Wednesday, July 09, 2008

blogger frustration... be gone!

i am an addicted blogger!

*i love writing about the things that are going on in our life and sharing pictures that friends and family would otherwise not see.

*i love reading the many comments that i receive from dear friends and family, as well as comments from people i have yet to meet. 

*i love that it helps me to feel a little more connected with other adults.

*i love that it somewhat satisfies my need for adult interaction in my world that is currently dominated by little people, namely my children.

*i love that it is a creative outlet for me.

*i love that it gets me journaling, something i have not been very good at since returning home from my mission, too many years ago to count.

however, as much as i love this blogging experience, i have endured much frustration at the same time! you see, whenever i sat down to write a quick post, very rarely was there anything quick about it! i'd type it up and, as you know, i love to add pictures, which is where all of the problems started.

first of all, hello, can blogger be any slower when adding pictures? and many times after waiting sometimes as long as 5 or 10 minutes, i would get an "error" message and have to start all over! once they are finally added if i want to change the orientation of them (on the left side or the ride side), or change the size of them i'd have to delete the picture and start over. once i spent all this time rearranging and getting everything just so, and when i think it is just how i want it, i post it to my blog. hah!

then, i go look at it on my actual blog and it looks nothing like it did in the preview window of blogger. there are a bunch of extra spaces and the words are not where they were when i typed them. it's just a mess! now, i'm completely aware that a huge part of my frustration comes from the fact that i tend to be a perfectionist, but come on! why can't it look the same on my blog as it did on the page when i was typing it! is that too much to ask? something that should have taken 15 minutes ends up taking an hour!

well, apparently it is not to much to ask and i have found the solution in Windows Live Writer. this is my new best friend, (thank you pineapple princess)! i love it!! and the best part... it is free!

gone are the days of blogger frustration! i don't even have to deal with "new post" on blogger. i just open windows live writer and type up my entry, add pictures in mere seconds, not minutes, resize the pictures right there on my entry, if i'd like i can add a shadowbox or a photographers paper edge around the photo, and my favorite part i can use cute little fonts! hundreds of them! i mean, how boring are the three blogger fonts we get to choose from?! if i don't want to post it right then, i just save it for a different day or a different week! when i am ready to post it on my blog i simply click the "publish" button and it magically appears on my blog, exactly as i wrote it!

there it is, my new little secret to the cute fonts that many of you have asked me about! now, go check it out and be converted because why be boring and frustrated when you can be original and in control, no longer a slave to blogger post lameness!

16 comments:

Darilyn said...

This has been on my list of things to check out in my spare time HA! Thanks for the review. I'm also loving your music right now.

Tonya said...

Awesome tips because I was secretly very jealous of your snazzy new fonts! And yes, blogging is so addicting and it ALWAYS takes way longer than I wanted it to. I'm excited to check this live writer site out:0)

shauna said...

Great review. Thanks for reminding me how much I love it (hopefully enough to use it as soon as I get my laptop back.)

I love that you can water mark your pictures, and the fonts and the editing capabilites and . . .all the stuff you said.

I am so glad my sis tried it out and shared her font secret.

Nice job.

Sarah said...

I so wish I could use that. I have a mac. Bridget, if you find something that is good that works on mac let me know. Thanks for sharing the info Mahina

Rachel said...

thanks for the tip!

jessica said...

I am totally converting!!!! You had me at cute fonts...

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Memory said...

Hallelujah! is all I have to say. Blogger has TONS of issues to sort out and I'm way too excited to check out this new gem! Thanks for sharing. And, can you share where you got the "I belong..." picture/link on the left? Thanks! (Darilyn's friend!)

Stephanie said...

I just did my first post with it! YEAH! It's amazing. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. It makes a world of difference not having to spend hours on end trying to blog. Thanks

Melissa-Mc said...

Thanks for sharing! I am going to check it out.

janine said...

Yay! Thanks so much...I'm downloading it right now!....now, I've just got to find something interesting to blog about!

Kristi David said...

Thanks for the tip! I have all the same frustrations! Thanks for making a fellow addict's addiction easier . . .

Anonymous said...

Thanks to you--all your friends will have "snazzy" new posts just like you, and more time to do all the things that need to get done--like laundry. BLEH! I'm excited to try it out.

Scott-n-Allison said...

Now that you've shared your secret, when do the tutorials start? It sounds like we'd all like to tap into your creative genius!

tutu lady said...

This story sounds vagely familiar. Hmmmm, I think you told me about it (in person). I'm glad you found it. Although, this font is a little hard to read, maybe it's the color contrast or the smaller size. The small red writing is very hard to read, especially the word "cute"

Ilene said...

Oh, more blogging tricks! I love the free part.

azonicbruce said...

Hmm, I didn't know you could use it to post to other blogs, I thought it was only for posting to Live Spaces. I do have it installed so I'll try it the next time for our blog. Great tip!