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.