I know, we all have our favourite blog editors. I've tried various editors in the past, but never really got-on with any of them, so all I've really standardised-on is the rich editor on the webpage in LJ.

LJ does have an annoying habit occasionally of wiping my posts, when using the built-in editing facilities.  I can't get too annoyed, though - I have a "back" button above the left arrow, and I've hit that key a few times by mistake. I would have hoped that LJ would not allow the pressing of Back when you're editing your journal (or responding to someone else's, which is even more annoying), but it doesn't and so I keep returning to blog editors, trying to find one that I like.

I just saw a recommendation for Windows Live Writer. I've never thought of using a Microsoft product to do something for fun (rather than it being mandated, or de-facto) but I thought I'd give it a go. It's free, and comes from a company that Microsoft purchased a couple of years ago.

This blog entry is my evaluation: Download straightforward (being careful to not select any of the "Let Microsoft take-over your whole computing experience" options)

Installation straightforward, selecting "other weblog" rather than going the Microsoft route. Typed "http://www.livejournal.com/ and added my username and *gulp* password, and it recognises LJ completely, including styles, subscribed groups, tags, etc. Very painless.

Now for writing something. I've allowed it to write a temporary blog entry (it says that it'll write it and immediately delete it, so-as to learn the user interface that I am used to using) and now the editing page is similar to my LJ scheme.

The first hyperlink insertion seemed completely painless too.

  This was dead easy as well - just like using a real word processing application.

Ooo - this

We'll have to see what happens when it's published, but unless you all throw up your hands in horror at the awful formatting I'm forcing on you from this blog entry, I think I've found a blog editor that I can use.

What blog editor(s) do you use? I'll be trying to view responses, and continue correspondence, in Windows Live Writer, so that will conclude my evaluation positively, if it all works for me.

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