New Windows Live Writer is Here

 

Microsoft today released a new version of Windows Live Writer 1.0 (beta 2). This WYSIWYG blog editing software is a vast improvement over the previous version and a must-have upgrade.

There's an inline spell checker (so readers will complain less about spelling errors), support for HTML tables and a reminder option that will make sure you don't post stuff without adding appropriate titles and categories / tags.

Blogger users will love the support for labels. Wordpress fans can now compose static pages or add new categories right inside WLW without logging into Wordpress Dashboard.

Like Microsoft Word or Excel, you have a new "Paste Special" function that lets you copy-paste stuff into WLW with or without formatting.

Your old plugins will still work in the new release of Windows Live Writer. The Temporary Post issue now occurs only if you enable Web Preview for your blog posts.

Writer synchronizes drafts on your blog with changes you make when you're offline, so you don't have to worry about reconciling different versions.

There's another useful change - Windows Live Writer now allows you to upload images without applying borders or drop shadows, something which was not possible with the previous version.

The new Vista style look-n-feel of the WLW interface is also very refreshing.

Unfortunately, Blogger users will still have to depend up Picasa or Blogger Web Editor for uploading pictures since the Blogger Picture API is not yet integrated with Windows Live Writer. Expect that to change in the coming release.

Download WL_Writer.exe [5.4 MB]

Most Useful Windows Live Writer Plugins

Wish to enhance your blogging experience with Windows Live Writer ? Here are some very useful plug-ins that will supercharge your copy of Windows Live Writer.

Blog This - This is like the Tumble bookmarklet for quick blogging - select some text on a web page in IE or Firefox and click the Blog This button - it will launch a new blog post prepopulated with the title, text snippet and URL of the current webpage.

Insert Video - Use this to quickly embed video clips from YouTube, Google Video or Myspace Videos into your blog posts. Just type the URL of the video and the plugin will generate the code for you.

Flickr4Writer - If you are a Flickr member, this plugin will help you browse your Flickr photos and insert them into your blog posts.

Social Bookmarks - Add social bookmarking icons (like digg, del.icio.us, furl, yahoo!) in your blog posts that will allow readers to save or share your articles on these social sites.

Screen Captures - This is like an offline version of Picnik Screen Capture. Specify a webpage URL and this plugin will insert a screenshot of that page in your blog post that you can later resize or apply image effects.

Syntax Highlighter - Recommended for geeks and developers who frequently share code on their blogs. This plugin will highlight the code syntax and language specific keywords in various colors.

WebSnapr - Allows you to insert thumbnail images of web pages in your blog posts similar to ones that you see on Alexa or Snap.com

Insert Code - It formats a snippet of text in a number of programming languages such as C#, HTML or JavaScript. Makes the source code more readable.

For additional Windows Live Writer plugins, please visit the Live Gallery and the excellent WLWPlugins.com. Want to write your own Windows Writer Plugin ? Try this useful guide by Keyyan Nayyeri (uses C#).