Windows Live Writer

By Erin Bell

I enjoy keeping an online diary or “blog.” It’s a way for me to express myself and let my friends know what I’m up to.

But to make the creation of my blog easier, I use Windows Live Writer. Windows Live Writer lets me create posts that incorporate photos, web links, videos, data tables and maps without having to fiddle with HTML code.

Why is that important? Well, in many blogging programs, adding an image to your site means copying and pasting a string of HTML code. To further tweak images, change alignment or resize, you have to edit the code.

With Live Writer, what you see is what you get. To insert a picture, simply click Insert Picture. You don't have to copy or paste anything, and to move an image to another part of the document, you simply click and drag.

Another key point is the way entries look. In traditional blogs, you get an idea of how your post will look only when you hit the Preview button. With Live Writer, you get to see what the post will look like as you’re typing.

Live Writer is compatible with Windows Live Spaces, Wordpress, LiveJournal, TypePad and other popular blogging pages.

Get started

To get started, register your blog with Windows Live Writer, create a new document, and start typing.

Use the built-in tools to edit text and resize images, apply stylish borders and add special effects such as sepia, black and white, emboss and sharpen. You can even add watermarks to the images (such as © Erin Bell) which is pretty neat.

Live Writer also lets you insert videos from Soapbox and other web sites, and add maps with personalized tags and pushpins from Bing Maps and Virtual Earth.

When your entry is finished, Live Writer publishes it on your blog. Or, if you choose, you can write a draft offline and have Live Writer synchronize it with your blog the next time you log on.