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Windows Live Writer is here!

Sun, 13 Aug 2006 19:36:58 GMT

It appears that the new Windows Live Writer, Blog publishing tool will soon break onto the scene. I have been looking for a good tool that integrates well into WLS, and I am hoping this is it.

You can read about it's feature set on the official Space

It is also availiable for download today here

This is my first post with the tool and so far I am impressed with the WLS integration compared to the other products I've used as of late.

So far the interface is rather nice.
Plug-in Support seems very promising
Picture formatting seems to be corrected

Check back later for more.

So far I am impressed, but things I'd like to see added:

The ability to add Track Back URLs in the GUI for WLS- Today I have to publish, then go to the Spaces site to edit my post to add them. This might be availiable for other platforms, but appears toi be disabled by default for WLS
Add the "Insert Picture from Web" to the existing insert Window options on the main editing page. Today it is simply for the insert File from local, and you have to go to the insert Menu on top to insert from web.
Comment/Trackback management in the GUI - This would nice to be able to review comments in the gui like you can on WLS.

I will be checking out the SDK to see what I can do to get YouTube and Flickr Plugin support developed if possible.

Blogging Clients for Windows Live Spaces

Sat, 05 Aug 2006 18:48:23 GMT

I like the new Windows Live Spaces, but the online post editor seems lacking for more than just simple posts. I have been looking for other clients used to make rich posts to the WLS service.

WLS uses the MetaWebLog API to allow clients to post to your space

Here is a list of clients I have tried with the new WLS

Word 2007 (beta 2) - Limited
- The interface is familiar and very efficient to create a pleasing rich post
- Posting to WLS seems to lose formatting, and any in line images are not preserved
w.bloggar - Limited
- Nice interface and simple to use
- Posting to WLS does not yield the same formatting as seen in Preview mode in client
- The website for this client was off line when I went searching for this. I could only find v4.00 to test with, so newer versions maybe available
Ecto- Supported
- nice interface with a lot of useful features including spell check
- Inserting images does not seem to work very well since it wants to upload the file by default. I have yet to get an image posted easily because it gives invalid method for "uploading" file even though I am not trying to upload. I will have to investigate more.
Windows Live Writer - Integrated
- This is MS's official Blogging software and will most likely offer the best integration into WLS
- The plug in support looks promising
- The spatial formatting for media integration is also very user friendly

I will try others and add them here as I try them.

I have some hope to see WLS support in the "Windows Mail Center" (Windows Live Mail Desktop) as this seems the perfect vehicle to be the all in one place for communications. There is "Blog It" functionality, but it utilizes the on line web form, not a client itself. Hopefully this will emerge once that product goes through more revisions.

Windows Live Mail DESKTOP - The missing link?

Tue, 18 Jul 2006 13:28:45 GMT

Windows Live Mail *DESKTOP* - The missing link? has moved to it's new location at JefTek.com