I have a new version of xPollinate waiting in the wings, with new support for HelloTxt. With this new feature, you won’t have to choose between Ping.fm or HelloTxt – you can use one, the other, or both (just try not to spam the hell out of your friends with duplicate posts!).

I’ve submitted my application for approval at HelloTxt, and hopefully it’ll be a quick approval process. I can’t release the version for testing yet, because it only works with my own user key right now until it gets reviewed and approved (sort of a chicken and egg thing if you ask me).

In the meantime, I thought I’d post a quick screen shot of the new tab and highlight some features:

After entering your API key, xPollinate will pull in your Tags, and all of your defined services (networks). You can either choose a tag to post to (which will select only those networks in the tag), or you can choose All Networks and then individually select the networks to post to.

Notice that the account name of each service is posted next to the service name. This is because HelloTxt support multiple accounts with the same service (i.e. more than one twitter account).

Just like Ping.FM, you can choose to post either as a status/microblog update using a template, or post as a blog entry.

I’m excited to get this release out, and hope the application gets accepted soon.

Tags: cross post, HelloTxt, Ping.FM, Windows Live Writer, xPollinate

I’ve just released a beta of xPollinate, my Windows Live Writer Cross Post Plugin.

You can download the installer at the CodePlex site, and I’ll shortly post it on the Live Writer plugin gallery.

As an example, I’ve used it to cross-post this entry to my old Blogger account, as well as via Ping.FM to my Twitter feed (status method) and as a full blog post to my Tumblog.

UPDATE 3/31/09: Plugin is now available on the Live Writer Gallery here.

Tags: Blogging, cross post, Windows Live Writer

I am just finishing up the touches on my first Windows Live Writer plugin, which I’m calling xPollinate. I’ve wanted to cross post to multiple blogs as well as Ping.FM from Windows Live Writer, and originally I found this plugin by Daniel Cazzulino that was not perfect, but got the job done.

I used this plugin as a basis and then added a bunch of bells and whistles that I wanted. Following are some feature enhancements that I’ve added:

• Cross post to multiple blogs at the same time
• Choose blogs to post to at cross post time
• Set plugin defaults through the options dialog, and override at posting time.
• Ability to turn comments and trackbacks (pings) on/off at the cross posted blog
• Add header or footer html to each cross posted entry
• Cross post to Ping.FM
  • Supports triggers and services
  • Post using blog, microblog, or status methods, simultaneously or individually

Here are some screen shots:

The Blogs Tab:

This enables you to select multiple blogs to cross post to. You can optionally post a summary, and include header and footer text.

The Ping.FM tab:

This enables you to post your blog entry via Ping.FM to your configured services. You can post a full or summarized version to your Ping.FM blogs, and can post a notification to your Ping.FM status and microblog services. The format of the notification is customizable.

Left to Do

I’ll be releasing this as a free plugin to the community, and will release the source as well. The final few things I have left to do are:

• Clean up the installer
• Get a public API key from Ping.FM
• Submit to the Live Writer plugin gallery

Tags: cross post, Ping.FM, plugin, Windows Live Writer