Saturday, July 16, 2011

New Blogger

Blogger has a new interface for composing posts. It's pretty cool. PC Magazine calls it "airy," which seems right. Here's their complete review, and they have screen shots so you can take a look at the new product. 

I've been using Microsoft Live Writer, a free desktop-based program, for quite a while. That's because the Blogger writing interface was basically crap. It felt more like leaving a comment on a post than actually composing one. This new one seems much better.

You'll notice the editor has been moved away from a box on the left, to a page view in the center of your screen. I hate typing in little squares of screen space. The post settings are on the right where you can get to them, instead of at the bottom. And all the formatting tools are conveniently arranged across the top.

Blogger automatically saves your work frequently, so you can relax.

There is still a problem entering a paragraph break, and that's a significant concern. When you reach the end of a paragraph and press Enter to move down, nothing happens. You have to click your mouse button the current cursor location, or press the arrow key on your keyboard, then press Enter again. And I have to tell you, that in itself - if it's not remedied - could become a reason to keep using more stable software. 

The new blogger is in Beta and not rolling out automatically to users right now. PC Magazine says that will happen this month or next. To try it now, go to draft.blogger.com. I think is well worth a look.