Since I began writing this blog back in April, I have mostly used Blogger’s Editor to compose and publish. On occasion, I have tried Microsoft’s Live Writer and found it impressive, especially for pictures, but I never really put enough effort into it to be entirely comfortable. So, I always returned to the Blogger editor despite it’s clumsy picture handling.
Not any more – I’ve made the switch to Live Writer. Microsoft has won me over on blog editors after losing me to Google’s Gmail, Picasa and, of course, their flagship Search engine. I’ve always liked both Microsoft and Google software products and generally pick the one that suits me best. I like to think I’m an equal opportunity freeloader for these software giant’s giveaway programs!
Changing picture borders is as easy as clicking a mouse and selecting a style
So, why Live Writer over the Blogger Editor? Especially now, since Blogger has just released a new version of their editor that makes it easier to insert and manage images? Quite simply, Live Writer’s picture management is far simpler, feature rich and superior to Blogger – even the new version. And, for me, that’s a huge factor as pictures are a big part of my daily blogs.
In many ways, Live Writer looks and feels like Microsoft has created a mini ‘blogger’ version of their industry dominant word processor - MS Word. Their knowledge and expertise certainly shows through in Live Writer.
Advanced options allow for cropping, size adjustment and editing
As for Blogger’s new editor, it now enables picture placement at the spot you place your cursor instead of always at the top of the blog. Live Writer has always offered this, in a much simpler format, with several more options for image management – too many to itemize here, but just have a look at it and you will see what I mean – its terrific with pictures!
Some bloggers have expressed concern about the fact that Live Writer stores 2 copies of each image in the Picasa Web Albums folder required to hold all blog pictures(Blogger also stores pictures in a folder on Picasa Web Albums). Since there is a limit as to how much ‘free space’ is permitted on Picasa Web Albums, this concern is legitimate. It’s not that big of a deal though when you look at what Live Writer is actually doing.
New Blogger editor allows only basic size and alignment changes 
The first copy of the image stored by Live Writer is the one shown in your actual blog. It is typically very small – less than a 100kb. The second image stored is the source image and is the one that is displayed when someone clicks on it to see it enlarged. So, the images stored are, in fact, different not just duplicates. There is a valid reason for it and it has a minor effect on storage limits.
Of course, you can eliminate posting images to Picasa Web Albums altogether by just using Live Writer’s Picasa plug-in. This links your image right to an existing photo, or album, in Picasa Web Albums. This way, as with the Blogger editor, the picture already present in Picasa Web Albums is used.
Live Writer’s blog “preview” displays your draft in your actual blog
Another impressive feature of Live Writer is the preview mode. Unlike Blogger’s rather primitive display, Live Writer shows your draft blog exactly as it will look when you publish – including your sidebars, headings, followers and all other features of your blog – it is virtually identical to your blog!
Another nice feature of Live Writer is it’s ability to create and modify tables right within a blog entry. To demonstrate this, I have created the following table comparing a few basic image management functions of Live Writer and the new Blogger editor.
| Image Actions | Live Writer | Blogger |
| Insert image at cursor | Y | Y |
| Text Wrapping | Y | Y |
| Image Margin Adjust | Y | N |
| Add Different Border Styles | Y | N |
| Adjust Size with Lock Ratio | Y | N |
| Rotate Image | Y | N |
| Edits: contrast/crop/tilt | Y | N |
| Add Watermark | Y | N |
| Add Special Effects(B/W etc) | Y | N |
This post is already too long, so I can’t get into the many other features that, I think, make Live Writer a much more powerful, versatile yet simpler editor than Blogger - even the new version. If you are curious, it’s free – just download it and give it a whirl. If you are a dedicated Live Writer user, then you already know what I mean.
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