So I finally took the plunge and grabbed Windows Live Writer 2009’s Release candidate.
I tested it with my blog engine and found a bug where the publish date wasn’t being honored. Found the issue in the code and submitted the fix to the DNBE team. The other bug I found while writing this post is that only the last image border set is honored, covered that here, so if you stick to one image border per post you won’t have issue.
So now I want to give an overview of the product itself.
It is ripe with great features.
First it gets you away from the lame website based rich text editors.
All the generics of this make, making a post kind of difficult. Adding a picture is what I always found most difficult. With Windows Live Writer you can add a picture one of two ways.
1. Just paste the image from your clipboard to your post.
2. Insert an image via their menus (or drag and drop).
Now here is where Windows Live Writer 2009 separates itself from anything else, the ability to manipulate images. Windows Live Writer 2008 was good, but 2009 takes it to another level.
What the various ways I can post an image, without having to open up an image editor at all.
All of those options without opening an image editor. Also as you can see I am able to post to an album on the fly as well. Windows Live Writer defaults to a Window’s provided album, but there are many plug-ins available for other online albums.
There are really a limitless number of things a person can do with Windows Live Writer 2009, all readily available from the UI.
One of the things alluded to in one of my pictures above was the ability to use plug ins. Currently there are 111 plug-ins available.
There really is no reason to not use Windows Live Writer.
Though I will offer one caveat, the version they are pushing on their site is a release candidate. Not official, so there could be a few issues with it. I have found one, just working on this post.
UI Options:
