Configuring Diarist for use with WordPress

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For anyone interested in Mobile Blogging I have found one program that works pretty well from a Windows Mobile based phone. Diarist is a very nice app that lets you write a post on your device and it will automatically post to your WordPress site. This is useful for anyone wanting to be able to write a post on their Windows Mobile Phone or PDA then post it without having to use the web based forms to edit and add your posts.

There is no default setting that configures it directly to work in Wordpress so you have to manually enter your information in. First thing is download and install Diarist. It is a free application and takes up very little room. Once you have it installed run it and go to Menu > Weblog > Add. Pick 'Generic MetaWeblog'

When it comes up to the configuration screen, enter in your information as follows. Make sure the API address has the /xmlrpc.php on the end of your normal site address or it will not work API: http://[yoursite.com]/xmlrpc.php Username: your username Password: your password Click on the Extra tab and enter your information in there Blog Title: does not have to match the actual blog title, useful if you post to more than one site. Blog URL: Put in the normal URL you use to view the site. Default Hour Offset: set according to your time zone. eg EST -5 Once you configure all your options don't click the OK button in the top right or you will lose your settings. Click the Confirm button at the bottom and it will test and make sure that it can connect and everything works.

Now I would recommend making a few test posts experimenting with how the software works and getting the hang of it. It is a pretty simple program but it is very powerful and can let you write very detailed posts. The only problem it has is that it can not upload the images to WordPress so you still have to upload images using either Postie or the web based forms but hopefully soon it will support image uploads and it will be a perfect app for posting while on the road.