Invoking a Script from the Windows context menu

After having written a useful script to convert long filenames to short ones, I will now explain how to create a new menu (titled, say "Get Short Path for this") under the windows context menu and invoke this script when this is clicked. Needless to say, these instructions can be used with pretty much with any script.

Script - Getting 8.3 (or short) path from a long one

I have this application that need it's paths to be in the old 8.3 (or short) format.  For sometime now, I've been planning to write a script that take a really long filename and convert it to its short equivalent. I am sharing the result with everyone, in case anyone else has the same need.

From Microsoft Live Writer with apprehension

I have been reading some good reviews about Microsoft's Live Writer tool for blogging. And so far I've tried quite a few blogging tools in the open source area, so I have decided to give Live Writer a shot. Let's see how it goes.

So here's are some notes on my initial impression:

1. It has all the standard bells and whistles I.e. formatting, spell-check, support for multiple blogs, support for Pinging blog services and so on.
2. I like the fact that it allows me to edit my posts as I would expect them to appear on my blog. Live Writer downloads my blog template when I add my blogs to the tool.
3. As usual it's editing features are pretty good. One thing I particularly like is it's ability to re-align, re-size and play around images that I want to insert in my post (such as the one one the right-hand above).
4. There's a plug-in gallery which has 103 items at the time of writing this post. I've downloaded a file like Polaroid Picture, Flickr4Writer, Wikipedia Link Inserter and so on. I intend to try them out over the next few days.

Update (11th Nov 2008)

• Love it's ability to drop shadows to pictures. There's an option to "photo paper" it (makes it look like a paper photo)
• I love the fact that I can copy-paste screen shots straight into the editor. With the tools I have been using so far I've had to first save the image and then insert into my post. Live Writer takes care of everything including uploading to the blog. I see this as a huge plus.
• I am not too impressed with it's Wikipedia Link Inserter plugin. All it seems to do is convert the selected text into a hyperlink. I am not too happy about having to have to re-edit it. But this is the plugin's limitation and does not reflect on the Live Writer.
• Creating and editing blog posts in preview mode is quite catchy. I especially like it since the HTML generated behind is reasonably clean.
• The only problem I've faced so far is when trying to change font (Format >> Font). I end up getting a "Error: 501 - Permission Denied" message. Not sure why, but at the moment that doesn't really affect me.
• I also recently grabbed the beta from the MLW website. It does offer quite a few improvements over the stable release. See screenshot below
  
  

All in all, I am quite happy with this tool and have decided to continue using it as my primary blogging tool. That is, until I find a better replacement ;-)

Do you use Microsoft Live Writer for blogging too? How has your experience been? Any tips and tricks?