What began over 20 years ago with my first PC running different MS-DOS versions, and then continued with various desktops and laptops I owned that ran different versions of Windows (3.0, 3.1, 3.5, 95, 98, ME, 2000, NT, XP — I have not tried Vista and probably won’t) has now come to a complete end.
I am happy to say that our house is now fully Apple friendly & running on Mac OS. I started this migration process a few month ago by equipping our living room with a Mac Mini that serves as a media center (running boxee). Shortly after that, I switched my work laptop from an IBM Notebook to a MacBook Pro and improved my productivity so much. And a few days ago, after the house’s PC was about to completely die and required to much administration, I decided to replace it with a Mac.
So, here it is, a new Mac Mini connected to a Logitech cordless Wave keyboard mouse combo and a ViewSonic 19″ LCD. What a great way to start 2009.
Today at BlogWorld, I met the product manager and the lead developer for Live Writer. Besides complementing them for creating a great desktop blogging application, I also learned that the official version for the product has just been released – welcome Windows Live Writer 2008.
I wrote in the past about this tool and how great it is. The new release makes things even better. Here are four examples for improved capabilities:
- Embedding images and video became easier and with more capabilities. For example – when pasting an embedded code from any video sharing service while working in the Web Layout mode, Live Writer immediately displays the video player instead of the html code. In the previous version you could only paste code in HTML mode
- The “New page” feature lets you create new pages. The previous version enabled only the creation of new posts
- An “Add category” feature was added (prior to that I had to do it via the Wordpress admin console)
- If you add post’s “Keywords”, those would automatically map to Wordpress’s tags (a ver 2.3 feature)
Basically, I have less and less need to login to Wordpress admin in order to post on a regular basis. The only reason to login is to manage comments or update the site template & plug-ins.
Kudos to the Microsoft Live team for the improvements. I highly recommend installing/upgrading.
