This is one of the programs installed on my computer that I now use the most often. It’s free to download as part of the windows live essentials suite (incidentally I don’t install any of the other programmes from that suite of software as I don’t currently have a real use for them, although Movie Maker does have its place).

I am using Live Writer right now. It is simply excellent if you use any sort of well-known blogging platform such as Blogger and WordPress (I use both for different purposes).

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Why is it so good? Here are a few reasons:

  • It is as simple to use as a word processor. It has a simple interface, makes the most of the screen space and is much easier to use than the usual online editors many people use for their blogs.
  • It has good spell check, word count, formatting options as you might expect from a simple word processor.
  • You can use it offline, and then when you have created a post, you can connect to the internet and publish.
  • Once you link your blog account to it (which is straightforward), it detects your theme, categories, tags, etc. and updates when those change.
  • You can link to as many blog accounts as you like and switch between them easily.
  • You can drag and drop pictures in and adjust their settings quickly (including the default settings of your pictures which is itself a real time saver).
  • You can paste youtube embed code in (even if you are not in the html view) and it picks it up straight away.
  • Adding categories, tags, time and date posted is easy to do, and it reminds you if you haven’t.
  • You can easily access previous posts and pages that have been published (it detects the list and downloads the ones you choose quickly enough). This is handy if you want to adapt them.
  • It is customizable with plugins developed by a community of programmers who use this software. However I no longer use these much as Live Writer is quite often updated with internal improvements that fill the same gaps that some of the plugins used to .
  • You can store draft posts and pages locally, handy if you work on some posts more gradually, coming back to them in more than one sitting.

And here’s a real bonus if you use Dropbox. I am about to go home to another computer where I will pick up the next sentence on another computer … So I’ve now picked this post up again, this time from home, because it is synced across my dropbox account. You have to set this up your self using a nifty piece of software called DirLinker and redirecting the Weblog Posts default directory (in My Documents) to a folder in Dropbox. Do this on each computer. Although it is not a straightforward a solution, it’s well worth the effort if you’d like to use Live Writer across multiple computers.

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Download and info: http://explore.live.com/windows-live-writer