commented out

Shopping, e-mail, blogging, messaging, and system security: Microsoft’s latest endeavor, Windows Live, aims to bring everything together in one place. It’s a nice idea (of course, convenience is always a nice idea), and if you head over to the Live web site, you’ll note that it’s well-organized and aesthetically pleasant, not to mention very customizable. Most of this does not concern me.

What does interest me, is Windows Live Writer, a downloadable blogging tool meant to make blogging easier. You can compose your posts using WYSIWYG editing, or edit the HTML yourself. When you set up Writer, it will connect to your blog and download your style settings so you can preview the post easily before publishing. So far, it works with Wordpress.com (and custom WordPress installations), TypePad, Blogger, LiveJournal, Movable Type, Radio Userland, Community Server, dasBlog, and custom software using a Metaweblog or Movable Type API. I suspect that anything that posts via the xmlrpc.php file will work. You can add as many blogs as you want, and Writer will handle them all. If you happen to use Internet Explorer, you’ll also have the option to install a toolbar for things like opening Writer to blog about a page you’re currently viewing, like WordPress’ “Press It!” bookmarklet.

With Writer I have the option of saving my drafts locally as well as on my server. In the world of broadband, this might not seem like much of a boon, but more than once I’ve had a post ready and my connection died. Now I can format a post offline without worry and upload it once the connection’s live again. The WYSYWIG editor isn’t as powerful as I’d like, and its options (such as font color) are still based on deprecated methods like the <font> tag. Of course, their other option is <span style=”color: red;”> and while that’s technically more compliant, it’s still just plain goofy. I suspect that folks who are concerned about extra markup functions and standards-compliance will also prefer the HTML editing mode anyway. Overall, the interface is unobtrusive and effective.

While Windows Live Writer isn’t a revolutionary idea, it’s a useful tool that (so far) works quite well. Previously, I tried using a Firefox plugin called Performancing (the official site has more info), which performs the same functions (though it lacks the ability to save a local copy) but it didn’t work very well with my custom WordPress installation. While that may have since been fixed, Writer may be my tool of choice.