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    I was just trying the beta version of the new WLW and i have to say, it needs some work.

    Firstly, the colour of the app. Unlike the normal release you can't change the colour. For me this is a big issue since looking at the standard colour hurts my eyes after a while, and the thing lettering of the menus means im having to squint and get close to the monitor.

    Next, the categories tab disapears. If im using it in split mode, as in half my screen is using WLW the other side using my browser or other app im copying from, then the categories tab dosent open up properly. Half of the opened box is off the screen and unreadable. On the older version it knew this was happening and repositioned itself so as the entire category box was back. Please put that back in!!

    Next is the task pane. This is great except for one thing, the little arrow at the top has gone. Now have to go into "View" to remove it. It's a simple thing, but it makes life a lot easier. Please put that back!!

    Finally the three boxes at the bottome Categories, Tags, Publish Date. Of these i only ever use Categories. How about an option so that the other 2 move down into the properties settings. This would probably solve the display issue the categories tab has as well.

    On the up side it does load a hell of a lot faster than the original version, which could take upwards of 45-60seconds to load. This one loads in 10-20seconds.

    Finally, and definatly an inportant point for me. Can we get an official portable version please!! I do a lot of blogging on the go, using laptops and libraries free access, so i currently use a pen drive to carry around a portable office. At the moment im using a hacked portable version of WLW, but would prefer to have an official version please!!
    Friday, December 26, 2008 12:57 AM

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    Lots of old bugs I reported here weeks (months?) ago:

    1. Preview mode shows wrong date on blog (only the year is correct, the rest is 3.5 months off)

    2.  My Blogger blog title has an ampersand in it. WLW keeps displaying the title as an underscore in many places through the UI, such as the dropdown button on the RH end of the taskbar, and the posting dialog. The menu on the dropdown just omits ampersand and underscore completely. The blog title displays correctly in the task panel on the right side.

    3.  Default widths for inserted pictures just don't make any sense: they're all much wider than the 400 pixels allowed by the blog template.
    Saturday, December 27, 2008 3:53 PM
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    @Tiamat

    You can still colorize the application, look near the top right for the paintbrush icon.

    What language are you using? We have found with a few languages thats fonts don't look very clear.

    As for the taskpane, the little chevron isn't going to come back, at least not right now.  There is also a shortcut key for hiding / showing the taskpane (F9).

    We will definitely look into creating a portable version. 

    Thank you for all the good feedback.

    @Thin Ice
    1) This is a known issue, but it is by design, we don't activity go and download your theme.  We only do it once, so the date will get out of sync.

    2) I look into this, I fixed a few bugs related to & in blog names, so I wouldn't be suprised if there is more.

    3) You should able to change the default sizes by click an image, going to the 'advanced' tabs, then clicking the protractor / ruler will bring up the default sizes and modify them as you want, and use the combo box to change it to the preset size you want.  Then flip back to the 'picture' tab and click 'save image settings' link near the bottom of the tab.  From then on, they should always come in at that size.

    -Brandon Turner [MSFT]
    Monday, January 5, 2009 12:30 AM
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    Hiyas Brandon, im using the UK English version.

    Also i'm aware of the colour change panel, however it barely changes the aps colour, they're so pae there's hardly any difference even when you change a dark colour. On the version im using now (12.1370.325en) i've got it set to a nice dark blue. It's easy on the eyes and i dont have to squint and scowl, nor do i get a head ache using it. Since i use WLW daily, usually for several hours at a time, this is a big consideration for me.

    Why remove the chevron? it made life so much easier TBH. I hate having to learn a billion short keys just to use an application.

    One of the biggest issues for me though is the bottom bar. None of the blogs i write for (currently 8) use tags, only categories. So the ability to hide that option would fix the category issue i mention above.

    Want me to post screenies of what i mean?
    Monday, January 5, 2009 3:41 AM
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    Thanks for the feedback about the colors.  Since the application is so light colored now, changing the color does not change it as much as the old version did.

    I thought of a way for you to remove the other boxes on the bottom this morning.  It involves editing the registry. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Live\Writer\Weblogs\<id>\UserOptionOverrides (There will be one for each blog).  Create 2 new values 'supportsGetTags' = 'No' and 'supportsCustomDate' = 'No'.  When you restart WLW, both the tags and date box will be gone.
    -Brandon Turner [MSFT]
    Monday, January 5, 2009 4:47 PM
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    That works Brandon, thanks no longer losing categories. Is it possible to make the app darker with a regedit?

    That would be great. Using it for more than 10 minutes gives me a headache and i have to stop
    Tuesday, January 6, 2009 10:01 PM
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    Sadly there isn't a way to do that.  Our design just doesn't allow it, and it clearly is a mistake we made.  You are not the only person to complain about not being able to make the application dark.  
    -Brandon Turner [MSFT]
    Tuesday, January 6, 2009 10:52 PM
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    Will you be altering it in a future release?

    Would be good if you could have both options, so people who like the light and airy feel of the current theme can have it. But those of us who like the darker theme can have it as well.

    Edit: Another quick thought. It's something i requested ages ago when WLW was first launched. Custom location for images. What i mean is when i click the add image button it opens up My Pictures. Problem is i dont store my images there. Can you add an option do that when you can designate where you store the images manually. In my case i have 30GB of images on a seperate partition that i use. So i want to be able to set it to X:\Image Store. In the future whenever i press the add image button  it would open the X:\Image Store folder rather than My Pictures.
    Wednesday, January 7, 2009 12:37 AM
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    @Brandon
    1) I don't see the relevance of the theme. The date shown in the preview should = the publish date. No?
    2) Yes, it's a screamingly common problem in a range of MS products. Poor programming practice.
    3) That's super-undiscoverable given the number of mode flips involved.

    Wednesday, January 7, 2009 10:25 AM
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    1) We download your blog theme when you configure your blog or refresh your theme.  When you click to the preview tab, we are simply injecting your blog title and bodypost into your theme.  We do not go and redownload your theme at this time.  So that means that if there is a date on your blog when we downloaded it last, that date will still be shown.  This also happens with tags and categories, or any other meta-data associated with a post that isn't the title or body.
    3) The image sidebar has many undiscoverable features which we hope to improve in the future.
    -Brandon Turner [MSFT]
    Wednesday, January 7, 2009 5:39 PM