LJ clients

[vilakins]

I am considering using an LJ client, which I'll need if I decide to put my fiction on a live journal (which some of you think is a good idea). The links LJ gives aren't much help, and only one of them even bothers to provide a download option.

So, those of you who have a client, please tell me:

• Which one is it?
  
• Is it WYSIWYG?
  
• Can I drop in text with italics, long dashes, and centring, and have it formatted correctly?
  
• Good points?
  
• Bad points?
  
• Where do I go to download it?

Comments

[kerravonsen]

Well, I use LogJam, but I think it's Linux-only. And it isn't WYSIWYG, because I prefer using something where I can see what's happening with the actual source... which I think is a Good Point but you would think was a Bad Point. My favourite Good Point with logjam is that one can optionally use one's default text editor to edit one's entry, and that's something I prefer, which, again, sounds like something you wouldn't necessarily consider a desireable feature.

However, if you use Mozilla/Firefox as your browser, you can get a browser extension called DeepestSender, which is an LJ client, and you can flip between WYSIWYG and source modes. I don't know about the cut-and-pastableness of it.

And you should be able to download it from the Mozilla/Firefox extensions page which one can get to simply by finding the add-extensions option. In Firefox (that's what I'm running now, so I can check) you click on the Tools menu, select Extensions, and then click on "Get more extensions". I vaguely recall that at least in earlier versions of Mozilla, one might have gotten to it through the Preferences window.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I do use Firefox! Thank you for that suggestion. Actually I'd like a combination of WYSIWYG and being able to see the HTML, which is why I don't use the rich text option in LJ. Besides, it doesn't have the options I want like lists, or didn't last time I tried it.

I'd be happy to continue to code HTML for my LJ, but I'm not willing to go through my stories to find all the italics etc. Thanks again; I'll check DeepestSender out as there are times I'd like an easier method, whether or not I ever do this LJ fiction archive.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Aaugh! It doesn't come up as one of the available extensions. There are four blogging tools, none of which apply to LJ.

[kerravonsen]

Really? What version of Firefox are you running? (goes and looks at page)
Ah. It looks as if the registry hasn't been updated. DeepestSender is shown as being compatible with version 0.9 but not with version 1.0, but there is a home-page for it http://deepestsender.mozdev.org/ which says that it is compatible with version 1.0. So you might look there.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I'm running version 1.0. Thank you, I'll look at that link when I get home tonight.

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

I use Semagic - there's an LJ community used for announcements (http://www.livejournal.com/community/ljwin32_sema/), and you can get the current version from their download site (http://semagic.sourceforge.net/index.html)

It gives you the choice between HTML and WYSIWYG modes; I only use HTML.

Yes, you can drop in formatted text, though if you're dropping it in from Word, you get the whole horrible-Word-HTML thing.

I think it's great - it lets me write and edit entries, and manage friends and groups; it keeps an eye on my friends page and lets me know about updates; and it now has a Fotobilder client.

Bad points? Hmm. It's messy to work on more than one journal entry at once. That's probably as bad as it gets, though.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I'd be dropping in text from my site, not Word. Up till now. I've been quite happy with the web interface, but I might give it a try. How is it with multiple LJ accounts?

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

Oh, if you're pasting in either HTML code or pages as viewed by your browser, it should be fine.

As for multiple accounts, I think you can only log in as one user at once, but it's quite happy for you log in as one user, log out, and then log back in as another user. When you log in as a user, it picks up data on that user's friends list, groups and user pics.

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

Semagic is nice. And works well with multiple accounts, you just log out and in again when you switch between accounts. And yeah, you can switch between WYSIWYG and HTML (prefer the HTML myself) and the editing is easy-peasy, you can generate most codes with the press of a button.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Oh, good, I need multiple accounts with three and possibly four if I do a fiction one. Thanks for that!