Working with smart tools help. Over time you get accustom to them and soon they become indispensable. Here are a few applications I use on a day to day basis as a Blogger.
Windows Live Writer
Thanks Microsoft for coming out with such a nice little utility. Windows Live Writer is undoubtedly the best Offline Blogging Software. It supports a large type of blogs, but more importantly it supports WordPress. It also auto detects your Categories, Post Slug field, Tags etc. It also gives an option to save a draft online and post later. Cool isn’t it..!!
FileZilla FTP Utility
Filezilla is a nice free FTP client. Its supports FTP, FTP o/v SSL, SFTP etc. and runs on both Windows and Linux. Although I have never fully utilized it apart from transferring files from local hard drive to server, it does a very good job of transferring files and I am much happier with it compare to other FTP Clients. It also have a free server version incase if you want to set up a FTP Server.
Wamp Server
Wamp server helps you create, test and run applications using PHP, Apache and MySQL. It also has PHPMyAdmin and SQLiteManager to easily manage your databases. I used it to test my WordPresss Theme designs for my client, by running them on a localhost using WAMP. It’s much faster than running it on a live host.
Notepad++
Notepad++ is the most powerful text editor you can lay your hand on (Text Editor not rich Text Editor). First of all it’s free. Secondly, it provides Syntax highlighting for a whole bunch of programming languages. Provides a tabbed interface, remembers and auto loads open files, provide auto intended for better code visibility etc. The features go on and on and on. Simply the Best out there.
Win HTTrack
Win HTTrack is a very powerful offline browser. Now why would I use it? The reason is very simple. There are tonnes of beautiful sites out there, but my data plan for internet connection provides zero cost for night surfing. Also mostly I am on the move with a CDMA USB modem, which hardly gives any speed, just keep your connection alive. To quench my thirst of reading nice tutorials and great blogs, I rather download them and store them on a pendrive. That’s where Win HTTrack comes into the picture.
Win HTTrack allow you to download website and view them offline. You can change most of the options like The relative path you want to set, what types of files you want to download and what type of files you want to skip, other validation rules etc. It is the best offline website downloader out there.
Windows 7 Paint Tool
I am running a Windows 7 Beta Build version 7000. I must say it’s a very stable OS and leaps ahead compare to Vista. It have some Glitches here and there but surprisingly it’s better than Vista even in the Beta Version. Windows 7 presents with a revamp Paint Utility. Finally the ribbon interface debuts in MS Paint and I loved it. You can do pretty much same basic file editing and drawing. You can save files in PNG Format also.
Windows 7 Snipping Tool
Another nice addition to Windows 7 is a Snipping Tool. It lets you snip of cut selective portions of your screens and save them as a JPG, GIF or PNG image file. Very useful for taking screenshots.
Firefox Portable
Firefox is undoubtedly the best Browser out there at the moment with speed, security and tonnes of features and addons. What more interesting is, it also has a portable version available. Why do I need a portable version? Simple. I can take all my bookmarks, User Preferences, Addons, Local Bookmarks etc with me while I am on the move. I just have to install the Portable Version on the Pendrive and launch it from there on any computer and continue surfing from where I left last time.
Google Chrome Portable
Google Chrome is still not mature yet. But the good thing about this light weight Browser is that, first its fast and secondly it provides a fresh breath of air compare to other Memory hogging Browser applications. Another good feature of Google Chrome is that it runs as a separate process for each tab. Why this is important? If you open a faulty site or a tab becomes non-responding, you can kill it without losing all your open applications. Another important thing, Chrome comes preloaded with Gears. Great to use for applications like WordPress Turbo Mode and Google Reader Offline.
Microsoft Excel 2007
Finally the last utility in the list and the only utility you have to pay to get – Microsoft Office Excel 2007. The most powerful Spreadsheet application on the planet. I use it t store and manage important details of my all projects and Websites. It is a handy utility to manage keywords, keep a list etc. Other features of this application needs no introduction. The Ribbon Interface rocks. (Had to say that)
So, what are the most important applications you use while Blogging? Share with other readers. Have a nice Day..!!
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My list would include Photoshop too and minus Windows Live Writer.
Thnaks for sharing man, I had never heard of Win HTTrack, and I have similar bandwidth limiations, so thats gonna help a lot
btw, you should consider installing a Subscribe to comments plugin, its great in community building
~ Arun Basil Lal
hi, i use windows writer and my question is
how can i use h1 tag for my post titles as using windows writer