Blog Tools – Windows Live Writer

As a new blogger I quickly became frustrated when my published posts would come up with strange formatting for no apparent reason. One paragraph would be single spaced while all the rest were properly double spaced. Or there would be a huge gap between my photo and my text. I would edit my posts three or four times trying to get them to look right. I was even going in to edit the html in order to add hyperlinks to text or photos. Within a week , I was looking for a third party blog editor. The only one I found was Windows Live Writer, and so far I’m happy with it.

Windows Live Writer is a free download for Windows users (click here for the download page). My favorite features are:

WYSIWYG – it downloads your blog formatting and you create your post exactly how it will appear on your blog. And it automatically spell checks in real time!

Enhanced Photos – It’s easy to insert a photo, link that photo to a web page, and apply a range of formatting options like drop shadow, tilt, “polaroid”, borders and watermark.

Easy Hyperlinks – Just click and you can insert a hyperlink or assign a link to your photo. You can even program a permanent link for specific text. Writer knows to link to my shop whenever I type the words my etsy store. How cool is that?

Plug-Ins – You can add all sorts of third party applications to get even more functions like video, tag generators, screen captures and much more! I haven’t checked many of these out yet, but they’re out there!

I had to download updates for Windows before I could install the application, which took a while, but it was worth it in the end. If you’re looking to expand your blogging abilities, you might want to give it a try, after all, it’s free!

Writer will work with Windows XP (with Service Pack 2), Windows Vista (32-bit or 64-bit editions), Windows 7 Beta (32-bit or 64-bit editions), or Windows Server 2008. Visit the their website for more information, and happy blogging!