Results of the ScribeFire Online Blog Editor - Post Anywhere Anytime!

Quick Introduction - 'The 'ScribeFire' Blog Editor

Please excuse any formatting errors in this post (and in the blog overall's look, if any) until I can fix them (add-in edit: also, I feel yukky yukky sick right now, so I am going to just hit that 'publish' button and hope for the best! - soorrry)!.

So, you may ask - Why might these errors be here?

I am both using and reviewing an online 'Blog Editor' tool for you - 'ScribeFire' to determine its usefulness in making a blogger's life easier :-)

In particular, if you go to the post immediately prior to this one, you will find an article which reviews three social media-related tools that are especially useful for bloggers, and for all people who are interested in online social networking and friendships in general. These tools include the:

• ScribeFire online Blog Poster/Creator Plugin (which I am also using to write this blog post)
• the social media based 'Flock' Web Browser, and the
• Netvibes Web Dashboard.

In order to more fully understand the post you are reading right now, you need to read the blog post prior to this one, albeit a tad long, intermingled with some humor! Also, while the post briefly summarized the three tools noted above, it was also testing the ScribeFire Blog Editor in the process.

This post is a summary of the outcomes and results of this 'test' - let's hope that this post comes out better than the one before! Overall, the online ScribeFire Blog Editor certainly makes blogging easier, but there are some minor pros and cons to perhaps note in your own decision about whether or not to use this tool or not ....

SIDE NOTE: I will perhaps review the other two social media and networking tools noted below at a later time if you are interested, but thought this more important for now .... (it might also have been more appropriate to write these reviews on my other blog, which I haven't maintained for awhile - that is - 'Resellers Delight and Web 2.0 Marketing'! (oops Megan, wrong Blog!). Thus, I may move these posts to that blog. But then again, many readers here are also bloggers and have a growing network of online friends. So as suggested, these tools are useful in every aspect of life, in our self-help journey! :-)

THE RESULTS: Pros & Cons of the ScribeFire Blog Editor

Yes, it worked. The online ScribeFire Blog Creator fundamentally did what it aimed to, and published my post to this blog, as you can obviously see, especially in the post prior to this one. Graphics, videos, formatting and more, were all transferred from my draft post, to the published version, with no errors or hassles in the publishing process itself.

However, the 'transferance' of formatting and graphics was not all that it was expected to be, and the primary reasons for this are outlined below ... First, however -

The Cons:

Unfortunately, the post published prior to this one (which was created entirely in the online ScribeFire Blog Editor), did some strange things to the overall formatting of this blog, albeit minor in nature - my blog looks different - AHH. Now I have to take time later to fix these problems. Not to worry. Its a learning process.

Some of these problems or issues do need to be borne in mind, however, if you also decide to use ScribeFire. In Summary, when writing my post/article in the online ScribeFire Blog Editor -

• The font sizes in the Blog Editor did not reflect what the fonts looked like in the Scribe Fire's editing interface or window, and are actually much smaller when published (In short, fonts look larger in the editor, than they will when published).

• When I published my final post, as noted, somehow it changed some of the overall formatting of my blog, which is a pain and again, is now something I need to fix from within Blogger's dashboard. The posts are now also too small to read comfortably, and spacing between paragraphs has gone array in parts.

• Some graphics and videos now also go over the edge of the posting area (so this may depend on your blog theme and column widths). It also appears that my posting area has narrowed, but I could be wrong?

• Some fonts went all bold, whilst others were ok.

• The spacings in the draft 'preview' mode in the blog editor' did not always reflect the actual published view (and spacings are larger in some areas, than were intended).

• When you 'save' your draft post in ScribeFire by clicking on 'Save Note', it gives no indication to you about whether it is saved or not. (obviously it did though, as my post was published, although I am not sure how it will actually 'save' as a 'draft', if I decide not to publish a post until later).

Overall, however, these things can be fixed once you determine how ScribeFire affects your own Blog. Its just a bit frustrating at first, especially with the loss of time. What I thought was 'looking' like a good post, actually turned out to be a LOOOOONNNG GG one and I know that many people like the shorter posts. But it was hard to know this at the time of writing (the same is probably the case for this one, and I have no idea how the fonts, or this post, will look like until it is published - so again, please excuse any errors).

One of the main problems I think, is that the online Blog Poster only takes up a portion of your computer screen (about 1/3). As a result, it is difficult to obtain an 'overall picture' of how your posting will look, unlike in normal 'preview' full-screen modes'. This is why some of the errors or problems. noted above, could not be picked up.

I am increasing the font size of this particular post to see if it makes a difference, and hope that it doesn't cause any more formatting problems! Hopefully the videos and photos broke this up a little in the previous post - especially the 'funny' video, which I have re-posted below - we all need another laugh - well I do now! :-)

The PROs of ScribeFire

It is incredibly easy and fast to use - and fun!

• It is free and incorporates all/most of the features you would be used to in blog editors
  
• The errors noted above can be fixed, once you learn how ScribeFire affects your particular blog theme.
• It is very intuitive and easy to learn
• There are many features not found in blogger
• It is extremely fun and easy to insert flickr photos and You Tube videos with a couple of clicks (in addition to uploading your own images)
  
• In fact, it is great being able to post anywhere, anytime - and copy and drag text etc from other webpages into your blog editor. It is so easy in fact, that you may end up wanting to write more posts than you would normally, at the 'drop of a hat' so to speak!
  
• And - did I mention - it is free! :)
  

So what went wrong?

Why did my blog's appearance change and my final post not appear the way it 'should' have when it was published. Admittedly, the issues are only minor and can be fixed, but they do need to be noted, so that you are prepared when using this tool. There may be many reasons for some of the problems noted above, including, among other things:

• the type of blog theme used (ie. the blog editor does not automatically detect what the size, shape, CSS styles and fonts, etc of your blog theme are)

• as already noted, the relatively small size of ScribeFire's blog editor's interface (or editing window where the draft post is created), only takes up about 1/3 of the computer monitor (thus, as noted, any appearances of fonts, sizes, spacings, for example, will not always reflect what appears when finally 'published' on the full computer monitor screen. They will appear larger (or smaller in terms of spacing) in your draft than in the final published version).

• Given the above, it is also not possible to visualize the full layout of the final posting from within the 'preview' mode of the blog editor in order to fix any problems, because it is not written or 'viewed', with my blog theme in mind.

• Again, this may also explain the 'spacing' issue and why some paragraphs had larger spaces than others.
  

Ultimately, given the small size of the editing window (and inability to view my blog) - how do I know if a particular image or photograph will 'fit' within the writing area of my blog, or if it will overlap into the right side-bar of this blog? There is no way to know this, until it is published, or alternatively, if you use the editor on a constant basis with the same theme, and actually know what these 'measurements' are when inserting graphics and such.

There are probably other reasons and issues, but I am not going to delve into this more deeply given that many are relatively minor points. Again, I just wanted to give you a summary of how the ScribeFire Blog Editor worked for me and my particular blog theme, so you can apply this knowledge to your own sites if you do use this tool.

So - Do I Recommend ScribeFire Blog Editor?

Overall, I certainly recommend ScribeFire Blog Editor if you can sort out some of the above issues for your particular blog/theme (they may not even be a problem for you anyway). It might also be worth noting that if you change your brower to 'Flock' (see the post below prior to this one again), there is also another free online brower blog post editor in there too. I haven't tested that one though, and it doesn't look like it has as many features based on the video in the post prior to this one, but I could be wrong.

Ultimately, while I will use this tool for convenience's sake - I mean - how easy is it to just click on a little orange icon in your browser and you can write a blog!! - when I want to write more substantial and planned postings, I think I will use desktop-based blogging software, such as 'BlogJet' (I will review this software for you if I do purchase this). For now, I will use ScribeFire and the current method of simply writing online within blogger (and copying draft versions into textpad, until I move my blog to its own domain and it becomes more structured) :-)

Again, I will return back to the topic of 'selfhelp' soon, and will bring you the promised information on the coming 'challenge' which fellow bloggers in particular may be interested in, especially in making new friends and strengthening your online networks of like-minded people within your blogging niche (see prior post).

To all, be kind, Enjoy the moment and take care.

AND - if none of the above made any sense at all(!), please take at least a few minutes to skim the post below prior to this one (and then reward yourself by watching this video below - or you may just want to watch it now).

I laughed so hard the first time that I couldn't resist posting this video here again for you :D

Until Next time,
Meg :)