Windows Live Writer is a blog authoring tool released by Microsoft for the Windows Live product line. This is the first review by Tech In Demand, and I am determined to see if the typical web author could incorporate this product in their blogging life. I've seen much praise from writers who use the application. Still, Microsoft has disappointed me on several occasions in the past; so will this time be different?

First off, let us dive in and see what is available in today's market. BlogJet, Windows Live Writer, BlogDesk, and Qumana rank highest in the popularity contest. On the Mac OS side of things, Ecto and MarsEdit are the main players. All the while, it appears the general consensus is that BlogJet is the best blog authoring application available.

Microsoft decided to enter the arena and came out with Windows Live Writer in August, 2006. Even though the application is still in beta a year later, it has progressed well, and an update was released earlier this year which added many features.

The installation of Windows Live Writer was completed without any trouble. I installed the application on a Windows Vista machine, and things were working without any problems. Most PCs should be able to handle running the application. Microsoft .NET 1.1 or later is required. The full list of system requirements can be found on the Windows Writer Live site.

After the installation, the program started automatically, and I was presented with a dialog box that gave me three options of how to set up my blog. The options were Windows Live Spaces, Sharepoint, and the option to select another hosted service. Windows Live Writer supports many other blogging services: WordPress, Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, and Movable Type to name a few. I selected the option to use another blog service.

I then typed in the URL for Tech In Demand and entered in my login information to access WordPress. Everything was detected on it's own and I was up and running within 5 minutes of the initial run. I had the option of importing my layout during the setup process and did so. This acted as the template for my entries within the program. This gave me an even more true WYSIWYG editing environment and I was thrilled to see this included. As you can see from the screen-shot below, I was then presented with a blank screen which is the default for new entries with my layout for Tech In Demand present.

It was easy to notice that there were many options available for formatting text. If a new user had ever utilized a word processor like Microsoft Word or OpenOffice.org, that person would be familiar enough with the formatting controls and should have no issue with adjusting to Windows Live Writer. There were other various elements available to add to entries, and it was what would have been expected to be available: hyperlinks, pictures, tables, etc. Also available were the possibilities to insert maps powered by Microsoft Live, and also insert tags if the blogging service allowed them to be used.

The option to install plug-ins was also a testament of how well Microsoft really put an effort in the design of the application. There were dozens of plug-ins you could download and install from the Windows Live Gallery. Many of the plug-ins appeared to be very useful.

Unfortunately, there were some issues I had with Windows Live Writer. One problem I found was that although I could import entries that were on my hosted blog, sometimes the transition from the blog to Windows Live Writer did not result in the online version matching the downloaded version completely. It was not enough of a problem to prevent me from using the application, but merely an inconvenience at times. On the brighter side of the things, if a user was going to be doing most of the work from start to finish within the program, those users would never experience the problem mentioned above.

One other disappointment was that I could not import drafts from my online blogs. This was a big downer to me personally because whenever I have an idea, I simply throw up a draft page, write the idea, and come back to it later on. I am confident though that Microsoft will add this functionality in a future release as it would not be that difficult to program in if it is not already there.

There are some improvements that would be nice to see in future versions: support for Ultimate Tag Warrior, the ability to see which tags you have used in the past, and more ways to manipulate images all would be welcome additions. I also would not have minded seeing the option to align an image to the center, which is was not available using the WYSIWYG editor for some odd reason.

To wrap this up, I must admit that I was left impressed with Windows Live Writer. Yes, there were a few minor things that annoyed me slightly after awhile, but with a majority of what I experienced, another person might never experience.

If you are running a Windows machine and you spend any amount of time blogging, then Windows Live Writer is a great program that at least warrants a trial run if it works with your blogging service. I am not sure if this is experience was a new trend for Microsoft software in the long-term, but I am now confident that I am going to be using this application for all my blogs that support it in the short-term future at the very least.