Now most of the time, free applications from Microsoft aren’t worth trying out – but I have found one that really is. Windows Live Writer has to be one of my favorite programs to use to write up new blog posts across my own network of websites. It is really simple to use, and it gets the job done.
When you go to set up your first blog though it, you will notice that it supports a wide variety of services. You can blog through Windows Live Spaces or set it up to work with an external service – like an installation of WordPress on your web hosting account.
The fact that it downloads part of your theme to show you how your blog post will look on the Web (via the Preview tab) is also a really nice touch.
Here are some of the other features worth mentioning:
- Image border treatments (including Instant Photo)
- Crop and tilt photos
- Insert multiple photos
- Toolbar alignment commands enabled for images
- Insert and upload Windows Live photo albums
- Insert and publish video to YouTube
- Server-side tagging (for supported blogs)
- Type-down filtering in the Open dialog
- Twitter, Digg and Flickr Plug-ins
- Improved blog account setup
If you are using Windows, there really is no better blogging tool out there. I have tried a lot of them, and time after time I keep coming back to Windows Live Writer.
Pick up Windows Live Writer today and give it a shot. If you have a better suggestion, I’d also love to hear about it in the comments.
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