Blogging with Windows Live Writer


Posted by Brandon LeBlanc on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 6:48 PM 7 Comments

Today I had the pleasure of sitting down and talking with Charles Teague, who is a principal development lead on the Windows Live Writer Team. Charles was part of the original group of folks who came over from Onfolio when Microsoft acquired the company a few years ago. That same group of people lead by Charles and J.J. Allaire who worked on Writer at Onfolio are still working on Windows Live Writer today.

Download Windows Live Writer Beta 2.

As you probably have heard by now, a new beta of Windows Live Writer has been released - Beta 2. In fact I am writing this blog post in that very beta of Windows Live Writer. If you thought the last beta of Windows Live Writer rocked, the Beta 2 is loaded with some impressive new features that will make blogging with Windows Live Writer even better! You can now edit tables in Windows Live Writer and they have made some great improvements to inserting hyperlinks and images. You'll notice with this beta that the quality of images when inserted into a blog post and published is preserved a bit better than what the last beta was doing with those images. If you have WordPress (or TypePad) you will notice you now have the ability to add and manage pages on your blog. Check out the Windows Live Writer Team's blog post outlining the features and improvements with Beta 2.

One thing I noticed right off the bat after playing with the new beta is that those irritating "Style Detection" errors are gone. Or so they appear to be. Charles tells me that a temporary post may still sometimes be required when configuring your weblog (but that it will be really unusual). The new beta will ask you before publishing out anything to your blog to prevent those style detection errors from getting through. You will then be able to choose if you want Writer to publish out or not to detect your blog's theme style.

Charles also highlighted for me the new Provider Customization API in which providers can customize Writer for adding functionality for their blogging platforms. With Windows Live Spaces, you get direct links to edit your Space and view statistics for your Space. WordPress and TypePad have both jumped on board to take advantage of this API as well.

Windows Live Writer takes full advantage of Windows Desktop Search in Windows Vista (and Windows XP). You can search for a published (or unpublished) blog post from Windows Live Writer directly from Windows Vista's Start Menu.

Its important to also note in regards to all the awesome plug-ins available over Windows Live Gallery are fully backwards compatible with Beta 2 of Windows Live Writer. That means you shouldn't have any problem installing the plug-ins from the gallery. And in Beta 2, Windows Live Writer gives the user a better way to grab and install plug-ins. You also don't need to exit Windows Live Writer after installing a plug-in - plug-ins install live without having to quit the application. My personal favorite is the Insert Video plug-in by ScottIsAFool that allows you to embed video from online video sites like Soapbox or YouTube.

Overall, the Windows Live Writer Team has made some incredible enhancements to Writer with Beta 2. I intend to adopt use of Windows Live Writer for much of my posting to the Windows Experience Blog here on out!

A special thanks to Charles for taking the time to meet with me today.

You can leave feedback for the Windows Live Writer Team by going to feedback.live.com or if you'd like, leave a comment here and I can forward them on to the team.

MAY 30
 

Posted by Blogging with Windows Live Writer  »Technology News | Venture Capital, Startups, Silicon Valley, Web 2.0 Tech

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MAY 31
 

Posted by The Sean Blog

3 new betas (and polished ones at that!) released today. I will cover them in the order that I use them.
MAY 31
 

Posted by Tipt

Voor wie niet zo technisch is heeft Microsoft iets handigs om je blog mee te bewerken; Windows Live Writer voor Windows Vista.
JUN 01
 

Posted by jchandler

I am loving the new Windows Live Writer, the plugins that go with it are just awesome

All the best

Josh Chandler

http://www.windows-media-player-updates.com
JUN 03
 

Posted by newscientist2000

I really have to start blogging.

Im beggining to feel a little left out of this scene.  Being 28 Im a little old to have been sucked up by the Instant Messaging, MySpace, FaceBook, LiveSpaces stuff... to me a PC has always been a place to work, browse and email.. not organise my social life or talk about my inner feelings on a Blog.

However a strange thing happened to me this week, my brother bought a Dell PC.  With that everyone of my 4 younger siblings now finally has a Windows based computer/laptop.  I've kinda encouraged them to do that for a while, but they never saw the need for a PC until all the social networks and video came online.  That really is a big thing for them, even email wasnt a necessity for them or the majority of my friends in the UK as email was and still is secondary to SMS messaging on cell phones for keeping in touch with friends and family.

The world is changing, the strange part is that the video and social networks arent just a flash in the pan, you can tell that they will be around for years and years to come.  Scarier still is that they may be critical part of landing a good job a few years from now.

Keep educating me, and keep making great products sooner or later Im going to have to use them and start a Blog of my own!
JUN 03
 

Posted by Brandon LeBlanc

newscientist, if you're a heavy Windows Live user (Messenger, Mail, Hotmail etc) you should check out Spaces atleast to test blogging out. You can use Windows Live Writer to blog to the service pretty nicely too. Just wanted to throw that suggestion out. Spaces also has a great mix of social networking features too.

I used to blog on a WordPress blog (my personal blog) and have since moved to using Windows Live Spaces and I've been pretty happy.

JUN 05
 

Posted by vanbess

I am needing some assistance with Vista Ultimate. I am currently using Ultimate on a Duo Core 2.6ghz, 4gb ram, Nvidia GT8800 640m machine. When I try to play a dvd it causes a Blue Screen error location 1033 on my system. Is this something that MS will be fixing soon. I know that until I see these issues being resolved I will not let the OS be deployed within the office.

Thank you
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