well i thoguht of trying whats the actual fun in blogging so i satrted blogging a little and tried this little amazing application by MS - Windows Live Writer .... didnt find a suitable section to post it so i thought live.com would be fine which gives me an idea that we should have a section for 'Other MS Technologies' (360, MS table and other stuff like this can go there, what say vishal??)

ok coming back to the live writer its a pretty handy tool for bloggers as it makes blogging very very easy,

first a few general advantages:

1. offline blogging and then upload it whenever u have net access, which means u can type ur blogs as u want them to be on the net on the move or while ur waiting for a train or bus

2. wide variety of plugins and i mean a really wide variety of plugins which makes blogging more fun and improves ur bloggin experience

3. easy to use

4. integrates with almost every blog

5. multiple blogging accouts can be accessed and updated

Lets have a look at them 1 by 1:

the window of the Live Writer ... very simple interface

u have the text formatting bar, the tool bar, and the normal file, edit menu bar, and the side bar which is an easy access to the basic blog tools and blog entries u have made online and the 1s that are not uploaded but typed ...

Screenshot:

first up is setting up your account which believe me is a breeze its very easy .... simle steps ... click on weblog select add new blog and u shall see a pop-up like this 1 below, follow the steps punch in the details (password, host blah blah and ur done)

Next if the settings u entered were wrong or u chnaged ur host or password or want to edit ur blog's account settings ... go to weblog-> edit weblog settings ... then u have window 1 of the screenshot for advanced settings click on Update Account Settings and u get window 2 ... change what u want :)

Another interesting feature that i liked was that it gives me an option of choosing as to where i want to upload my images that i put in the blog .... have a look at the screenshot ul get the option ...

the settings dont end there it gives u a lot more control over account settings and ur blogging ... clcikc on tools->accounts and something like this opens up (if u click on tools->accounts the same window opens up but takes u directly to preferences rather than accounts)

have a looka round those settings if u wont some tweaking but my suggestions leave default ;)

Next up is something i personally find very very useful ... the different views its got 4 different views (u dont need more than those)

1. is the normal view - its just a normal window to type and ur sidebar

2. is the Web layout view - the normal window is replaced whit the template background ur blog has on the net

3. is the web preview - u cant type in this view it shows u the preview of how ur blog entry will look complete with the header and footer of ur blog template

4. html view - it replaces everything with html codes

Screenshot:

U can save what u typed as a draft, open it later ... the buttons are on the top ;)

Now the Sidebar ... very helpful ... easy access to whatever u need ;) ...

U can directly open ur blog in the web browser by clicking on view weblog

u can go to ur blog settings page by clicking on Manage Weblog

U can directly open ur drafts and any of ur recent entries from the sidebar (it shows the 1s u uploaded)

and the fun part the formatting and plugins ...

tables, images, hyperlinks ... absolutely easily no hassles ...

Thats it once u think ur done with ur blog entry just hit Publish and it will upload ... now im wondering why the hell am i tying this in forum .... i shouldv blooged it ... hmm ... not too late il put publish it :)

Windows Live Wirter Plugin Gallery - click to visti the gallery a really good archieve of helpful plugins ...

10 Useful Plugins for Live Writer:

1. Digg This Plugin for Live Writer: The Digg This plugin inserts a "Digg This" button to your Windows Live Writer posts and provides seamless integration with Digg.

2. Social Bookmarking Tags: Using this plugin, you will be able to add automatic social bookmarking tags to your blog posts like del.icio.us and Technorati. (Check out this URL for an example.)

3. SkyDrive Attachment Plugin: The SkyDrive plugin lets you upload, manage and use a SkyDrive file within your blog posts.

4. Amazon Book Lookup Plugin: This plugin helps you locate books in the Amazon store and now includes a thumbnail image of each book found.

5. Insert Website Image: This plugin inserts a thumbnail image of a website into the Live Writer window.

6. Insert File Plugin: This plugin lets you insert a file into a Live Writer post.

7. Insert Quick Link: Instead of having to click on the Insert Link in Live Writer, you can now bring up those options just by pasting a link into Writer with this plugin.

8. Imtech Word Count Plugin: This plugin counts the number of words in the selected text.

9. Flickr4Writer Plugin: Flickr4Writer is a plugin that enables interaction with the Flickr service. You can browse by tags, photosets, or a photostream. After browsing, the plugin enables inserting the image reference into a post. (Since I use Flickr, this is my favorite, others of you may enjoy these other photo plug-ins more: Polaroid Picture plugin, Live Spaces Photo Album Plugin, or Live Image Search Plugin) 

10. Code Snippet Plugin: Great for techie geek bloggers, the Code Snippet plugin lets you interactively review the sample code before inserting it into your post. It also allows for formatting and/or applying syntax highlighting to the sample source code.

It's a Microsoft world kid, I am just living in it.

good post

Nice review !!

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