Robert and his team launched VisualBlogger 2004, Beta 2 this morning, and so I decided to give it another shot since Beta 1. Overall, I really wasn't that impressed just like last time.
First off, the thing takes a bit to load for just a simple utility. It may be the provider model that's being used (which is an uber cool idea), but startup performance is crappy as hell. Yes - I realize you can minimize it to the system tray so startup doesn't take any time for future uses, by I don't want it in my system tray because my bar is precious and needs reality when I have 10-15 applications/windows open at one time.
Secondly, after attempting to submit a feature request (and later a bug report because the thing crashed on me) - well, they're 2 different items. First off, there was no indication, still, that my feature request had been sent. When the application crashed on me, I was typing a post and clicked "Configure Blogs", and after submitting my report, the whole app hung - effecitively loosing my blog post (that I'm now replacing with one in BlogJet).
Thirdly, the icons for "closing" dialog windows are just plain wrong. While configuring my blogs, it has a nice big red X underneath save and new (which by the way, I couldn't tell what is what because of now words or hovering text). Because of this, I didn't know if that X meant delete this blog or close. After a few seconds of seriously thinking about it (really, I did contemplate the click), I hit the red X to see it close and my blog be saved.
My last grief comes with the blatant indication of where the software came from. Most applications have an "About", but not VisualBlogger 2004. It comes with a nice link button on the form that says it comes from Interscape Technologies. Hmm, yeah - I know it does, why does it have to constantly tell me. This is more of just a grief, not a "you should remove it because its stupid", though it really should be moved to an About page or something.
I think the real kicker for me for using VisualBlogger 2004, is that it has the ability to paste formatted code, unlike the tool I love most, BlogJet. However, I've been assured from Dmitry, that code posting will come into BlogJet in the future.
Overall, I think its an OK tool. The beta seems more like an alpha to me - in the sense of beta testing BlogJet for so long. BlogJet was always more polished than VisualBlogger 2004, and easier to use. Plus, it has great performance and a nice community to back it and give support. Maybe its just early for VisualBlogger 2004, but for now, its still on the "nope, won't use" list for me.
86dad928-be96-4fa8-9234-636e524451f9|0|.0