Time Saver
I’ve recently become a huge fan of Microsoft’s free tool, the Windows Live Writer. It has awesome functionality and ease-of-use. Live Writer is a tool to allow desktop publishing to various blog platforms. It’s worked effortlessly with WordPress. I know that there are some purist out there, who love to log into the WordPress and mess with the temperamental WYSIWYG and or prefer to fidget with the HTML coding. Me…I prefer to write it and post it.
I write for several blogs and this tool has cut my posting time down to about 1/3. It cuts out lots of steps like loading the graphic and then centering it, making sure that when I copy in text that I clean up the html, etc… Live Writer also comes with various plugins, to help customize usability. It’ll also help you create layouts and graphic features that aren’t available by using the WYSIWYG; unless you’re VERY adapt at HTML.
You can Download Live Writer for free HERE.
Additional Plugins are found HERE.
Below is a very brief overview of some of the features.
How to Use Windows Live Writer for Blogging from Matthew Rathbun on Vimeo.
Paula Henry
May 3, 2009 at 8:46 am
Matthew – I like BlogJet for the same reason; don’t know if I can take the plunge to learn something new. It’s simple, easy to use and like you said, cuts down my posting time.
Chris Griffith
May 3, 2009 at 8:50 am
I have been out of my mind with LW for about a month. It’s glorious. I love the link memory and map feature. The plugins are great, especially the code scrubber.
I’m cranking out posts and a few weeks ago when I was planning to be away I was able to easily build all the posts I needed while I was away.
Matthew Rathbun
May 3, 2009 at 9:08 am
Paula,
I used Blogjet for awhile… It was “ok”, but I eventually dumped it. It really didn’t work with WordPress well.
The learning curve for LW is null. If you can use Microsoft Word you can use this.
Plus, LW is free. I don’t know about you, but I had to pay for BlogJet when I fist got it.
Chris,
Yep, the code scrubber is a God send. I really like the “post to multiple blogs”, plugin and “attach file” features are good too. Oh, yeah – the twitter plugin is useful if utilized in moderation.
Brandie Young
May 3, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Matthew – very cool, thanks!!
Fred Romano
May 3, 2009 at 11:13 pm
Thanks for sharing with us! I’m going to try it out this week.
Missy Caulk
May 4, 2009 at 7:22 pm
I used it a lot when I had a PC but when I switched to Mac, no. If you know a way to do it, let me know.
Russell Shaw
May 6, 2009 at 1:45 am
Matthew, I love LW and totally agree: if you can use Word, you can use LW. I have used it for about a year with no problems.
In fact, just as soon as I find time to start blogging again, I will prove what I’ve written and make some posts with Live Writer.
🙂