Windows Live Writer: Good or Bad?

by Fransiska · 10 comments

I had been using Blogspot's native editor for a while until several weeks ago I finally got Windows Live Writer (WLW). This tool is absolutely free of charge --something rare from Microsoft-- and excellent help for writing blog posts. (click the screenshot for a larger view)

Windows Live Writer is a blog editor that can be used offline (read #4). It has its own native editor, which is user friendly and easy to use. But, you might ask 'What's the advantage in using WLW?'. Yeah, there are many:

1. It's compatible with major blog hosting providers such as WordPress.com and Blogger.com. So, if you have multiple blogs across different platforms, only one tool is needed to maintain them all. I myself have used it to post on my personal blog and this bloggingwithsuccess and never encountered any major problems. The only small obstacles were a weak themes detection/support and -something weird from Microsoft- no an offline help, really funny for an offline blog editor....

2. It stores your drafts on your hard drive. So you can have a backup of your blog's posts. Google's Blogger and WordPress are reliable services, but having insurance is better than nothing. There are also online backup services for your blog such as Backupr and BlogBackupOnline but eh, nothing beats your own hard drive, yes?

3. You can quickly switch from editing one blog to another without initiating a connection to the internet.

4. Since it works offline, you can type everything without internet connection while maintaining the post's structure. Sure you can write on Word, but it adds junk and unnecessary elements to the post when it's copied to Blogspot's embedded writing tool.

5. Create a table easily without typing any code inside your blog's embedded writing tool. Use their handy input box to select your table's row & column numbers, etc. See a sample here.

6. Better spell checker. There are default dictionaries installed with WLW, and other useful spell checker options that Blogger/Wordpress embedded editors don't have.

Compared to other offline editors such as w.bloggar (can't publish post title...) and Post2Blog, I personally prefer WLW. It's still being developed, and also it comes from the biggest software creator in the world, Microsoft.

That's all from me. And oh, have you used it? If you have, kindly post your opinion of Windows Live Writer here so other readers can hear the good and the bad.

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