I almost had a type there in the title, “Windows LICE Writer”. There’s a new one for Microsoft haters.
I grabbed Windows LIVE Writer when I decided to give their new LIVE Messenger a look. It looks pretty – the Messenger – but I’m not sure I like the color customization options. Ah well.
Windows LIVE Writer is pretty neat though. It will pull stuff down from WordPress and create an environment to write blog entries that looks like what it will look like when it’s posted – or so it seems. It provides you with an Edit view (which looks like the site only without all the extra widgets), Preview ..err… view (which shows you what the entry would look like when it’s posted) and Source view. You cannot edit the text in Preview view and looking at the Source, I’m impressed the Source isn’t bloated like you’d see in most HTML editors (hi2u FrontPage).
Down at the bottom is a drop down for your tags and categories. Dropping the list shows all your categories and tags that you had on your blog provider (WordPress, in my case). Pretty slick. It also has a means of adding more and managing them.
A little more to the right is a drop down that lets you pick the date you want to have it published. Yeah, that’s a feature of WordPress (and other blogsites) but it is nice to have tied into the Writer app.
I’ve only really scratched the surface. There are ties into the dashboard, options for inserting hyperlinks, pictures, photo albums, tables, maps, tags and video. It also looks like you can save drafts locally or on the site. Kind of neat.
Ah well, I’ve got to get back to what I’ve been taking a break from (test case management stuff… bleh).
Pressing Publish now!
Been using WLW since they first launched it. Just got WLW (and WLM) 2009 versions the other day, which seem pretty cool.
Just need to actually sit down and write up some blog posts though. Haven’t been doing any MMO action and not sure if anyone gives a damn about my non-MMO interests.
By: Scott on February 25, 2009
at 2:21 pm
Who cares what they think of your non-MMO interests? It’s your blog man! Just remember, it’s a blog, not twitter.
I just don’t get twitter.
By: smakendahed on February 25, 2009
at 3:02 pm
Yeah Live Writer makes things a lot easier. I love it.
By: Creep on February 25, 2009
at 3:29 pm
I’ve been using WLW for quite some time now and have been really happy with it. I even have a self-contained version installed on a USB drive so I can plug it in and use it on any computer without having to go through the whole installation package, but I haven’t updated it for the latest version.
Lots of cool features in the most recent version and there’s a ton of plugins. One I’ve found particularly useful for posting code snippets is the Code Snippet plugin. It lets you post chunks of code with language-specific formatting and you don’t have to do anything to the CSS for your blog. Very slick. (You can see an example of it in my entry about the wordpress.net.in exploit.)
By: gordon on February 25, 2009
at 7:48 pm
I don’t get Twitter either. I’ve had a couple people (other bloggers) … (not saying bloggers aren’t people LOL) ask me what my Twitter is. I’m like, I can’t imagine anyone would be interested in what I’m doing every minute of the day. I’m certainly not. And I’m damned sure not interested in taking that much time out to actually get connected and tweet.
By: Scott on February 26, 2009
at 9:01 am