As you can guess, I’ve decided to give Windows Live Writer a spin.
Never mind that I usually write posts on my iBook; I just wanted to give a blogging client a try, especially after reading a favourable review. I’m also curious about the level of integration Windows Live Writer has achieved with a custom Wordpress installation - does it post images in the same way as the online editor would?
Well, let’s see…
Yes, apparently it does. An added bonus is the inclusion of borders to better digitally frame photographs. I’ve chosen a pretty drop-shadow for this picture of an albino kangaroo and its joey. They make an unbearably cute sight, don’t they?
Another nifty feature in this blogging client is the ability to save posts as drafts not just locally, but on the webserver as well. That means I can access my half-written piece from my notebook and continue writing from within the online blogging interface. I’m glad to report that this works flawlessly.
Apart from allowing the usual assignment of categories and dates to a blog post, Windows Live Writer also enables tagging - something that I always forget to do due to the cumbersome method employed in the Wordpress online interface (I’m using a plugin for that, BTW). I’m going to tag this post now, and there ya go: Technorati tags listed at the bottom of the post. Immensely useful.
It’s also helpful that the visual interface is ostensibly like Microsoft Word 2003. Familiarity abound. It seems clean and well-thought out, perhaps because this menu-and-sidebar-based design works better with the minimalist feature list of a blogging client rather than the plethora of options found in a full-blown word processor. They should include the Undo and Redo functions on the text editing toolbar, though.
Well, I have to take into mind that this software is still in its beta phase - and it shows in some respects. The text cursor tends to jump around as if I had not selected properly, even after a mouse click on the text area - this, however, is easily solved by clicking multiple times or hitting one of the cursor keys on the keyboard. A minor irritation: it doesn’t happen all that often, anyway.
Despite these minor quirks, and due to its impressive ease of use and extremely relevant feature set which has been solidly implemented, I now consider Windows Live Writer part of my weblogging arsenal. Until I find something better, for free.
