With the recent popularity of cheap netbooks and the ease of accessing the internet wirelessly in increasingly remote locations, it is now easier than ever to maintain a travel blog to share your experiences with the your friends, family and the rest of the world. On a recent trip to Thailand with my girlfriend, I wanted to create a travel blog to share our experiences and photos with friends and family back home. This post will explain how I used Windows Live Writer and Windows Live Spaces as a powerful blogging solution, ideal for blogging whilst on the move.
The blog I created can be found on http://chrismdotcom.spaces.live.com/.
I realised that my girlfriend would not appreciate me sitting on my laptop for the whole trip, so I decided that I would limit my blogging time to two situations.
Our trip involved a fair bit of travelling/waiting around.
.plus my girlfriends time spent getting ready in the evenings, meant there was plenty of time for me to blog :-)
If you do not already have a Windows Live Space, you will need to set one up. If you already have a space, there is no need to complete this step. Visit http://spaces.live.com. If you already have a Windows Live account, sign in with that account, otherwise set up a new one and then sign in. Once signed in, select the Create Your Space option highlighted below. Once your space has been created, you will have a blog created by default. There are a bunch of customisation options available for your spaces such as themes, additional modules and a friendly web address (<YOURCHOICE>.spaces.live.com). Once your blog has been created, you are able to create blog entries and publish photos directly from the web interface. This is ideal if you do not have access to your own computer and need to publish entries using just a web browser. However, if you have your own laptop or netbook, Windows Live Writer provides a much more powerful blogging solution for you.
If you do not already have a Windows Live Space, you will need to set one up. If you already have a space, there is no need to complete this step.
Visit http://spaces.live.com. If you already have a Windows Live account, sign in with that account, otherwise set up a new one and then sign in.
Once signed in, select the Create Your Space option highlighted below.
Once your space has been created, you will have a blog created by default. There are a bunch of customisation options available for your spaces such as themes, additional modules and a friendly web address (<YOURCHOICE>.spaces.live.com).
Once your blog has been created, you are able to create blog entries and publish photos directly from the web interface. This is ideal if you do not have access to your own computer and need to publish entries using just a web browser. However, if you have your own laptop or netbook, Windows Live Writer provides a much more powerful blogging solution for you.
Visit http://download.live.com/writer to download the latest version of Windows Live Writer. This is a great Microsoft application which allows you to easily compose offline blog posts with photos, and many other types of content and publish them quickly to your blog. After Windows Live Writer has been installed, you will need to configure it to connect to your blog. If you are not prompted for your blog details automatically, select the 'Blogs' menu item and 'Add Blog Account'. For the type of blog service, select 'Windows Live Blog', then on the next screen simply enter your Windows Live ID and Password. That's all the information writer needs, it will automatically download the settings and formats from your blog so that you can create offline posts and preview how they will look before publishing live.
Visit http://download.live.com/writer to download the latest version of Windows Live Writer.
This is a great Microsoft application which allows you to easily compose offline blog posts with photos, and many other types of content and publish them quickly to your blog.
After Windows Live Writer has been installed, you will need to configure it to connect to your blog. If you are not prompted for your blog details automatically, select the 'Blogs' menu item and 'Add Blog Account'.
For the type of blog service, select 'Windows Live Blog', then on the next screen simply enter your Windows Live ID and Password. That's all the information writer needs, it will automatically download the settings and formats from your blog so that you can create offline posts and preview how they will look before publishing live.
Whether you are travelling on a bus, sitting on the beach or in your hotel room waiting for your girlfriend get ready for the evening, so long as you have battery power you can use Windows Live Writer to prepare your blog post. The title of your blog post goes in to the box at the top of the page. It is important that your title is accurate, but also concise, since it is the text which will appear in the Internet Explorer title bar when viewing the content, and also in the link text displayed on search engines once your content has been crawled by search engine crawlers. The rest of your page content goes below the title box. When you are ready to insert pictures, this can be done by clicking on the 'Insert' menu and selecting 'Picture.', or you can simply drag your pictures directly on to the page. The first thing you will want to do will be to adjust the positioning of the picture, in relation to the text. If you select it (by clicking on it), you will see a bunch of options appear in the right display pane. The Text Wrapping option can be used to layout the picture appropriately against the text on the page. The 'Left' option produces the following results. You can then reduce/increase the size of the picture by simply dragging the white boxes at the edge. One additional great feature which Writer provides allows you to automatically apply various effects to the borders of your pictures.
Whether you are travelling on a bus, sitting on the beach or in your hotel room waiting for your girlfriend get ready for the evening, so long as you have battery power you can use Windows Live Writer to prepare your blog post.
The title of your blog post goes in to the box at the top of the page. It is important that your title is accurate, but also concise, since it is the text which will appear in the Internet Explorer title bar when viewing the content, and also in the link text displayed on search engines once your content has been crawled by search engine crawlers.
The rest of your page content goes below the title box.
When you are ready to insert pictures, this can be done by clicking on the 'Insert' menu and selecting 'Picture.', or you can simply drag your pictures directly on to the page.
The first thing you will want to do will be to adjust the positioning of the picture, in relation to the text. If you select it (by clicking on it), you will see a bunch of options appear in the right display pane. The Text Wrapping option can be used to layout the picture appropriately against the text on the page.
The 'Left' option produces the following results.
You can then reduce/increase the size of the picture by simply dragging the white boxes at the edge.
One additional great feature which Writer provides allows you to automatically apply various effects to the borders of your pictures.
To publish your post simply click on the 'Publish' button in the toolbar. The great thing about Windows Live Writer is that it will take care of the complete publishing process for you. If you have applied effects (such as shadow, rounded edges, or other) to your photos the tool will automatically apply these effects to the images before uploading them. Since modern digital cameras take such high resolution photos, it is necessary to reduce the size of them before they can be uploaded to the web. Windows Live Writer will automatically take care of this for you by not only reducing the size of the photo before uploading, but also creating two versions of the photo - a smaller version to be used as a thumbnail on your blog post, and a larger one which can be viewed by clicking on the thumbnail. Once the photos have been automatically prepared they will be uploaded to the correct location on the server, along with your blog text and any other content you may have inserted. Once complete you browser window will automatically be opened to preview the content. Another great advantage to using Windows Live Spaces to host your blog is that your Windows Live contacts will automatically be notified that you have posted a new blog entry. So Windows Live Writer really has taken care of EVERYTHING for you, what could be easier? :-)
To publish your post simply click on the 'Publish' button in the toolbar.
The great thing about Windows Live Writer is that it will take care of the complete publishing process for you.
If you have applied effects (such as shadow, rounded edges, or other) to your photos the tool will automatically apply these effects to the images before uploading them.
Since modern digital cameras take such high resolution photos, it is necessary to reduce the size of them before they can be uploaded to the web. Windows Live Writer will automatically take care of this for you by not only reducing the size of the photo before uploading, but also creating two versions of the photo - a smaller version to be used as a thumbnail on your blog post, and a larger one which can be viewed by clicking on the thumbnail.
Once the photos have been automatically prepared they will be uploaded to the correct location on the server, along with your blog text and any other content you may have inserted.
Once complete you browser window will automatically be opened to preview the content.
Another great advantage to using Windows Live Spaces to host your blog is that your Windows Live contacts will automatically be notified that you have posted a new blog entry.
So Windows Live Writer
really has taken care of EVERYTHING for you, what could be easier? :-)