Windows Live Writer

Publishing articles on a blog involves working on a web interface, which is not the best idea when it comes to large texts. If you type directly on a web browser, you can lose your entire text instantly, if the browser crashes or if the Internet connection goes down when you publish the text. Windows Live Writer makes blogging much easier. It works like a traditional word processor, but it also provides various blog-oriented features, like the possibility of uploading your work at a moment's notice, along with images, videos or other elements, previewing your post and much more.

The software is included in Microsoft's Windows Essentials package, which is distributed free of charge. You don't have to make any complex settings to install it and it takes a few minutes to complete the process. Windows Live Writer can be used on all modern Windows platforms and it provides support for numerous blog services, including Wordpress, Blogger, SharePoint and others.

When launched for the first time, the program will help you add a blog. You can go through this process again, at any time, if you wish to add more blogs. The main user interface resembles a simplified version of MS Word. An article's title can be inserted separately, in an input field, located in the text editing area. It is also possible to select an article category, insert tags and specify a posting date, in separate fields, above the editing area.

Besides typing text, you can also use various tools, presented on a series of ribbon menus, to create hyperlinks, insert pictures and videos, check for spelling mistakes, change the font settings and more. Pictures and videos can be inserted from local folders or from online sources, like Google search results, YouTube and others. Additionally, the software allows you to insert or create photo albums. When your article is complete, you only need to click a button, on one of the ribbon menus and the program will upload it immediately.

If you have multiple blogs, associated with Windows Live Writer, you can switch between them easily, just by selecting them in a drop menu. The editing area looks a bit different for each blog, but you will find the same title, category, tag and date input fields. The best part is that Windows Live Writer can download a blog's theme, when you add it to the database. As a result, you can preview an article's page on the program's interface, before you upload anything. The preview can be displayed by selecting a navigation tab, in the lower region of the window and you can also find the page's source code, on a third tab.