Blogging on the move

Having promised that I would blog as we go on this wretched ride (why, oh why am I doing this??), I had been wondering about the practicalities of writing whilst on the move.  Not literally I hasten to add – I have come to grief more than once when I have been looking at the map on the barbag rather than at the road - A laptop on the handlebars would be going too far!!  Typing will be done when we are not actually on the move.

We are planning to camp at least some of the time, and although a few hostels have wifi, a lot of the YHA’s don’t seem to have quite caught up with this technology yet.  As laptops get smaller and smaller I think more and more people will be carrying their machines and using wifi, but for the time being I am not expecting to be able to get on-line at overnight stops very often.

So what I had planned was, that in the evenings I would write the blog in Word and upload the photos from my camera, and then when we see a cafe or pub with wifi, to upload it all onto Blogger

But using Blogger is quite time consuming and fiddly, especially getting the layout and the photos in the right place.  I don’t want to be wasting an hour in the cafe  messing about with it.  

I have now discovered Microsoft Live Writer.  This is supposed to interface with Blogger so that it is possible to blog, add photos and maps and sort out all the layout whilst off-line.  Then one only needs to be connected to the internet to upload the blog.

I am not very computer literate, in fact just setting up the Live Writer (which involved inputting an email address, a user name and a password) caused me untold amounts of stress, but it seems to me this could be just the thing.  I am also pleased with the map feature, although the functions on it are quite limited as far as I can tell.  It is possible to mark with a pin the start and finish points, but not to trace a route.  I did look at doing this but it seems fiendishly complicated.  If anyone knows how to upload routes quickly and painlessly please let me know, otherwise I will be content to simply mark the point we have reached each day.

Lets see know how I get on with it….. 

Yes!!!!! One click and it was up there.   Tomorrow I will experiment with photos and maps. By the way, if you are interested, the machine I am taking is an HP2133 Mini-Note which I really like, it's dinky and easy to carry around. However it still weighs in at 2.8lbs so is something of an indulgence. Whether I regret it and end up mailing it home remains to be seen..