Blogger vs Wordpress vs others

[pardes]

I'm going nuts fighting with formatting blog entries in Blogger. It's sneaky. It makes you think you are changing formatting but many times it doesn't.

Is Wordpress easier? More reliable. Doesn't require a PhD in html code?

What other programs are easier for formatting text?

I've gone down using MS Word with a direct upload, to using Live Writer, to just dumping it directly into Blogger editor and none of them give predictable results.

Grrrrrr. I'm spending three times as much time formatting the blog as I am in creating it!

[Aquila]

What are you trying to do so far as formatting?

Nothing seems to make adding spaces in front of lines (say, of poetry) easy in html except knowing the stupid code.

I use blogger/blogspot, but I do minimal formatting, a few photos on occasion, poetry, and like it pretty well. I haven't tried other platforms.

[Grog]

What are you trying to do so far as formatting?

Nothing seems to make adding spaces in front of lines (say, of poetry) easy in html except knowing the stupid code.

I know it's "code," but typing "<br>" is not that difficult...

[pardes]

I know it's "code," but typing "<br>" is not that difficult...

Yeah, it's not that hard until you have three screen pages of text with different formatting throughout in the text and photos.

I'm biting the bullet. I downloaded "kompoze." At least I have a fighting chance now. You type in your text, format it, and then by switching to another screen you can clearly see where the code is and what it is. It highlights the coding with colors and tags so you CAN'T miss it and eventually learn the coding for the typical things you do.

With two blogs, a personal one, and a magazine style one, the learning curve is steep but fast.

[SouthernBelle]

I use Wordpress and the only issue I've had is having text go around pictures the way I want it to. You can swap back and forth between HTML and visual easily while you are posting.

[Aquila]

<br> creates a line break, not spaces in front of text.

I can't remember offhand the way to add extra spaces between characters. One space is easy, but not two, and tabbing is a pain, also. Hitting extra spaces, the way you do on a typewriter or a wordprocessing program doesn't work.

That's why there's a move among those who love html to change formatting so you don't start a paragraph with an indent and don't have two spaces after a period.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Inserting a .gif image of a blank space is better than using the usual html "nbs" code for a space since that tag is sometimes not properly recognized by certain versions of browsers.

You can get a zipped copy of a "space.gif" here:
http://www.elated.com/articles/10-useful-html-tips-for-beginners/
Read tip #10.
Treat the gif just like the image it is. You can even assign it various larger heights and/or widths. Or just use it as a one-pixel space and put in multiple ones if you want a bigger space. It will be invisible on the page. You will have to upload it onto your site just like any other image file. It's handy and simple for those who don't want to learn CSS stuff.

[Flur]

I use Wordpress and love it. Blogging in Wordpress is as easy as posting here, well, okay, even easier than posting here. There are two tabs in which you can compose your post - the visual tab that guides you through and shows the post as you'll see it, and the html tab that shows all the code. You can switch back and forth between the two as much as you want, without any delay in loading the screens. And once you're done writing you can preview the post as it will appear in the blog without actually posting it. For poetry, and quotes and stuff you can use the blockquotes functionality, which will automatically indent (although it may do other stuff too, based on the theme you're using). You can change your formatting on the fly if you want to center text or right-justify, and lists are super simple too. For posting pictures, the newest version of wordpress will let you choose where in the frame you want the image, and will automatically resize it if you want it to. Super simple. Video is easy too.

As far as the overall look and feel, there are tons of templates out there that can give your blog a personality. There are also a number of easily configured templates that can give a custom look without having to know all the code (you might need to know some, depending on how much you want to configure). That's what I've done with mine. It's been customized so much it bears almost no resemblance to the original theme - if you haven't seen it in the last week or so you should check it out :). Wordpress also gives you the opportunity to use a fully widgetized sidebar, which gives you a lot of sidebar customization without needing to know any code at all.

[Kalidurga]

I agree with just about everything Flur said, but for Blogger instead of Wordpress. The formatting in my blog pretty simple, but I find the Compose tab in Blogger to be very easy to work with. I use the HTML tab for a few things (like adding "target=_blank" to url links), but the rest I do as WYSIWYG. And I very much like that I can save my posts as a draft and work on them over time.

I've also tried Wordpress and Live Journal, but I much prefer the overall layout and other options offered by Blogger. I also like the fact that it links to G-mail and my blogroll.

[bluebug32]

Flur, this is off-topic, but I really like your blog! The 365 photography idea is a great idea. I look forward to seeing more.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Kalidurga, just a little note aside-
Grant Petersen wrote the "How to ride a bike forever" article from the old Bridgestone catalogue. He was working there designing frames at the time. Now he runs his own outfit- Rivendell.
http://www.bikereader.com/contributors/misc/rideforever.html
:)

I like your blog as well as Flur's!

[tulip]

I've tried Wordpress, Typepad, and Blogger, and for my very simplistic needs, Blogger won hands down. I found the others to be rather cumbersome. I did manage to reformat it to three columns for my work-related blog, and that took some recoding, but it was mostly cutting and pasting from an FAQ entry.

None seemed to have automatic three column format, which is what I was looking for.

Sounds like you, Pardes, have much more sophisticated blogging needs than I do, so take what I write with a grain of salt.

[Flur]

Thank you Lisa and Bluebug!

[Aquila]

Lisa,

Thanks! It's so cool to learn how to add spaces that way!