I know that some people are skeptical of anything that Microsoft puts out by nature… and the fact that it’s a free tool can make people even more skeptical. That being said, if you blog on any kind of regular basis, you HAVE to give Microsoft Live Writer a try! it’s a fantastic tool that allows you to upkeep your blog and even your website without any more than the knowledge of how to use a basic word processing program.
I could write about some of the other options that are out there, but why? Windows Live Writer has all of the text editing features of a full-blown word processor. WLW also has great features to insert and manipulate images, including adding effects, rotating, adding borders and more. WLW also works with most blogging platforms including Blogger, Typepad and WordPress whether hosting it yourself or on the WordPress.com platform.
Some other advantages to using Windows Live Writer include that it also give you the ability to post at a later date by setting the publish date. This can come in handy when you have a couple of topics you want to write about, but want to space out when they are actually posted to your blog. It also gives you the ability to manage multiple blogs, and even lets you add/edit pages in WordPress, making this tool a viable option for a content management system that can be used with no knowledge of HTML and just a basic familiarity of a word processor. WLW also has numerous plug-ins available, and the library is growing. These plug-ins can help you accomplish many feats including adding social media sharing options for your readers.
One complaint that I have about WLW is one of the advantages that it has is the ability to preview your article before you post it with the theme from your blog. This is an absolutely great feature, with the only problem being that I’ve never been able to get it to work with any of my blogs. I’m sure there are some variables in play that are unique to me, because I have not seen a lot of others complaining that they cannot get this feature to work… but for me, I’m still trying with no luck.
Even if the preview feature never works for me, Window Live Writer is still head and shoulders above all of the other editors that I’ve tested. I recommend giving it a try, even if you currently edit your posts directly through a browser. You may find that you can actually write better articles, more quickly by using Windows Live Writer.
