Live Writer

Today I am testing various tools for writing blogs. Live Writer is in beta, and I want to see if I can use it to post a blog. If you are reading this, then my test worked. They have a set of forums you can read if you need help with the product. 

I was taken to the success page after I performed the install. It pointed me to a gallery page, where I can browse add-ons or learn how to write plug-ins. I have some Windows Live gadgets installed, but I'll have to learn more about these plugins.

Now I am trying to update my blog. It turns out that this works, and is incredibly easy to use. The whole process of publishing or updating my blog is about as difficult as saving a file to disk, perhaps even a bit easier since I don't have type in a file name.

The next question is whether or not I can add a graphic:

This wasn't quite as simple as I'd hoped, since our blogging software does not seem to have the tools necessary for doing this part of the publishing process automatically. Nevertheless, there is an FTP based work around which is easy enough to use.

Overall, I'm impressed. This definitely has the potential to make publishing to my blog considerably simpler.