- Posted by Kyle on February 28, 2008
Okay, so I'm impatiently waiting on the first two parts of the External Binary Store blog entries to be reviewed by my employer to make sure I'm not breaking any company policies since the post include some source code. In the mean time I'm trying to decide what to write about next (probably something to do with picking a Web Content Management System).
Anyway, I'm logging in this morning and MSN tells me that there is a new feature available for download. Like a sheep, I just told it to install the update (I didn't need any upgrade because the features that I had met my needs). During the installation I noticed that I could install some additional Windows Live software. Two of which caught my eye: Mail and Writer. Mail is basically a re-skinned Outlook Express except that it keeps the mail separated by email account instead of dumping it all into one big inbox.
Writer, on the other hand, is a unique tool...at least in my opinion. It is a fully featured blog editor. It's designed to work with Live Spaces (imagine that), but it also works with third party blog applications. I'm using BlogEngine.NET and it had no problem recognizing and work with it.
It gives you a rich text editing interface with spell checking. It also gives you the ability to insert links, pictures, tables, maps, tags, and videos. You can also download add-ins for additional functionality (I downloaded two different code snippet add-ins for future blogs). You can save blogs in draft and publish them when you are ready. You can view a new blog in plain mode, web layout, web preview, or HTML. You can set the blog properties.
Basically it's a nice little tool that bridges the gap between using the web interface and using Word. Oh, and by the way, this blog was created using Windows Live Writer.
Interested? Find more details at Writer Zone.