There are two fantastic options for offline blogging (that is, managing a blog without using the web-based browser interface the blogging service provides). The first is Windows Live Writer Beta, which, as the name would suggest is a Windows app, but one that's so useful it might compel Mac users to invest in Parallels Desktop just to run it. The second is Ecto, a Mac-native blog composition tool that many bloggers swear by. (Ecto also runs on Windows.)


We've tried them both recently, so we were able to pit them head to head like the Indians and the Yankees to see which one is better. As was the case with many shocked Yankees fans, the conclusion of our little challenge was surprising. So which is superior--Live Writer for Windows (pictured above) or Ecto for the Mac? You be the judge after the jump.

Do you use Windows Live Writer to update your blog at home, but wish you had it on the go. Of course the simplest solution is to get a laptop and carry it around with you everywhere. But if you'd rather not lug a 6 pound machine and 23 pounds of accessories in a bag, you can install Windows Live Writer to a flash drive and run it from pretty much any PC.

Microsoft doesn't officially release a portable version of Windows Live Writer, but developer Scott Kingery has stepped up to the task. With the recent release of Windows Live Writer 3 Beta, Kingery has released an updated version of his portable launcher.

Not only does thew new launcher work with the latest Microsoft beta, it also works with SanDisk's U3 launcher platform. If you've purchased a flash drive from SanDisk in the last few years, odds are it has U3 preloaded. On the down side, this means you have a few MBs less free space on the drive than advertised. On the upside, it means you have a nice little program launcher that looks something like the Windows start menu. It's not quite as customizable as the PortableApps launcher, but it'll do in a pinch.

Kingery has detailed sets of instructions for installing a portable version of Windows Live Writer on his blog, including steps for U3 users and steps for those using a non-U3 flash drive.

[via ShanKri-la]

Microsoft has released a beta version of Windows Live Writer, a new desktop-based blogging tool. Despite Windows Live Spaces, I never really expected Microsoft to release a blogging tool, especially a general-purpose one, but it has. And I've got to say, for Microsoft, I'm impressed. I encountered a few of the same issues that Paul Kedrosky did: Writer forced me to use a wizard to set up my blog, and would only let me manually configure it once it got confused, the "Web Layout" is completely useless on my blog, and the "Web Preview" wasn't even close to accurate.

However, overall I found Windows Live Writer fairly well put-together. I tested it with my WordPress blog, and it did most of the things I expected and a few I was pleasantly surprised by. In particular, its image editing and uploading features are surprisingly powerful. It let me load images, add effects, adjustments, and text watermarks, and then it automatically uploaded them when I posted to my WordPress blog. It even let me paste screenshots directly into the editing area, but a Crop function was curiously missing. Apart from that, the only major thing missing from the image functions was the ability to add an image that's already been uploaded, or exists on another web site.

Windows Live Writer defaults to WYSIWYG, which annoyed me, but I was amazed that the HTML it generates isn't particularly ugly and actually validates. Thankfully, it seems that no cues were taken from FrontPage. Writer has a lot of convenience features that aren't unexpected but are welcome. Spell-check is built-in but unfortunately not as-you-type like in Word or Firefox (oddly, it doesn't know the word "blogging") and Writer can be configured to automatically save drafts. It also has an "Insert Map" feature for quickly embedding Windows Live Local maps in blog posts, which is mostly fluff but may be handy for some users.

I was disappointed that Windows Live Writer doesn't support tagging via the popular Ultimate Tag Warrior plugin for WordPress, but I've yet to encounter a blogging tool that does. Speaking of plugins, however, Writer itself has a plugin interface and a free SDK, which will hopefully encourage developers to add this sort of functionality.

Perhaps the biggest annoyance I encountered with Windows Live Writer was the temporary post it created in my blog without asking. It was set to private, so I was the only one who saw it, but it still felt like an imposition.

You can see a few screenshots of WIndows Live Writer in action (including one of the errant temporary post) after the jump.