Windows Live Writer Review

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I mentioned a few times on Twitter to a few of my followers that I was going to try out Windows Live Writer. I’ve never been a fan of updating my site via my desktop. It seemed unnecessary or perhaps full of errors. I quickly pushed it aside as one of my blogging options and continued to update from my browser. However, I read a post that mentioned desktop blog publishing clients so I decided to try out Windows Live Writer.

The initial setup was pretty simple. They asked for the blog URL, username, and password, so any authors of your blog can use it. Above is a picture of one of the setup screens. They posted a quick test post to retrieve my blog’s style while editing (which is optional). What’s great about the program is that it’s just like having a mini-dashboard:

- Your categories and tags are all transferred over.
- You can schedule posts just like you do in your dashboard.
- You can save your posts as drafts and transfer the drafts over to your site’s main admin panel.
- You can easily add photos and links. I haven’t tested other types of media yet, but photos and links are with a click of a button.
- It can handle multiple blogs. I currently use it to upgrade sites using Blogger and Wordpress.

However every great program has it cons.

- It became very glitchy when I attempted to do my Web Design Friday post, which is image/link heavy. I decided it’s best to do that from my Wordpress dashboard.

- I prefer to edit without using my site’s skin. It’s quite distracting for me when blogging, but can be helpful seeing how everything will be formatted after it’s posted.

I think it’s a pretty nice program. It even has plugins to add to your blog posts such as TweetMeme and other services. You should check it out! It’s really good for saving memory without having to load your browser. There’s plenty of other desktop blogging clients as well.