Windows Live Writer Wrocks
Sunday, October 7, 2007 at 9:56PM 
I usually use Daniel Jalkut's MarsEdit on the Mac to edit my posts here. It's a sweet little program that works with Blogger, Wordpress, Movable Type, and most other blogging platforms. It allows offline editing, and greatly simplifies posting images from Flickr and so forth. I used Ecto for this for years - it's still around and works on Windows and Mac - but MarsEdit 2 is my tool of choice on the Mac.
A number of friends have been raving to me about the free Windows Live Writer (WLW), though, so I decided to try it this evening. Wow! For all the things Microsoft has done wrong (cough Vista cough), Windows Live Writer really is done right. It's designed for Microsoft's own blogging platforms, of course, but it also supports Wordpress, Blogger, and the usual suspects.
The picture embedding interface is an example of how rich this program is. It doesn't just upload an image and insert the relevant HTML, it has built-in picture editing tools, too. You can add a drop shadow or photo frame, resize, rotate, and adjust contrast. Or add special effects like sepia toning, watermarks, and more. All without leaving WLW.
There are some negatives. WLW embeds a lot of HTML into posts, which means they're harder to read if you edit them with Wordpress's own editor. And some of the layout defaults aren't great (notice the left justified "Sample Map" above). But considering this is only beta 3 there aren't many rough edges.I've always been really impressed by the Windows Live tools - these guys may be doing the best programming at Microsoft. At least there's some consolation for those of you stuck working in Windows, and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if Daniel doesn't add some of these features to Mars Edit, too, which will make Mac folks a little less envious.
Blogging, Microsoft, Windows Live Writer in Blog
Reader Comments (40)
Phew. Sorry about the big type. For some reason IE renders type larger than Firefox. It was trying to fix that that caused all the other problems! CSS is fun!
Leo - Is there a free tool that does this?
"At this point Windows is really suffering from Microsoft’s unwillingness to leave behind its legacy users."
That is certainly true however Microsoft has to deal with a few more users that Apple has to so removing backward compatibility would be major issue for them. They should however start providing a means for users who wish drop the backward compatibility and maybe Vista 64 bit is that way.
I would love to see Apple open up OSX to run on any intel/amd PC but I dont think they will as because I suspect they make more money from the hardware side of the business. Also if the opened OSX up they would have to deal with the issues Microsoft has to deal with ie a large varieties of different hardware.
Anyway enough of that yes Live Writer does rock(to come back on topic for a second). Microsoft do a lot of good stuff that tends to get buried while they promote some of the crap they produce. They could certainly learn from Apple as far as marketing goes.
Interesting comments on Paul Thurrott's Internet Nexus blog regarding what was a well done Apple article.
Hell yeah Leo, Windows Live Writer is great. I actually wrote a review of it for Tech In Demand.
http://www.techindemand.com/2007/08/21/windows-live-writer-review/" rel="nofollow">
It is pretty good, and I use it for all my articles as well.
If you are interested in testing out your site with IE6, Microsoft offers a free virtual machine image with XPSP2 and IE6.
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2007/08/20/ie6-and-ie7-vpc-refresh-available.aspx
Btw, I'm not sure problems you are having with Vista. Mine has been working fine, have you already detailed issues you have personally encountered?
"At this point Windows is really suffering from Microsoft’s unwillingness to leave behind its legacy users. It’s just no longer a world class operating system, no matter what “98%� of users think. (You do know that at least half of those 98% have no choice because that’s what work provides them with, right?)
In fact, the point of this post was that Microsoft is doing some really really good stuff. It’s just not Windows."
I really believe your bias towards Macs shows time after time. Vista works just fine, and 100% of home users really have a choice, and the high 90s still pick windows. Macs are great for certain things like sound, but no matter what you think ,it is the world class system, despite the cries of a few hardcore fans. It reminds me of the smallest group of people making the biggest stink just because they are loud. It still means nothing when it comes down to user facts. I live in Canada, we sometimes watch the show, but found again it lacks in fair comparision due to the bias towards Apple Products. I use a Mac at work, good machine, but my lack of bias makes me see the good side of both, not the blanket statement that one is no good, which is of course false. Your overwhelming bias towards Mac and you have a fair right, hurts your show as despite your claims, over 90% over user still use Windows, by choice.
I have Vista at home, not a single problem with it. Its quite stable and I leave it running for days. Much like the Macbook at work, both have their good points, something you fail to mention.
Where have you been Leo?
This has been out for 4 months that I remember (it was beta then). I like it, but I still end up posting from the wordpress admin panel.
Oh, and to both the Mac and Apple fanboys, chill.
Both operating systems have good and bad points. But now is both not the time and the place to argue.
@Tim: I actually don't like that feature. All I wanted was the program and ended up waiting forever for it to "detect" whether I had messenger or not (which I do). Plus I don't use Hotmail so the mail application was pointless.
True enough Marc, its probably not the right place to debate, I just dont agree with blanket statements like Windows is not good. Both companies have their good points when it comes to hardware and software. My Mac at work is just as annoying as any Windows system at times. I think a tech expert should really give a fair opinion of each product, and as much as I enjoy Leo, I find sometimes the Mac spiel gets to be too much. Vista has been problem free since the start for me, and most of my friends who have the proper systems to run it, have no problems with it. We have a choice at work, and the huge majority still pick Windows like they choose at home. That being said, Leo is right about Windows Live writer, excellent product
Leo, Leo, Leo, I personally like this program its very useful and the picture editing is a great feature. You know how you can tell this is a great program because cause you Leo complimented something made by Microsoft
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I might have to give this a try.....I've been wanting to go to Wordpress for a while..........maybe this will be my bridge app....
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was looking forward to checking it out, unfortunately it requires some kind of update that my corporation hasn't approved yet, might be IE 7.0, who knows. But unfortunately I can't install it and check it out.
MarsEdit is my favorite of what I've tried on Win or Mac.
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