the air

I have heard some good tales about Windows Live Writer and I figured today would be a great day to try it out. This post has been completely composed using the said software. As you can see the picture above, that is the screen I got right after I installed it. The text is something I typed in, so do not expect Microsoft to have a nice warm welcome message for you. I want to use a blog post composition software because it really helps me out when I do not have an Internet connection or when I am not in the mood to connect to my blog to write a post. Often, in the past, I have written my posts in a word-processor and then copy/paste into WordPress’s own composition window. This resulted in the need to insert proper HTML tags and was a relative pain in the ass. I know there are many alternatives out there and I have used only one other software in addition to Windows Live Writer. That software was called w.bloggar, but I find it to be a bit more rudimentary than Microsoft’s product.

Windows Live Writer is still in beta testing and that means it could inadvertently crash or yield unexpected results. Essentially, Microsoft is saying that you are using this software at your own risk. However, in my experience so far, it is relatively stable and I have not encountered any major errors. The only problem I have with stand-alone blog post composition software is the fact that when you want to upload pictures, you have to do it using another software. I have not tried uploading pictures with this software, but I am assuming it will be unable to automatically upload pictures.

The nice thing about Windows Live Writer is its ability to present a more “nifty” and fun look to the user interface. As the name mentions, this software can integrate really well with Microsoft’s own blogging service. I have no experience with their service, so I cannot really tell you how well the experience is. It is quite easy to implement categories and unlike w.bloggar, this software allows me to select multiple categories with ease.

I generally prefer using the HTML view since I can easily ensure that all proper HTML tags are in use. At the same time, I find that the HTML composition view gives me much more control over how my content is laid out. Nevertheless, it is extremely easy to switch views and also have a rudimentary preview of how my post will look. It can even show me how my post will look like on the homepage of my blog, something w.bloggar could not do. You can’t say no to free software and Windows Live Writer is definitely free with no advertisements anywhere. Now that is what I call a bargain. If you are interested in composing your posts offline, you should give Windows Live Writer a try.

Some features that I wish it had:

• real-time spell check
• grammar check
• upload images/files automatically

UPDATE: Apparently Windows Live Writer automatically uploads images from your computer to your webserver under the appropriate folders. Not bad at all.

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