Sorry I didn’t supply the link earlier. It’s Split Browser :: Firefox Add-ons and I wrote about my first attempts with it last year in Blogging With Split Browser Firefox Extension.

As soon as any code is to be posted, then I definitely have to preview, and I tend to do it a few times throughout the writing process, rather than once at the end.

I’d often wondered if there was a plugin for splitting the browser, but never looked, I reckon that would be really handy, definitely going to check that out.

I tried the split browser Firefox extension for a while and it’s very nice, but I had problems with it and with a small screen, it takes up a lot of real estate, and shows me only a little. When I’m in the office, I can use it with my larger monitor, so maybe I should take another look. Thanks for the reminder!

I recommend you check out my article on using a good text editor to write your blog posts as it will safe you a lot of the pain that using Google Docs to write HTML can cause. And you don’t have to be online or use Google Gears to write your blog posts. :D

Windows Live Writer is a free blog publishing program by Microsoft and a neat article to help you learn more about using it with WordPress is 12 Reasons Why I Like Windows Live Writer for WordPress.

I never use the visual or rich text editor unless I’m testing or writing an article, it is THAT annoying, so I’m with you. And while I agree that some articles never should see the light of day, I hadn’t though of the post preview reloading score card as a good hint that there is something really wrong with the post. Excellent!

When my preview reloads get that high, it is usually because of code not content. Lining up a table of information, images, nested lists, things that go bork due to a small missing bit of code. It’s always some little overlooked annoying thing. That’s when I really want to blow the whole thing up, even if the content is good. :D

Because I blog as part of the outreach strategy for my business, I want what people see to reflect well on me…and so to minimize mistakes. Like Barbara, I try to look at my post with the eyes of my readers.

I’ll often preview 5-10 times while drafting a post.

Firstly, I find it easier to read (and spot typos in) what I’ve written on my blog rather than in the rich text editor.

Secondly, I really care about the layout of text in my post. I think positions of line breaks, bold text, italics etc really changes the impact of what you’re writing on the web.

Finally, I want to see what I’ve written as my readers will see it. Again to see how my posts will come across when finally published.

Previewing is an essential part of the blogging process in my opinion.

OMG, I sometimes lose count on the number of times I preview my posts. I try to make sure I don’t have any typos (although an occasional one will slip through). I try to look at my post as a reader would see it, and I want to make sure it’s worded completely correct. Sometimes I think I’m too picky, and waste time, but I’m also thinking of how my writings will be in blogosphere forever.

And I run two tabs in Firefox when writing or editing, switching between the two many times as I write. And since the only thing I hate worse than sounding stupid is being stupid, what’s this Live Writer? I’ll look for it when I finish here. Thanks in advance.

And especially on longer articles, I usually review the published post in both IE & Firefox very quickly afterwards just in case I missed something. This way, if I have to do one last tweak or two, I can usually catch it before the RSS feed has hit the readers.