Windows Live Writer by Microsoft is an application for composing and managing blog posts. One of the major benefits is that you can write your posts offline and publish them whenever you want. Since I started using it a few months back I simply can’t remember how I ever created posts without it.
I always hated writing posts and/or pages inside the WordPress admin panel and when I started using Windows Live Writer it was a true time saver and it makes my blogging life a lot easier. I will share with you why I think it is a tool you should consider using.
Windows Live Writer Features
- WYSIWIG using the theme of your blog
- Image manipulation
- Spell check
- Easy HTML tables
- Include maps from Virtual Earth
- Automatically syncs changes before re-editing posts
Windows Live Writer supports WordPress XML-RPC features:
- Creating/editing/deleting pages
- Custom dates (including future posts)
- Specifying a post/page slug
- Improved category management
- Setting post/page passwords
- Author management
- Custom WordPress sidebar for easy navigation to your blog, dashboard, blog surfer and stats
How To Setup Your Blog
The first you will need to do is to download the application and install it. You can download it for free at: http://explore.live.com/windows-live-writer. Just click on the Download now button and save the file.
After the download and the installation is complete, you will need to add your blog or blogs in order to be able to publish to them, but before you do that you will need to make sure to activate XML-RPC on your WordPress blog.
This is done under settings/writing inside your WordPress admin panel.
Scroll down to Remote Publishing, enable XML-RPC and click save changes.
Now you are all set to add your blog or blogs.
- Just click on My Blog and select Add blog account.
- Select WordPress
- Enter the web address of your blog
- Enter the username and password
- You will be asked if you want to download the blog theme. This will let you see what your posts will look like as you are creating them. I always do this.
Getting Plug-ins
To be honest with you, I didn’t really found too many great plug-ins to add but I am sure many of you might be looking for different things so you might find some great ones.
Simply go to http://gallery.live.com/ and look around. One plugin I can recommend is called Word Count and it will allow you to see the word count as you write your content. Pretty basic function but it is missing from the application so this plug-in is a great add-on.
You can download it at http://gallery.live.com/writer/word-count
Why I Love Windows Live Writer
Here are the some of the main reasons I love using Windows Live Writer:
- Much more user friendly that than what you get with WordPress
- I can add images from my hard drive and they will all be automatically uploaded to my blog. I am also able to resized the images and add cool effects very easily.
- I can add nofollow tags very easily to the outgoing links
- I can see my post as it is going to be seen when live as I am creating it.
- I can add tables very easily.
- I can install plugin that add additional features.
I am pretty sure I forgot some additional reasons but these should do it. They do it for me at least
. I can only recommend you give Windows Live Writer a try, I know it is a Microsoft application and most of us are not to fond of their tools (anyone said IE…) but from time to time they do come up with some great applications and Windows Live Writer is one of them.
If you know of any great plug-ins for Windows Live Writer than please let me know about them by commenting below.
To your success (and mine),
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Windows Live Writer is a fantastic offline blogging tool with a WYSIWYG editor. It interfaces with just about any blog service [Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, WordPress, etc.] If you’re a blogger you’ll find this tool incredibly helpful- and it’s refreshingly free from Microsoft.
Nice post, but the word count is built-in to Windows Live Writer 2011… You don’t need the plug-in anymore.
I hope this helps…
Until next time,
Larry Henry Jr.
lehenryjr recently posted..LEHSYS Download watch – 11-18-2010
Thanks Larry… Sure does help.
D Baker recently posted..Create & Publish Your WordPress Posts Using Windows Live Writer
I always wondered about Windows Live Writer. Does it help you get organized ?
Can you can inserts as many blogs as you want ? Does the published post really look like what you see in the writing window or you have to go back and correct stuff in your wordpress dashboard ?
Hi Marie,
Stop wondering and give it a try. It makes posting so much easier and cooler.
It sure does help me keep organized. You can add as many blogs as you want and you can allow it to use the current theme you are using on each and every blog so as you create your post you see how it is going to look. Most of the times I simply publish the posts from inside live writer, no need to make any adjustments in the WordPress dashboard.
Just give it a try, I am sure you will love it. After all, Microsoft doesn’t usually create such cool things
Dave thanks for the great insight and suggestion here. I do see where this could make managing multiple blogs a ton easier, but there is only one function missing that I’m wanting your opinion on. SEO, customizing the post description and such. Do you just go back and fix it after publishing or do you simply leave your SEO plugin set for auto description and title?
Hi Benjamin,
As you said, I simply go to the post and edit all the SEO information after I publish it using the Live Writer.
I never thought to try this because I thought I wouldn’t need to, but I have a lot more blogs to manage now and think this may help. Can you tell me does it require any formatting after posting remotely? Like I understand it has a WYSIWYIG editor, but I wouldn’t want my posts to get messed up in the posting process.
It might require some post editing, especially if you have an SEO plugin and you need to edit the information.
That is the only editing I do (SEO) as you can use the theme you have on your blog inside Live Writer so while you create your post you will see exactly what it would look like after you publish it.
Dave do you know how to configure when you want to add your blog but automatic process is not working and live-writer asks you for
“remote posting web address for your blog” – xmlrpc.php?
Thanks
Hi Antony, you need to go to WordPress admin panel into settings/writing and check the box next to XML-RPC – Enable the WordPress, Movable Type, MetaWeblog and Blogger XML-RPC publishing protocols.
That will allow you to connect your blog with Live Writer.