Live Writer, my new favorite blogging tool
This is the caption,
inserted by hand in HTML
This is a sample post created with Live Writer. If it works, will it be any easier than posting directly? Possibly. Though of course one wants to be able to work directly with the html, as well. Just use the "View-HTML Code" option. So far, the code looks pretty clean.
I started this just as a "testing one, two, three" post so I could see how Windows Live Writer works with my WordPress-based blog. The more I worked with it, the more excited I got, and in the end I decided to make this a mini-review of what I think is a great, free program. Somehow, I had never heard of Live Writer, even though it has been around for at least a couple of years. Oh well, better late than never.
Images are handled nicely. It’s easy to add a frame or drop shadow, adjust the size, use some basic filters including color temperature. The only feature I miss is the ability to insert a caption. I can do it manually by surrounding the image with a DIV tag, and LiveWriter displays it correctly, so that helps.
A nice feature is that you can insert maps, which aren’t just static images but link to the online Microsoft Live Search Maps. Of course, all you have to do is type in the location (place, street address, etc.) and select the zoom level. Rather surprisingly, it’s easy to put a caption on a map even though you can’t do it on a photo.
You can insert tables and videos too, though I haven’t tried those. OK, for the sake of completeness, I will!
| Column 1 | Column 2 |
| Data 1A | Data 1B |
| Data 2A | Data 2B |
Tables are easy. Alas, videos aren’t quite as easy. You can’t actually just select one of your local (on your own computer) clips and have it inserted. Rather, you must link to a video that is already published online. Still, since it’s so easy to put videos onto YouTube and similar services, it won’t be too hard to use this feature. Just upload your video to YouTube, select the URL, and paste it into the box.
There aren’t many (any) options for inserting a video, so you may want to fine tune the final product by hand or using another tool, but at least this is a way to get a video into your blog easily.
If the basic functions aren’t enough for you, there is a whole catalog of plugins you can try, or create one yourself. Interact with Flickr or other services, insert emoticons, even one to insert a photo with a caption and optional tilt (see example)! ("Polaroid Picture" plugin)
The Flickr4Writer plugin is great if you use Flickr for your photos. It lets you select a Flickr photo and insert it into your blog post at a given size, with an optional link to the full size photo on Flickr. You can do the same thing manually by getting the link code on Flickr, but why bother when this plugin will do it for you?
Overall, I’m very happy with Live Writer! I realize that some of the features are already included in the mainline blogging sites, and to some extent you can already compose a blog entry off-line and later copy it to your site. Still, I think the Live Writer is exceedingly convenient, easy to use, and fun. Try it.
(Yes, the tags above are also a feature of Live Writer.)