How do You Edit Your Documents
May 26th, 2007 by Michael Gray in IdeasIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Read my top posts or learn more about Michael Gray. Want more frequent updates follow me on Twitter. Thanks for visiting!
I’m working with some outside writers on some projects and having some real issues finding a WYSWIG that works in an HTML programmer free blog world.
Microsoft Word: - The best grammar, and spelling correction around. The worst, no one else is even in it’s universe, as far screwing formating up when converting to HTML. Non existent blog interface compatibility. Local storage and backups pretty much a wash there. Document collaboration pretty much impossible.
Google Documents - Spelling correction is adequate, but no grammar checking. Takes a little getting used to but formatting is really pretty clean when converting to HTML. Single blog interface capability (what I’m only allowed one blog?) Online storage, backups, and accessibility rock, as long as you’re in an always on wifi connected world. The best in the bunch as far as collaboration.
Blog Desk: Spelling correction adequate, again no grammar checking. HTML Formatting is really clean, built in image editing rocks the house! You can connect to as many blogs as you want, interact with categories, and future date publications, again rockin’ the house. Documents stored locally in some bizarre format backups cumbersome and clunky. No collaboration built in, and workarounds clunky and cumbersome.
I like the interface for Google docs and can deal with it’s minor formatting issues, but the one blog restriction, lack of categories, lack of pre-dating, and primitive image editing leaves me feeling like I settled for second best. Blog Desk kicks ass with images and blog interfacing, crappy backups and proprietary formating suck. And let’s be honest I really need a good spelling and grammar checker, so how do you get from word processor to published blog?
Sphere It
May 26th, 2007 at 11:06 am
Amazingly good: Windows Live Writer. Free, from Microsoft, good: it’s a new world
There are lots of handy plugins to make life a little bit easier. My favorite is Flickr4Writer to easily insert images from Flickr.
May 26th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
What about Windows Live Writer?
I know nothing about it but maybe you’d like to check it out?
May 26th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
I’ve liked NVU when getting simple clean html from wysiwyg.
It’s free.
I think you have to add an extension for spelling / grammar… but haven’t bothered with ever trying to do that.
May 26th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
The recent BoagWorld podcast had a nice review of Ecto. I’ve not tried it but it may fit your needs.
http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/
May 26th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
You can type it in word (make sure you turn off the smart quotes) and get the spelling and grammar the way you want and then copy it into BlogDesk for the formatting/images/future posting.
May 26th, 2007 at 10:31 pm
oh yeah! Windows Live Writer all the way. I’m amazed at how smooth it works.
May 28th, 2007 at 10:31 pm
I get around the problem by not checking spellink and grummar.
May 29th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
If you can afford to upgrade to Office 2007 (MS Word), you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find a handy blog publishing tool. I use it seamlessly with my WordPress blog! I’ve never had this publishing process tamper with my final post. However, the transition of images from Word to WordPress is a bit jumbled. I always publish my blog as a draft, then manually edit my images via WordPress. Hope this helps!
May 29th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
I’ve been thinking of testing out the Google Docs application but I’d rather stick to MS on this one. I don’t want to have to rely that much on Google, especially if my internet happens to go down.
May 30th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
This has bugged me as well - so I thought I would have a quick look on Google - word html cleaner-upper. Seems there are some useful tools about - AlGoTech seemed a cheap and cheerful option.
As for online storage/back-ups - I prefer Zoho to Google Docs. The writer & sheets functions more like Word & Excel - and there is a handy Microsoft plugin - so you can save your zoho Docs in Word & Excel - great for quick backups.
On the downside, it’s an extra login - but a worthy one IMO.
June 1st, 2007 at 4:24 am
I love using Google Docs and Spreadsheets with synchronization to my client-side word processor.
The other option for what I do is view the content on either Google Docs/Microsoft Word and then I just post the content to my blogs via BlogJet. BlogJet is pretty amazing, although there are some features missing that they will likely be adding in a short period of time.