Microsoft Windows Live Writer
Writer Zone - Microsoft Live Writer team:
Blogging has become very popular in the past couple of years.
Since 2003 we have seen some bloggers invited to political conventions, others reporting the latest technology news (and, unfortunately, product rumors) - plus their impressions on gadgets and software they have used, and what is going on in their little part of the world.
Many have augmented this written information with digital photos.
Lots of blogging software is not at all easy to use. I can attest to that.
I frequently enter my blog entries in raw HTML, typing in tags, entities, and numerous other things you do not want to know about.
I have also tediously typed, cut, and pasted together lots of things to make the sidebars of my blogs look attractive, informative, and useful (at least to me).
My reward for that is that I have a few blogs that look pretty good, provide a whetstone for me to sharpen my vital web authoring/development skills, and practice writing prose.
I know I am far from perfect at all three of these things. So I am really grateful for the chance to get hands on experience with all 3 at once.
On the other hand, sometimes I just want to write a little prose. I went to do it fast, well, and without stress. I just want it to be easy and look really good.
Microsoft looks like they are going after that latter market with their new product for Microsoft Windows, Live Writer.
Judging from the screen shots, it looks really nice.
It has its own API for writing plugins or extensions or whatever in also. Some people will be delighted to hear this. Others will be less than thrilled. It all depends on the character of the people programming them, and what they do.
Though it sounds like it is not going to run on my Mac, Windows Live Writer at least will talk to a number of different popular blogging services.
Perhaps even more importantly, it has a WYSIWYG interface. My brother and mom are probably never going to learn HTML. Most of the friends I have now and most of the coworkers I have had or ever will have will not learn HTML or CSS.
So it is pretty cool that a major company has recognized this and plunged into the fray with something they can use to create blog entries that look the way they want them to look.
I am not sure how many will actually bite. Eh, but if they want to, they can - right?
It is not like they literally have to learn another language to do it.
I had to learn HTML and CSS myself ages ago, for other reasons than blogging. I got pretty good with them before I knew much about blogging. In fact, years before I even realized blogging was really going to catch on and become yet another mainstay of the Web.
My family and most other people I know are not in the same boat, though.
Now, Live Writer, which is free, is not without a fair number of existing products that do similar things out there. Like Live Writer, many of them are also free.
There are others, but this list shows that Microsoft is not coming too early or too late to the party.
I cannot run it but then there are lots of people out there who cannot run the scores of Mac-only applications for my Mac that Apple writes and gives away or sells as accessories.
Earlier today, I learned that Google was increasing the power and ease of use of its own Blogger/Blogspot service. Less than an hour ago, I learned this new program which was on the horizon a few months is ready to try out now too.
Now that email has been mostly co-opted by spammers, miscreants, and companies rolling out annoying advertising campaigns who are completely oblivious to the fact spam plays a role in it - blogging+RSS might become the new email.
In a sense, it could work in a very similar way to email. However, unlike email - it would be very, very difficult to spam.
It will be interesting to see what direction blogging goes in.
Windows Live Writer is a desktop application that makes it easier to compose compelling blog posts using Windows Live Spaces or your current blog service.
Blogging has turned the web into a two-way communications medium. Our goal in creating Writer is to help make blogging more powerful, intuitive, and fun for everyone.
Blogging has become very popular in the past couple of years.
Since 2003 we have seen some bloggers invited to political conventions, others reporting the latest technology news (and, unfortunately, product rumors) - plus their impressions on gadgets and software they have used, and what is going on in their little part of the world.
Many have augmented this written information with digital photos.
Lots of blogging software is not at all easy to use. I can attest to that.
I frequently enter my blog entries in raw HTML, typing in tags, entities, and numerous other things you do not want to know about.
I have also tediously typed, cut, and pasted together lots of things to make the sidebars of my blogs look attractive, informative, and useful (at least to me).
My reward for that is that I have a few blogs that look pretty good, provide a whetstone for me to sharpen my vital web authoring/development skills, and practice writing prose.
I know I am far from perfect at all three of these things. So I am really grateful for the chance to get hands on experience with all 3 at once.
On the other hand, sometimes I just want to write a little prose. I went to do it fast, well, and without stress. I just want it to be easy and look really good.
Microsoft looks like they are going after that latter market with their new product for Microsoft Windows, Live Writer.
Judging from the screen shots, it looks really nice.
It has its own API for writing plugins or extensions or whatever in also. Some people will be delighted to hear this. Others will be less than thrilled. It all depends on the character of the people programming them, and what they do.
Though it sounds like it is not going to run on my Mac, Windows Live Writer at least will talk to a number of different popular blogging services.
Perhaps even more importantly, it has a WYSIWYG interface. My brother and mom are probably never going to learn HTML. Most of the friends I have now and most of the coworkers I have had or ever will have will not learn HTML or CSS.
So it is pretty cool that a major company has recognized this and plunged into the fray with something they can use to create blog entries that look the way they want them to look.
I am not sure how many will actually bite. Eh, but if they want to, they can - right?
It is not like they literally have to learn another language to do it.
I had to learn HTML and CSS myself ages ago, for other reasons than blogging. I got pretty good with them before I knew much about blogging. In fact, years before I even realized blogging was really going to catch on and become yet another mainstay of the Web.
My family and most other people I know are not in the same boat, though.
Now, Live Writer, which is free, is not without a fair number of existing products that do similar things out there. Like Live Writer, many of them are also free.
- iBlog
- Apple's commercial WYSIWYG blogging application is included with the iLife '06 software suite which retails for about a hundred bucks. It only runs on the Macintosh and requires Mac OS X.
- Flock
- This free Firefox-based social web browser includes built in blogging software and social photo management software. It also supports RSS newsfeed-reading, bookmarking/tagging, and yes - the blogging editor is WYSIWYG. Like Live Writer, it supports a whole bunch of blogging services.
There are others, but this list shows that Microsoft is not coming too early or too late to the party.
I cannot run it but then there are lots of people out there who cannot run the scores of Mac-only applications for my Mac that Apple writes and gives away or sells as accessories.
Earlier today, I learned that Google was increasing the power and ease of use of its own Blogger/Blogspot service. Less than an hour ago, I learned this new program which was on the horizon a few months is ready to try out now too.
Now that email has been mostly co-opted by spammers, miscreants, and companies rolling out annoying advertising campaigns who are completely oblivious to the fact spam plays a role in it - blogging+RSS might become the new email.
In a sense, it could work in a very similar way to email. However, unlike email - it would be very, very difficult to spam.
It will be interesting to see what direction blogging goes in.
posted by John Collins at
7:22 PM
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