forget even if you are releasing something as open source it can be good to keep that idea enshrined within it, to avoid a lot of the old arguments that have been eternally used by bigger corporations.  Registering ownership and authorship licenses can put the commoner on a par with the big corps.

Another nifty service it offers is Intellectual Property Certificates that they can issue to show that you do have authorship rights.

One thing while it is a nice idea until it is tested in court I don't know how much power and strength will be behind it.  The legal concept behind it does seem to be simple and sound.

This blog's license




  

So then scribus...

Scribus is tooted as the newest bestest open source product since Open Office!  And why, because of its interoperability with Open Office for one and its general compliance with publishing industry standards.  The open standard of the PDF, portable document format, is recognised as the PDF/x.  This was brought around by the W3C world wide web consortium, the body that set itself up to promote interoperability and forward progression of the web.  A PDF originally was a document format that could be produced and read on any system at any time and replicate flawlessly, words, layout and format.  Since technological progression however PDF's have so much dynamics and options within them creating a pdf is now a very complex business to get right.  Scribus was the first to come out with the pdf/x standard by an entire year margin.  Scribus is professional enough that some publishing houses, such as Urco Editora a spanish publishing house, use it totally.

I am working on a pdf at the moment combining multiple files together, the formatting has been done and each is set up in Open Office ready to go.  I decided I would give Scribus a go.  Its a simple insert pdf function I am looking for only.  Its not supported in Scribus, while Scribus will import pdf's only one page at a time, to be fair it will directly import Open Office material the same way.  So unfortunately that sends me back to using Acrobat for now.  I suppose if I was setting up a project I could start off with Scribus in mind and work towards it.  But it was a truly annoying situation.  For now Scribus will stay on the shelf!

Spread Open Media

Spread Open Media

is an interesting site.

Promotes and provokes a lot of thought.  Open source has been about for a long time now but with the new advances in media systems - graphics, video, office and sound; the open source community, which has also migrated from Linux to Mac and Windows.  Now non-power users but experts in their artistic fields can produce fantastic work with open source media.  To be fair deviant art and many other places have thrived for years now on the backs of amazing amateurs, people with more artistic talent than most professionals.  But now that those mentioned professionals are moving into the field we are seeing a migration to Open Media.  One of the other contributing factors is the I-Pod and the next generation phones etc that has pushed open digital as the final form of expression as well as creation.  Digital media are publishing forms.

Spread Open Media has a big push on with formats - if we are to create files in an open source / open format how do we feel about the formats we use and their openess?  Spare a thought for PDF, WMA, DVD's and MP3's all of which most companies have to pay a lot of money for the right to play and decode this information.  One reason why the X-Box didn't play DVD's until you bought its remote - it was to cover the cost of their license fee.  The same with MP's all MP3 players pay for the right to play them.  Open Source means releasing code, sharing it and your advances with the world so that it can be used as a stepping stone forward.  Libre Software is about freedom and the ability to use open sourced code and material to further yourself and anyone who comes along afterwards, to use it.  We need control.  The ordinary user needs control not the big high end companies.  The first step in this is about open and open source formats.  Store your information in a way that you have control now and forever.  Its about our ability to improve the format - currently in particular with sound the Open formats far surpass their counterparts.  Have a look at SOM and read through some of the articles.

In particular my two favourite programs is the MailOgging Campaign - a campaign to send emails / letters to the media supplying companies, hardware and digital shops, to support OGG formats.  And Operation Transcode - the first step to pushing open media forward is to convert your own files into Open formats.  Its a way of advertising the formats and their superiority and ethos.  Anyone getting material from you will see you convert it or your open format forms and ask about it.

GIMPing my way along

Hopefully by tonight I will have finished the first tutorial book of GIMP and get around to using of the online tutorials.  At this stage with GIMP I am a convert, a blissful radical.  GIMP does its job BETTER than anything else out there.  ITS job.  GIMP is a graphics editting tool and made for rasters and although it has countless plugins that is its main focus and its focus.  Just because it can do other things doesn't mean it should be judged comparitively to Illustrator - Photoshop yes.

My first forays with GIMP was 2002 and without any graphics experience etc it was impossible to get my head around or do anything with it.  The new GIMP has progressed a lot and as with a lot of user designed software the shortcuts and usability is not designed for people who have came from a specific program but for the idea of basic human ergnamoics.  GIMP is simple and quick to use - when you can do it.  Its selection and mask facilities are without doubt its forte, but then I suppose its customisable and massive libraries of scripts and filters could be said to be its forte.

Anyway with that I'll leave be.  GIMP works so long as you can understand the graphical manipulation.  Its better to get a GIMP book that describes how GIMP works with graphics and then play around with things rather than by trying to dummy your way into as is much easier to do in programs such as Photoshop.

My suggestion is the book / website  Grokking the Gimp