Windows Live Writer Beta

Windows Live Writer is an application from the Windows Live™ branch which Microsoft is slowly deploying. It’s a tiny piece of programming that hooks into existing weblogging services seamlessly. I haven’t tested all of the services yet, but I reckon the popular ones ought to work (I’ve published to Blogger and WordPress successfully).The concept is basic and the best thing is, it works. By adding a blogging account, Writer downloads essential files – like CSS-stylesheets and other data – enabling advanced rich real-time editing. Editing posts is just like “writing” them right onto the page.

Outside of the basic Rich Editing features, there’s nothing more impressive to see – it’s an editor. Oh yeah, it includes a limited spell checker, though I’d like to see it evolve a bit more.

Conclusion: Windows Live Writer is a nice concept and started in the right direction. As with any Beta-application, there’s still room for change and improvement. I hope Microsoft will continue to do so, as I might become one of Writer’s frequent users.