Today I’ve been introduced to Windows Live Writer by a colleague and thought about sharing this magnificent tool with you.
Basically, Windows Live Writer is a very small application that will allow you to manage your posts directly from your desktop.

This is extremely practical because you don’t need to log into your blog’s admin page anymore. Windows Live Writer stores your admin details so all you have to do is to run the application and start posting!

Here’s a screenshot of the dashboard:

(this is actually how it starts up)

As you probably noticed on the top-right corner, there’s a WordPress logo and our Blog Title there.
This helps you to identify the blog you’re currently posting to (very helpful if you work on multiple blogs).

Windows Live Writer is compatible with the following platforms:

»» Windows Live Spaces
»» SharePoint (Supported by AppliedI)
»» WordPress (Supported by AppliedI)
»» Blogger
»» LiveJournal
»» TypePad
»» Moveable Type
»» Community Server
»» dasBlog (dasblog hosting is offered by appliedi.net)
»» BlogEngine.NET (blogengine.net hosting is offered by appliedi.net)

One of the things I like the most on this small application is its built-in WYSIWYG Editor.
So no more HTML coding for highlights, links or anything else. You can just do it there, using its simple and effective interface.

Did I also mention that it also has its own Spell-Checking engine? It does!
So this is great news to all of you that were worried about that. Not to mention that you won’t need any extra plugin in your blog platform to check for grammar errors.

Another feature that has impressed me is the fact that you can blog without being online.
So now I can comfortably write my articles while watching TV or even on the kitchen while I wait for my pizza to be ready. Impressive, isn’t it?
It will basically save your posts on the local hard drive, and it will publish them as soon as you connect to the internet.

So I guess we won’t have reasons not to update our blogs anymore.

Windows Live Writer Beta Download page:
http://get.live.com/en-us/betas/writer_betas

NOTE: During the installation, the InstallShield Wizard might appear to have crashed during the "Checking for Installed Products" step.
While I don’t believe this is normal (most likely a bug), it didn’t really crash. I personally had to wait almost 5 minutes for that step to complete; so don’t panic.