blogstruk.comblogging tips, amateur blogs, what is a blog

Windows Live Writer - A Robust HTML Editor

November 17th, 2007 Posted by Chanya

NOTE: The original title of this post was “Does Your Wordpress Editor Need Some Viagra?” I changed it because I linked to it from a reputable site and it got marked as spam, probably because of the word viagra. Keep the original title in mind as you’re reading the start of the article.

Tired of spending hours struggling with a post in an attempt to get it up on your site? Frustrated with the small HTML editor window that Blogger provides? Limp with exhaustion from trying to get the WYSIWIG editor in Wordpress to function properly? Need an editor with lots more joice?

Microsoft has the tool for you.

It’s called Windows Live Writer and it’s a horse of an HTML editor.  Here are some of the features I’ve used:

Editor Window: One of the coolest features in Windows Live Writer is the fact that you can create your posts inside a window that graphically resembles your blog site. For example, as I’m creating this post I can immediately see how the text will wrap on the screen. There’s even a gray area on the right side of the screen the represents my sidebar.

Formatting: From the Format menu you can control fonts, text colors, text alignment, bullets, numbered lists, block quotes, and split text (collapses the post and adds the word “More” to the bottom).

Ping Servers: Yes, you can also add the URLs of servers you want pinged each time you publish a post. Wordpress includes this feature but unless I’m mistaken, Blogger users have to do this manually.

Spell Check: Little squiggles appear beneath misspelled words, just like they do in MS Word. I love this feature because it lets me know immediately when I’ve typed something incorrectly!

Maps: Selecting this feature brings up a window containing Virtual Earth. You can choose two different elevations: road or aerial. Simply drag your mouse to any place on the planet. Use the zoom tool to get within 30 yards of a location. I was able to find my home in about 2 minutes. I think I even saw my car! Click on a button and the map is embedded in your post.

Plugins: A plugin button takes you to the Windows Live Writer website where you can grab plugins that people have written for the product. Be sure to spend some time exploring the plugins because there are some really cool items out there. Check out the Text Template. It lets you save commonly used snippets of html code or text. For example, I can never remember the code that inserts a space. This plugin lets me save the code once, name it, and then easily insert it into a post. You can even organize your code or text snippets into categories.

Hyperlinks: Inserting hyperlinks is easy. Need to add the “no follow” code to an image link? No problem. Just click on a button.

Image Manipulation: Windows Live Writer wasn’t developed with a “one size fits all” mentality. You can easily manipulate images so they’re the length and width that best suits you.

The best feature? You can publish your posts directly to your Wordpress or Blogger site. You can also save your drafts to your blog site or store them on your local hard drive. It’s so easy to use! And unlike the Wordpress editor, this editor truly is WYSIWIG.

If you’ve been looking for a more robust html editor and downloaded countless applications but haven’t found a product that’s easy to use but also provides a full feature set, Windows Live Writer is a product worth investigating.