My Three Phase Post Method

When it comes to writing a post I seem to have one basic problem. The so called blog editor. No…not me! The editing software that is used to post to an existing on-line blog, be it locally installed or on-line in my WordPress Admin “Write a Post” page. These editors such as the aforementioned WordPress post editor or one of the few free-of-charge, fairly decent, locally installed editors such as Windows Live Writer (link is below), Zoundry, Qumana or the Performancing extension for Firefox all have their assets and all most definitely have their liabilities when it comes to posting to my blog. So after many weeks of trying one or the other or a combination thereof I have finally come up with a what I call the “Three Phase Post” method.

The on-line editor that comes bundled with a WordPress install (TinyMCE) is a fairly basic, JAVA based writer that has worked fairly well in the past and with the release of WordPress 2.1, is even better since you can access the Rich Text editor and the standard source editor from the same page since the writer now has tabs to access either one. Also the live preview and the many options that can be accessed easily and quickly are basically right at your finger tips. This is good. The not-so-good is that the TinyMCE editing layout is small and the buttons only hit on the most basic of formatting functions.*

*There is a hidden Advanced toolbar for this editor that can be initiated by following the instructions on the above link.

Also, the thing that keeps me from using this editor (even with the extra buttons mentioned above) is that the so-called image manager will not allow me to browse and use all of my images that reside in the WP_content/uploads directory, irregardless of any sub-directory they may reside in. Only the images you have uploaded via the WP post editor can be viewed and used. And since every blog editor I’ve used has it’s own way of storing the images that they upload to a WordPress install, most of the images on my blog server cannot be accessed via the Write page of my WordPress Admin. Still—I do use the editor on a regular basis for a quick post or as the last phase of a more major type post which I’ll attempt to explain here.

Update: With the changing to a new theme for the blog I now seem to be able to access all my images via the above editor. Go figure huh?

In my standard three phase post writing I use the following:

Windows Live Writer:
(Updated link 08-06-07)

(WLW) This is actually quite a nice bit of software on Microsoft’s part and the next version is being awaited with great anticipation. It’s the only local editor that can give you an actual live preview within the editor itself of your post once it was published. It does this by downloading your blog’s template and re-rendering your entire main page accurately with your new post (at least as much as you’ve written so far) displayed within. There are a few themes that are not compatible with this feature but I haven’t found any myself as yet.

The biggest 3 problems with WLW are:

1. I use Ultimate Tag Warrior Simple Tagging plugin for tagging my posts which means I have to ultimately use the TimyMCE editor built into WordPress as the last phase of publishing said post in order to easily select the tags I want for that particular post before I throw it at the unsuspecting masses especially since I can use the tags from my tag collection that sits in a cloud below the editing field. There is supposedly a WLW tagging plugin for WordPress that adds this capability and works via WLW‘s keyword input field, but I can’t view my existing tags within the writer itself and there is only so much shifting about between writer and browser that I can tolerate. I lose track of what I’m writing that way.

2. I can’t use Windows Live Writer to edit any post that has images included since it completely replaces the existing post with a new one (does not duplicate if that’s what you’re thinking) including uploading yet another complete set of the same images which is of course, not acceptable in the least but I understand they’re working on that problem for the next release 08-06-07: Fixed in the latest release of Windows Live Writer (available from above link).
   

3. Like most blog writers, the functions are very limited—as they should be. A large portion of the blogs that exist on the WWW today are still basically on-line journals/diaries as the web-log first started out to be way back when and these more advanced word processor type functions would be somewhat overwhelming to the average blogger and difficult to justify including in a free program. However, when I get my hands on a good idea for some serious posting—I want those functions!

4. Along with Windows Live Writer is a nice little WLW plugin called Insert Formatted Clipboard which, despite it’s unimaginative name, does a great job in pasting anything that isn’t just plain text. This little gem fromWindows Live Gallery is something akin to the standard Paste From Word on steroids. Not only does it paste formatted text from MS Word but also from web sites, email clients—anything that does not produce just plain old plain text.

5. Open Office:

Okay…so why this open source type office suite instead of good old MS Office? Because it’s Microsoft’s formatting that’s why. Full of MS proprietary kludge and crap whether it be in the formatting or html code. Open Office output is much cleaner and more towards the compliant end of things so the “cleaning up” the aforementioned plugin performs just seems to come out a bit better when the post is finally published. I don’t have anything against Microsoft at all. Not really. But I simply cannot stand the way that MS insists on doing things their way when it comes to code and formatting despite the push for industry standards. Just personal preference here is all.

The Three Phase Posting Method

Now then…when I get my claws sunk into some serious posting rather than some short type of random and rambling which I can crank out right in WP’s TinyMCE, I first start by writing up the post using Open Office’s Write (the word processor of course) and when I finally manage to get it all typed out with the appropriate highlighting, backgrounding, all the mistakes corrected and my fingers unjammed from the keyboard, I then make sure I save the thing under the correct title, highlight all my hard work, right click and copy.

Then, I open up Windows Live writer, click on the “Insert Clipboard” (that Insert Formatted Clipboard plugin I told you about) from the “Insert” panel in WLW‘s sidebar and viola(!)—the copied formatted text is cleaned up and pasted nicely into my post field. Once that operation is completed, I add whatever images I want to the post, add drop shadows or borders and select whatever layout I want right from WLW’s sidebar and when I’m satisfied, I upload the post to my blog as a draft! That’s the most important thing here—publish the post as a draft ‘cuz it ain’t quite done yet and the finishing touches are accomplished within the “Write Post“ Page of my WordPress Admin.

Once I load up my uploaded draft into the TinyMCE editor, I add/change the categories, add the tags, screw in the appropriate title etc, etc and hit the “Save and Continue Editing” button. At this point it’s still a draft but now I can see what it’s going to look like using the “Preview” window below the editor’s post field (or by clicking the “Preview” link at the top of the editor in WP 2.2+) and finally, publish the thing and once again expose the public to the workings of my slightly strange way of thinking.

Now, like the explanation at the beginning of the post, the actual writing of the post takes the longest time to complete. The copy, pasting, adding, uploading as draft, finishing up and publishing portion of it usually takes less than fifteen minutes as long as I don’t make the fatal mistake of “screwing with it” after it’s ready to publish. I do have a bad habit of doing that. So far, for the more serious type posting work, my (so-called) “patented” three stage method has served me well.

On the use of fonts:

I have found that although using MS Word or Open Office to do my initial writing of a blog post allows me to use any type of font I wish, sticking with the default fonts (Georgia, Verdana, Arial, Serif) that most blog themes allow is the safest way to go even though it may not let you get too fancy on the stylish end of things. The important thing to remember here is that any font that you use on your blog posts has to be installed on the reader’s PC in order to render that font correctly in your reader’s browser. Just because you have the ability to use a font that looks like the title of the Addams Family movie doesn’t mean that your reader has the ability to appreciate your artistic font-flair. So when it comes to fonts—stick with the basics.

If anyone has any comments or info along this line, let me know. I’d be interested in what other bloggers have found in their search for the best way to write up some serious blog material.