I have finally concluded that the standard Blogger editor is powerfully boring and bland, so I’ve decided to give other blog editors a try. The first editor I’d like to try is the one offered by Microsoft to Windows users: the Windows Live Writer.
Windows Live Writer is part of the Windows Live Essentials, a bunch of programs offered by Microsoft to users of the Windows Operating system, from Windows XP to Windows 7. The programs include Windows Live Messenger (then MSN Messenger), Windows Photo Gallery, Windows Movie Maker, and the like. These programs are provided free of charge by the Microsoft Corporation for those users of genuine Windows software.
In case you do not know, I am using Windows Live Writer at the time of writing. I’m going to review vital parts of it, and give recommendations according to my findings.
The program
Interface
When you start Windows Live Writer, you are greeted with a splash screen. Do not worry, as this splash screen lasts only for at least 2-3 seconds, not 20 seconds like in Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop.
The interface is snappy, and behaves much like the other software and applications offered by Microsoft. Most of it should depend on your available system resources, though.
But unlike other recent Windows applications, Windows Live Writer does not come with the new “ribbon” interface. It comes with the boring menu bar interface that we’ve all lived with for more than fifteen years. However, the layout remains intuitive and will keep you focused on writing your post. It blends well with the Aero interface of Windows Vista and 7, but I don’t know what it looks like for XP users.
Editing
Editing or writing a post is very much like writing a document in Microsoft Word. You get formatting options such as boldface, italics, underlines, strikethroughs, etc. You can also freely edit your font face and colors if you like. It also comes with bullets, numbering, block quotes, text alignments, and many others. It also comes with tools to insert hyperlinks, tables, maps, and video. One useful feature of the Writer editor is the heading editor, which can be found also in word processors. You can edit your text and set them into the six different heading levels, or the default paragraph text. This feature is most useful for writing list-based articles.
When you import a blog, Windows Live Writer also downloads your blog’s CSS or HTML template and uses it as a basis for your editing. That way, while you are editing your blog, you are given a more advanced WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. You do not have to hit preview in order to see your post. Writer does it for you real-time.
Keep in note, however, that while Writer grabs the HTML or CSS template of your blog, it does not grab the widgets, title, sidebars, and other objects of your blog. Writer only gets the basic structure of your blog, its background images, fonts, and colors.
Additionally, if you are a power user who prefers to edit bare-bones HTML, you can click the "Source" tab on the bottom of the editor to switch to HTML editing, allowing you to fully edit your post under the hood.
Compatibility
Windows Live Writer was created with Microsoft’s blogging service, Spaces, in mind. However, Writer can also support most other blog services, including Blogger, Wordpress, LiveJournal, and many others. If you use Spaces, Windows does the job for you. If you use some other service, you will only have to provide your blog URL (e.g. http://sulatangtapunan.blogspot.com), your username and password (when connecting to your blog).
Overall
Windows Live Writer is an excellent blog editor for many different bloggers alike, new or enthusiasts, who uses the Windows Operating System. There are many other blog editors out there, and possibly some of them could have better and more features, but Writer is a good choice for the Windows users who are looking for an easy alternative to their blogging platform’s online editor.
