Windows Live Writer - easily create blog content
Basically I was looking for something that could help me in writing articles for my blog. I recently came across this program, so I thought I should give it a try.
My first impressions with Windows Live Writer are very nice. The interface is similar to the other Microsoft’s products. It’s very stylish and self-explaining. If you have used Microsoft Word, or even a hotmail account, then your experience with the program will be pretty much straightforward.
After the install you have to insert some info like your blog’s URL, username and password. Then you’re ready to start writing your first article. Beyond the standard text formatting tools like: bold, italic, underline, quotes, bullets, etc. you have also the possibility to insert hyperlinks and photos. And what I liked the most is the integrated spell check. Being a non native English speaker myself, this little tool helps me a lot, before I actually publish an article on my blog. Yet another cool feature is the possibility to web preview your article. So if you wonder how exactly the article will appear on your blog, just press SHIFT+F11 and voala! You can also save your article as a draft. A very useful sidebar gives you a quick access to all recent drafts and posts.
Something that I certainly didn’t expect from Windows Live Writer was the plugins support. There are a lot of plugins available for free that could greatly improve your experience with the program. Among the most popular plugins you will find:
Blog This for Firefox - adds a button to Firefox which starts a new Windows Live Writer blog post prepopulated with content and title from the current web page.
Blog This for Internet Explorer - the same as above but for Internet Explorer.
Insert Video - insert a video from MSN SoapBox, Google Video, YouTube, MySpace Video or Yahoo! Video.
Screen Capture Plugin - this will load the Url and take a screen capture of the web site as it appears in Internet Explorer. It will then load the image into your blog posting.
Insert Spaces Emoticon - allows you to select one of the many Live Spaces emoticons and put them onto your blog.
Check out for other useful plugins here.
Considering the fact Windows Live Writer is still a beta, it was very stable I didn’t notice any bugs, problems or anything.
If you’re a blogger I would highly recommend you this tool. Give it a try and you wont regret it.
Download: Windows Live Writer 1.0 Beta
