I discovered a new product last night during the Mashup event called Live Writer.  It's a free Beta product downloadable from http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com.  This product was built for blogging to Live Spaces, but allows you to blog to most other weblogs also.  If you've read my entries in the past you'll know that I was really jazzed about blogging from Word in 2007 as I was pushing entries to both Live Space and Blogspot.  With Live Writer the interface for adding new account is much simpler than Word, and it seems to support more weblogs, including Wordpress, which I'll be publishing to again as well starting with this post.

What makes Live Writer much better than Word, or any other blogging application I've seen is that when you change between accounts your interface takes on the look of that weblog.  It shows you the exact font and other UI elements that will be used.  See LiveSpaces, Wordpress and Blogspot below:

Which brings up another great feature is the ability to publish pictures to each blog, as the above pictures were added automatically and even resized when necessary.

The editing interface allows you to view entries as they will be seen, or in normal or even HTML view.  Entries can be saved locally as drafts or published as drafts if the weblog allows that feature.  A spell checker is available, although obviously that one won't work as good as Word.  Most other needed editing feature are available also.

Another really cool feature is "Insert Map" which allows you to add maps from Windows Live Local very easily.  I know this can be done manually from any editor that allow hyperlinks, but Live Writer builds it right in.

I need to get running, lunch and then more sessions here a MIX are coming up.  But if you enjoy blogging then you need to check this tool out and let me know what you think.

Chris

I made the plunge yesterday into Windows Vista Ultimate. I can't believe how different the UI is. I have found some things I like and hate and I'll blog about them some other day, but if you haven't upgraded yet you may not know that Vista contains an application called Snipping Tool. This is basically a SnagIt type tool that simply allows Free Form, Window, Rectangle and Screen snippets to be captured. I'm sure TechSmith isn't too thrilled about Microsoft including this feature in Vista. At this point I'm not sure whether or not I'll even install SnagIt, as the Snipping Tool is very easy to use. I just dropped in my quick launch where it can be launched easily and when you're done it shuts down so it doesn't eat up system resources.

Have a good weekend,

Chris