Figured I'd give it a try, blogging from Word 2007. When I blogged on our Community Server and Office 2003 I longed for an easy way to create blog posts directly from an existing editor, such as Word, where spell checking and other tools to make life easier for the proper English challenged such as myself. Since the Beta 2 Tech Refresh of the Office 2007, I have completely migrated away from the 2003 product, and every couple days I discover a new way for it to make my life easier. Today, as you can probably guess, was the Blog Template in Word 2007. I've tried many different products (mostly free, as I seem to be cheap on things like this) and none have been this simple.

Setting everything up the first time took a few steps, but once complete, the process seems much too easy for the technical savvy folks that typically blog. These steps are slightly different for other server types, but this is how I did it with Live Spaces.

1. Open Word 2007.
2. Using the Application Menu, select New.
3. Find the new Blog Post Template. It was right in front of me on my install, but not sure if this is typical.
4. You will be asked to select the Blog Provider. Supported formats are Windows Live Spaces, Blogger, SharePoint, Community Server or Other. Using Other will allow you to select almost any possible scenario.

5. Enter all of your logon information.

6. Select Picture Options. The only negative I see here is that I can't select my own Live Space as my provider, so I had to add these pictures inside Live Spaces, using Add Photos.
   

7. Write your life story, or whatever you are blogging about today.
8. Select Publish from the Ribbon Bar.

Using Live Spaces uses something called Email Publishing, which basically allows you to blog from almost anywhere including a mobile device. What also very cool is that I can now create logons for any other blog accounts I may have and do something I've been wanting to do for a while and that's send one post to several different servers.

1. Select Manage Accounts.

2. Hit the New Button and create another Account!

Maybe I'm just easily impressed, but I'm in blog heaven today.

Go Cardinals!

Chris