The future of Windows Live Writer and blogger - no more free storage?

The other day, a person contacted my website and they were inquiring about being able to upload images to blogger using Windows Live Writer; they were having a problem.

I knew that Windows Live Writer was compatible with blogger, even the latest version, but there are some nuances to using Windows Live Writer with blogger. Blogger uses Picasa web to store the images that people upload for their blogs. And in order to use that type of storage Windows Live Writer has to create a folder inside Picasa web called 'Windows Live Writer' so when you upload your posts to blogger, and you had images, those images are placed into the Windows Live Writer folder in Picasa web.

The person that I was exchanging communications with was saying that they had checked everything and everything should be fine, but Picasa web was telling them that they were over the limit; that was another issue. In the course of trying to help them though, I found some other articles that were kind of disturbing. I really haven't got a response yet from my question about this to Google, but I'm kind of hoping that they'll get back with me soon.

Google's Picasa web offers free image and video storage – unlimited

I just had a person contact me through my website [IM]. They were asking for help because they said that their Google Picasa account was over the limit.

I found this interesting because according to the documentation from Google, Google Picasa does not limit storage of images or videos as long as they're under a specific size. That means unlimited storage…

Here's the link/page:

http://support.google.com/picasa/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1224181

'…Free storage limits

Photos up to 2048 x 2048 pixels and videos up to 15 minutes won't count towards your free storage.'

Rant: Windows Live Writer 2012 disappointment

I'm really disappointed with the progress that Microsoft has put forth with Windows Live Writer.  In 2009, Microsoft released Windows Live Writer; after having just acquired the application from another smaller company.

After Windows Live Writer was released, it became very popular and if you ask anyone now with the best blogging software is available on the Internet, for free, most likely you're going to get the response of Windows Live Writer.

But the disturbing part about Windows Live Writer is that once Microsoft released it, it's never been updated. No new features have been placed into it, the only things that have been updated have been the version numbers. There's been about five updates to Windows Live Writer since it was initially released as part of the Windows Live essentials package.  if you're wondering, I don't consider the GUI update to Windows Live Writer an official update. Microsoft updated the GUI a Windows Live Writer, adding the ribbon user interface, but they removed the sidebar functionality of Windows Live Writer which was extremely helpful and productive; and they removed it.

Windows Movie Maker: How to add Videos and Images

Windows Movie Maker is a free offering from Microsoft that offers novice and average users the ability to edit video and from there, be able to share/publish it to Facebook, YouTube, eMail, DVD and even custom resolutions. It's a basic editor with very simplified interface, and it's part of the Windows Live Essentials Suite of applications.

Most of the functions of Windows Movie Maker 2012 are supposed to be viewed as common knowledge, but since Microsoft doesn't provide an user manual, some people need some guidance on how to do these functions; such as adding videos and images…

So, here's how to do that…

Bug found: Beware of Windows Live Writer 2012

I like Windows Live Writer, it's been a great blog editor and it has some definite benefits for ease of use in blogging, but when I visit the forums and then see people reporting where there posts had just disappeared; my response was 'yes; it's happened to me too'— Well, I got slapped with it again the other day and I lost everything past the point of my MORE tag.

To say the least, I was VERY upset that Windows Live Writer would do this… I mean, WHY?!

So I decided that was the day we're going to find out why this happened and how to recreate the problem…

Below, I'm going to give explanation and screenshots of how you can lose your entire blog post past the MORE tag… and I encourage you to do this and test it, and report it to Microsoft.

Windows Movie Maker 2012: How To Remove Audio From A Video

It seems like a recurring question in the process of doing video editing with Windows Movie Maker 2012;  how do you remove the audio from a video, or how do you remove the audio from a portion of a video?

The answer is actually pretty simple, but since Microsoft doesn't provide a user manual  for Windows Movie Maker 2012, it's left up to the users to try to figure out how to accomplish this.

Most can figure out how to work with the audio simply by poking around in the application,  but obviously it would be easier if there was a user manual that tells you what to do. Users can also visit the Windows Movie Maker support forums by submitting their questions and hoping that other users or a support representative will assist…

The purpose of this blog post is to explain how to use the Video volume/audio mixer in Windows Movie Maker.

Windows Movie Maker 2012 - Exporting MP4 video files

I was happy to see that Windows Movie Maker 2012 had native support for exporting MP4s; I really was. I've been playing with it, to see what's new, what's changed…

I was working with some video, exporting it to MP4 and I thought, that's a pretty big MP4 video file for being as short as it was…

The video was from one of my son's football games. Once all the video clips were imported the video was 4:50 sec. The resolution was 854 x 480, The original file was 87Mb and the other file with the same resolution and the same length was 56Mb… bandwidth wise, that's a big difference.

Windows 'Movie Maker' 2012 - Adding narration and additional sound tracks

Microsoft dropped the LIVE from their vocabulary; throwing the Microsoft Live world on their heads again. I can honestly say I never thought that Microsoft 'Live' was a good idea; to the point that I believe the guy who thought of it should be publicly shot for outright stupidity.

But Microsoft has been trying to compete with Apple on their basic grounds or video and picture handling and that battle has actually produced some nice 'essential' tools for the mass Microsoft user base. The battle produced the Windows Live Essentials collection, currently just 'Windows Essentials'… well, in that suite of products there's Windows Movie Maker 2012; just released, just updated.

After months and months of complaining about the obtuse move to remove narration from the base application Windows 'Movie Maker'; Microsoft has 'wisely' reinstated the function of narration, but it's not so much as just narration; they added an option for a second  audio track…

I hear the screams and woes of many who needed this…

Windows Live Writer 2012: Anyone happen to notice this?

I was setting up my new blog today and realize that I missed something with the new [whatever] version of Windows Live Writer 2012…

Here's 5 free options for downloading from YouTube

This is a very short post in comparisons to others I normally do…

A friend of mine was asking me the other day what options are there to download from YouTube. The answer isn't really that hard if you have ever typed in a search in Google before. The answers and options are right there.

I Googled a few things and bam; I got my options.

But it's important to me that the options be free because I'm frugle about my applications and [well] everything else.

Here's the five options I would have to recommend for downloading videos from YouTube.

Windows Movie Maker 2012: When your MP4 and MOV files stop working…

A couple of days ago, I downloaded the updated version of Windows movie maker 2012, from the new Windows essentials package. I wanted to do a comprehensive review of the application. After I downloaded the new version and installed it, I started it up and started poking around.

The new version has quite a few perks to it that were sorely needed, but one thing I noticed was that my MP4 and MOV files that have been working previously, were no longer working.

One of my first thoughts was that Windows movie maker 2012 had tried to install its own version of the codecs, and to fix the problem, I would have to reinstall the codec pack that I normally use.

I was right…

Review: Windows Essentials Movie Maker 2012

 

Microsoft released a new version of their Windows Essentials 2012 today. I just finished going over Windows Live Writer to see what was new with it, but basically nothing with Windows Live Writer was updated; not even the slightest update. But on the flipside, Windows Movie Maker has been updated to include just a few things.

Windows Movie Maker is a free offering from Microsoft that offers novice and average users the ability to edit video and from there, be able to share/publish it to Facebook, YouTube, eMail, DVD and even custom resolutions. It's a basic editor with very simplified interface, and it's part of the Windows Essentials Suite of applications.

The support forums have been swarming with problems with being able to import videos, missing features, lack of narration, lack of storyboard and huge problems with managing system resources. I tried to cover all these things before in previous posts.

And since Microsoft doesn't release things like a 'what's new' file for people to actually see what improvements and additions have been made the application; it's up to the users to go scavenger hunting. Here's a list of things I've found during my scavenger hunt of Windows Movie Maker.

A new version of Windows Live Writer 2012 is out and nothing is new- so disappointing

What'd you [Microsoft] guys do with Windows Live Writer?

Microsoft released a new version of Windows Live Writer this morning and I'm utterly disgusted with what Microsoft considers a new version. Nothing is new with the latest version. Hell, even the name is the same 'Windows Live Writer'.

Microsoft said Windows 'Live' is dead; it's supposed to be just Windows Essentials Writer. What the heck are they doing over there? The last update to Windows Live Writer was the so-called improvement by removing the sidebar and changing the toolbars to ribbon GUI's.

And they had yet to add a 'FIND and REPLACE' to the application.

The latest version was just released and there's nothing new about the application. Microsoft is nice enough not to tell anyone 'what's new' about the new application, so this becomes a scavenger hunt to see if people can find out what's new with Windows Live Writer.

Windows Live Writer users: We're going to miss you Zemanta…

I don't know when Zemanta stopped officially supporting Windows Live Writer as a plug-in, but I was pretty disappointed the other day when I received an e-mail from their support forum indicating that Zemanta had stopped supporting Windows Live Writer and moved on to strictly web-based blogging services.

Been having problems with making a DVD with Windows Live Movie Maker 2011?

Windows Live Movie Maker is a free offering from Microsoft that offers novice and average users the ability to edit video and from there, be able to share/publish it to Facebook, YouTube, eMail, DVD and even custom resolutions. It's a basic editor with very simplified interface, and it's part of the Windows Live Essentials Suite of applications.

The program itself isn't bad; it's very basic- after a few months of using it, I found some problems with it and had to move on to something more capable. But for the basic quick stuff it's okay…

As I visit the forums from time to time, it seem to be a reoccuring issue where people/users can't create a DVD with Windows Live Movie Maker. Well, to be honest, Windows Live Movie Maker doesn't make the DVD's… the only thing Windows Live Movie Maker can do [technically] is export a WMV.

The fight to save Windows Live Writer

The bumbling dance moves Microsoft makes in their existence is just astounding...

When Windows Live Writer was released, I'm sure it was meant as a complement to the blogging service that Microsoft was planning to offer to its users/members, in the form of Windows Live Spaces.

Overall, Microsoft has a real problem with project concept and follow through.

Microsoft thought that if they purchased some blogging software, and set up their own blogosphere [if you build it, they will come] that would be a huge hit for Microsoft, but the problem is, Microsoft purchased a small company that was producing an off-line blog editing application; they simply thought that if they threw up a blogging service like Windows live Spaces, people would just come in droves.

The reality is that Windows Live Spaces may have been a noble concept, but the execution Windows Live Spaces was simply just not given enough attention. There were so many things wrong with Windows Live Spaces that people chose simply not the blog with Microsoft; there was just too many features that were lacking, too many options that just weren't there…

So Microsoft killed Windows Live Spaces…

Microsoft killed Windows Live Spaces and advised all their users to transition their Windows Live Spaces accounts and information over to WordPress. WordPress was Microsoft's direct competition for Windows Live Spaces and was on a daily basis outperforming Windows Live Spaces at every point… Microsoft's perspective was that there was no way for them to beat WordPress; they were simply going to throw in the towel…

But where does that leave Windows Live Writer?

Use Google Drive to sync blog posts with Windows Live Writer 2011

I believe everyone has the same issue with Windows Live Writer; it's sync'ing the blog posts, recent and drafts to some place that can be sync'd across machines.

Well, now that Google has released Google Drive you can now use Google drive to sync your data with them; beating Microsoft to the punch on their own service [postulating]…

What you need is:

Google account

Windows Live Writer 2011

and my Recent post and Drafts path changer app

Wow. There was an update to Windows Live Writer 2011…

I was surprised to see there was an update to Windows Live Writer before Windows 8 came out. Honestly, I'm not able to even fathom why they did this, but only to find out if there's any bugs in it from the Windows Live Essentials team.

The previous version of Windows Live Writer was v15.4.3538.513 the new version is 15.4.3555.308. In the grand scheme of things that may sound great, on the flip side Microsoft still, in two years, and two updates to Windows Live Writer during this time, can't put a FIND AND REPLACE in the edit options for this offline blog editor.

I don't want a Windows Live account to blog…

With the next release of Windows right about the 'season'; looking at a release date time frame of October. I just am not excited about the next release of Windows and I with all certainty am not looking forward to the next version of Windows Live Writer.

Don't get me wrong; I believe Windows Live Writer as it stands now is a great blogging platform, but there's so much change with Windows 8 and the Windows Live Essentials packages being linked in to the Windows Live service. It makes me all very nervous. I prefer not to require a Windows LIVE account linked to my Windows Live Writer when I'm blogging to something else. I prefer not to have to use SkyDrive to blog, I don't want Microsoft to know every single time I open my Windows Live Writer application.

It's my time, they don't need to know that; they don't need to know what I'm writing about. I hope there's an option to NOT keep posts and drafts on the SkyDrive. If not, that's going to just drag.

Windows Live Writer: Inserting/embedding a MP3

Windows Live Writer is a fantastic offline blogging tool with a WYSIWYG editor. It interfaces with just about any blog service [Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, WordPress, etc.] If you're a blogger you'll find this tool incredibly helpful- and it's refreshingly free from Microsoft.
I was knocking around the other day and started working with a music creator; I found the process of creating music really nice and I wanted to share the music in a blog post, but Windows Live Writer doesn't have a music import/link or any kind of way to have users link to a MP3 and leter readers just listen/stream the music directly from the site.
I checked the Windows Live Writer plug-in site. I found a plug-in to insert music, but it didn't' work; in fact it caused my version of Windows Live Writer to crash completely. Windows Live Writer was not liking the plug-in at all [or maybe the code it injected].
But I did find a better way to do it…
I have used a plug-in on Windows Live Writer several time and each time, it just seems to do the trick...