Well, I was finally pushed to do it…send in feedback about Windows Live Writer. One of the earliest features, and one feature that’s available in pretty much every other desktop blogging application, was removed and has caused a mild inconvenience when using WLW to manage a number of blogs.
Here’s the exact message that I sent in:
In the earliest edition of WLW that I tested, it was possible to have a new post immediately started after publication without needing to hit the "New" button. This feature seems to have completely disappeared in the most recent releases.
There are options to view the entry after publication, close the writing window after publication, or open a new window after publication, but none simply to start a new post in the same window immediately after publishing an entry. Why has one of the most logical features, available in every other offline blogging software, been abandoned?
I’m suggesting that you resurrect it. Having to hit the "New" post button after publication is an unnecessary extra step, especially considering that rarely does one need to continue editing a post *after* it’s been published and continually needing to click the "New" button can become tedious, especially if someone is managing multiple blogs and has a number of entries to write.
Now it’s time to wait and see whether I receive a response (it may very well be that I’m overlooking something in the Preferences) or whether they decide to re-incorporate this feature into the software or whether I can find a third party plugin that will do it for me.
I’m also curious to see whether anyone else is perturbed by this inconvenience as well.
Quick update, I’ve already received a courteous reply, though it looked like a form letter. But, believe it or not, I do believe that my email and suggestion will be forwarded to the appropriate team. Whether they accept it is another story altogether.
# May 11th, 2009
Welcome back Teli, where have you been for such a long time? What has occupied you up?
# May 11th, 2009
Thank you for the warm welcome back. Quite a bit has actually kept me occupied, but the most recent had to do with the burglary of my laptops (in fact, I’m still recovering from it).
I’ll actually be sending out a newsletter tomorrow with some updates/explanations.
# May 11th, 2009
I am one of the developers of Windows Live Writer. How did you submit the feedback? Sadly, if it is through feedback.live.com or any other generic Microsoft feedback service chances are we will never see it (Surprise! Microsoft is really bad a coordinating these things!). The best way to contact our team is to post on our forums:
http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/writergeneral/threads/
Or you can send me an email directly at bturnerATmicrosoftDOTcom
As for why this feature was removed, I don’t have any details on that. No one can seem to remember when/why it was removed. The best we could come up with is that it was removed when we changed ‘New Window’ behavior which we have gone round-and-round on many times, mostly about whether we should open a new window or clear the existing one.
We have noted your request now and will consider adding it back in, or doing something else to try and remove the annoyance.
Thank you for using Windows Live Writer, please feel free to send us anymore feedback you have.
# May 13th, 2009
The view post after publishing always open the blog URL but not the post’s URL, I think it is flawed. If I publish a page, it will open correctly, but not for post.
Teli do u encounter this problem?
# May 17th, 2009
Hi Kiat,
That is odd behaviour, but I can’t confirm it because I never use the ‘view post after publishing’ option since I don’t need to visit the blog/post in the browser.
My problem is simply WLW not starting a brand new post in the WLW editor screen after I publish. Since I work on multiple blogs (usually back to back), it’s a little tedious needing to hit the ‘New’ button after each publication. LOL
But, good point you bring up. You may want to drop a suggestion to the WLW developers.
On another note, thank you Brandon for taking the time to stop by my humble blog and leaving a comment. I’m amazed and delighted. WLW has certainly come leaps and bounds from the first time I used it a few years back. Wonderful job.
~ Teli
# May 18th, 2009
After publishing not auto-loading a new blank editor actually is good for me, because I always further edit my post after publishing for 2 to 3 times, correcting here and there, fine tuning some places. So it is up to user’s habit to decide whether auto-load is good or not.
But my view post after publishing bring me to homepage, this is quite weird.
# May 18th, 2009
I figured everyone would need to have different preferences, but in the previous versions of WLW, it was an option–meaning you could enable and disable it to suit your particular needs, so those wanting to continue editing could and those wanting to jump right into the next post could.
As for loading the homepage of the blog, I can see why it may be that way, though it’s a stretch. Different blogging programs may have different permalink structures. Of course, if WP reports back with the permalink address, then opening the permalink page shouldn’t be difficult. That said, the post should appear on the blog’s homepage, unless a static page is being used.
Maybe you should send that suggestion in to the WLW team.
# May 18th, 2009
Zoundry Raven can open the post at its permalink, this is what WLW should learn.
Teli, my comment goes to moderation every time. I suggest that you soften the strictness of comment moderating so that more people are willing to participate in the conversation
# May 18th, 2009
Open dialog improvments are something we are looking at for the next version of Windows Live Writer. Thank you for the feedback.
# May 20th, 2009