Windows Live Writer FTW
It’s a little known fact, but deep within the labyrinths of Microsoft there is a team of rogue ninjas making a fantastic Windows blogging client.
Obviously some of you have already discovered the coolness that is Windows Live Writer because we found it was our most used blogging client, but XML-RPC usually accounts for fewer than 10% of our posts so I thought it would be nice to introduce more of you to the concept.
What’s XML-RPC? It’s a cool technology that allows things that aren’t WordPress to talk to your blog. When Flickr or Youtube posts to your blog, or you use a desktop blogging client like Windows Live Writer (WLW to its friends) they use XML-RPC.
Why should you use a desktop blogging client in the first place, when the web works so darn well? Well personally I fly a lot, and WLW can work offline without an internet connection, so I can create, edit, categorize, and do everything I want to and then when I get online at home it’ll be magically synced to my WordPress. Because WLW a regular Windows program as opposed to something inside your web browser they’re able to do some pretty neat things with the interface and provide a good experience for blogging.
A few weeks ago a new version of Windows Live Writer was released that supported all sorts of neat WordPress extensions to do things like edit pages and have a quick link to your stats, but we didn’t blog about it then because we were making this neat page that talks about all the benefits.
If it sounds like something you’d dig, you can download WLW here (it’s only a few megs) and read their ninja blog here.
- July 13, 2007
- Applications
WordPress.com News 
Ok, it seems pretty interesting, I will try it.
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Yep, tried it and found it did not upload images properly. Got tired of having to re-upload them and correct the page.Thanks but no thanks!
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I have tried the latest version of Windows Live Writer with Arabic language, but the results are terrible. I have tried to change the encoding but ALL IN VAIN.
anyway Thanks Brothers for You Great Efforts that you bring us every couple of weeks.
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wow…this looks totally cool! I can’t wait to try it!
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I’m sure you know that Microsoft Office 2007 it’s “Wordpress Compatible”.. i try to use it for writing down some ideas, but then i never published anything in the end. I’m a curious person so i’ll go and try even this!
Thank you for the advice on WLW!
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Yes! First! Well I didn’t understand anyhting you said
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My family was killed by ninjas too. I’m trying to just move on. I don’t want to learn karate.
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Nice but …
What about desktop clientes for Mac users? 😉
I propose two ones:
– ecto
– Qumana
And a lot of Firefox extensions like ScribeFire o Deepest Sender
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Here’s a dollar for the lady with glaces. 🙂
*downloading WLW*
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I love the concept. But as I work off multiple computers I would need a WLW that works off a USB. Same concept though.
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Yes a desktop client is a handy tool to have. It adds more options for bloggers. Good Going.
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just gotta say…downloaded it…tried it…LOVE it!!! thanks for telling us about this…
blessings, mamabright 🙂
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I love it and blogged about it numerous times. Good call on bringing more attention to it!
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I started using Live Writer a few days ago. It’s outstanding! I’m Hooked!
I’m just wondering if posting by this method also pings the search engines for us.
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Cool! The only problem is that if you’re not using Windows Vista or XP (SP2) the WLW Beta 2 will refuse to install. The older version of WLW works fine on older versions of Windows XP. Sigh… 😦
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Now will you finally reply to my emails? After all that we (Microsoft) have done for wordpress.com, at the very least, you can answer an email!
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Be careful when you use it. WLW has issues when posting to WP. It also adds in lots of code. Think MS Word.
It could be really great if it were not so heavy on the code and you could use tools NOT from Microsoft with WLW.
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I have been using WLW for quite a while and I think it has great functionality. I appreciate the ability to type in a WYSIWYG editor, and creating posts offline, to be uploaded when you are ready. I think it really makes posting to your blog easier.
I document using the plug-in that will add embedded video to your post for uploading to WordPress here:
http://scissormonkey.wordpress.com/2007/06/06/windows-live-writer-embed-video-for-wordpress/
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XML-RPC is really neat if you’re a blogger and a programmer.
I’ve used it with my blog for doing things like a global search and replace when I changed my domain from engtech.wordpress.com to http://internetducttape.com
You can also use it for creating scripts that quickly post to your blog.
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I have used the new version and swear by it 🙂 It’s the coolest blogging client in the market.
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I saw WLW mentioned in a previous post, so I investigated, and it is truly wonderful. I have to tinker around and find out how to do the tags, but the cool part is you are writing in your blog’s theme. It also supports a plug in to post what you are listening to in iTunes.
This is really cool and I think it says a lot that WordPress is one of the supported blogging services…
Thanks for posting this info – WLW changed EVERYTHING for me…
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Another nice, fast, small and user-friendly blogging client software not from the “rogue ninjas” at microsoft is BlogDesk. I use a desktop client very often because I’m not connected to the internet with a broadband connection and I have to pay for my online time, and this kind of software allows me to write my texts offline.
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That thing is indeed cool. Pity you don’t support / allow the great feature of WLW that allows super easy including of Microsoft maps… =)
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Yup, Windows Live Writer is my ‘desktop blogging client’ of choice. I use it for about half of all my posts now- sometimes it is best to use Live Writer, and other times its just simpler to write online.
Perhaps the WordPress.com team could write a plugin sometime?
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Thanks for letting us know about this. 🙂
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Ya, Windows Live Writer is nice. But I think the wordpress editing extensions within Firefox, especially Deepest Sender.
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Definitely Greaaat!!!!!!!!! Tks Guys! 😀
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Absolutley is a great website.
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I blog in my office *sneaky sneaky* so I probably have to download it in my home where my Net connection sucks. Thanks for the suggestion!
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Cool thing, but old habits die hard..
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I am with you Matt, but two comments:
1) I just moved to xubuntu, so good bye WLW
2) more relevant – WLW did strange things with graphic uploads, so for those who are using it, I hope you can help them resolve the issues I regularly had pre linux.
PS .. using Scribefire extension in Firefox again.
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Woo! UI looks pretty darn slick. I wonder if it looks that good in XP. Kinda reminds me of what Ecto has been doing for a while, except WLW is free. I’ve been traveling an unnatural amount this summer, so giving this a try sounds like a great idea.
Thanks for the heads-up! Probably wouldn’t have heard about it any other way.
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I followed your advice and I really liked this app! Thanks for the review!
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that’s very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very interesting…
me thinks that me shall check it out.
thanks.
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Wow Matt you are so right! This is just what I have been waiting for! Its a mind f***K pardon my French. Brillliant stuff indeed and well done WordPress for including it.
This is the kind of thing I can use. Install it and off you go not complicated messing about and I am a nerd as far as possible.
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This is very cool. Thanks for the update!
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Seems like .NET framework is a pre-requisite on your destop to install this.
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WLW does not support valid HTML.
I enabled xHTML validator for my blog (imhuy.wordpress.com), but some stylesheet was lost (such as ‘float: left’).
I must manualy edit the HTML after submit posts by WLW. Have some solutions ?
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i’m happy with WordPress editor for my blog!
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Cool, but I can’t get it to properly recognize my blog’s theme. It says it’s unable to download the little test post it makes. 😦
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i have done my last 3 post using WLW (i do not post that often) and works great. the OPEN feature loads any of your previous posts, even when if they were not written with the software, which allowed me to put tags on all entries i imported from my old Blogger account. I havent tried uploading images cos i think it wont work right, i might try it sometimes. the fact you can work offline and sync is great.
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Definitely FTW, thanks.
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I’ve been using WLW Ever since it was launched and its a really cool tool!
As the author sez (Matt, is it?) it can be used to write the posts and then post them once one is online. I pretty much spend two-thirds of my online time in private networks so I just type the posts all around the day and upload them all at one go 😀
Pretty Cool I must say!
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I’ve used it for over a year and love it. Of course it has its flaws but it’s in beta, so it’s to be expected. Pictures – I prefer to plug in images from my Flickr – works better.
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May try them…but sure I adore the humour of this picture 🙂
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@swftoys:
Yes. You need .Net. And Win XP SPII or Vista. I think WLW doesn’t work with Win 2000 or older Windows Versions! Pity…
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Okay, seems I’m in the minority, clueless…I understood the prepositions(!). If I get it translated into non-techese, maybe I’ll try it. Till then: doesn’t sound like it prevents blogging as usual? How is it possible, that everyone else seems to know what you’re talking about…?
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I’m currently on the run from ninjas and that’s why Windows Live Writer is so helpful. I can write on the run, connect, and upload posts stealthily and silently. It can also handle multiple blogs and has several modes with which you can view your entry. It even provides you the option of assigning categories and works well with WordPress.
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What the hell! I’ll never use this or any other Microsoft Software!
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Hi 🙂
This MS stuff… and still in beta.
Flock have an editor to blog on WP but it still lack of some features of the WP online editor. I guess Flock will be a better editor for WP than WLW so I wait for the first “non beta” release to make a choice but I expect more from Flock than the MS Writer… The time will show.
Have a nice day !
🙂
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Windows sucks, I use Linux
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I am a ninja and I have never hurt anybody’s family. 🙂 Do you think that has anything to do with not understanding any of this client-speak with weird letters floating about?
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hope, this is cool ! 🙂
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I’ve been using it since it’s first beta and it has worked great for me. I’ve had no problems with uploading images or anything else.
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Matt,
WLW a pretty good blogging experience? Please tell me that this is a mistimed April Fools’ joke. Have you seen the vomit that WLW passes off as HTML? Any time I posted with it I had to then spend five minuets in the WordPress.com web interface fixing all of its code mistakes.
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does that come on Linux and OSX? 😉
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Super-exciting. Modular compatibility workshops, psychic-martial-arts-instruction-feeling, Microsoft System Reactions. Wowsa bowsa. Tanks.
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I’ll give it a try again. The first version made a real mess with extraneous coding, etc.
Zoundry so far is the best free one I’ve seen that also downloads, edits, and re-posts.
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I found out about WLW in your June Wrap-Up post and downloaded it just for the fun of it. Granted, I used it just to upload two posts, but I’m quite satisfied with how it works so far.
So thank you, wonderful WP team, for always bringing up something fresh and useful for us to use.
Keep up the good work!
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WLW is useful and easy to use with features as you describe, and I appreciate the information you provided that led me to it. I now use it all the time. Thanks for your magical work at WordPress and all the rest of the wizards.
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Perfect. This will come in handy when I get my laptop. What I can do is log my thoughts while offline and then when I pass a hotspot I can upload it.
I don’t plan on putting a bunch of pictures/links/stuff in my blog so this is perfect.
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That looks cool.
What’s a good alternative for the mac?
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The code WLW produces works fine on all my blogs. Who cares whether it is puristic? It excels at creating new posts and pages. I had a bit of manual editing to do on thumbnail images on an existing blog that I imported. WLW made this easier than without it. RECOMMENDED.
“WLW a pretty good blogging experience? Please tell me that this is a mistimed April Fools’ joke. Have you seen the vomit that WLW passes off as HTML? Any time I posted with it I had to then spend five minuets in the WordPress.com web interface fixing all of its code mistakes”
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Ok read your post, I guess you work for Bill 🙂 Anyway, lately I am not impressed with anything microsoft, so no thanks. In addition, I am highly suspicious of the whole ninja thing. I think Ninjas were an invention of the late 1980’s to sell movies, I don’t think it is a real japanese cult 🙂
personally I am more of a Kung Fu fan, at least Jet li doesn’t need to hide behind a mask 🙂
I have recently switched my email client to thunderbird and I love the way I can make simple douments in natural html instead of struggling with all those lousy proprietary microsoft tags that outlook makes with word.
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Gotta remember that WLW is still in beta at the moment. It only officially supports the englishUS language at the moment. The final release will have other languages as usual M$ products do.
The image problem for wordpress,org software was fixed in the latest version, wordpress,com is taking a bit longer and is supposed to be fixed in the next release.
It’s a great little app that ive used since its release, sure it has it kinks, but waht beta app dosent. When its finally released it’ll be the best free blogging software out there.
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I’m a new blogger and I don’t get all the tech stuff, but I’m very happy with WLW. I just downloaded it two days ago and I think I’ve written more since then than I did within a week before. It makes it much easier for me, but I’m a big Windows user. Amateur, I know 😉
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WLW doesn’t seem to be able to display the blog post as it would appear. It kvetches about something or other. BLOGDESK works fine for me. I’m not sure I ever fully trust anything produced by the “evil empire”. Sigh!
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The Zoundry Blog Writer is a lot better than the WLW:
http://blogorama.eisbrecher.net/2006/09/14/windows-live-writer-contra-zoundry-blog-writer/
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I love it. Wrote a post about it and will explore its possibilities in future posts. The Plugins feature could become really cool. Oh reinkefj: if you press F11 to edit, the post will look as it will appear on WordPress.
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COOL…………………………………………………..
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I haven’t seen any better blogging editor than MS WLW, and I’ve tried several. You can even generate new categories on the fly! Has some quirks, but other blogging clients have even more.
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I’ve used Zoundry and LiveWriter and LiveWriter is far and away the best free blogging tool I’ve used.
The plugins you can get for it allow you to search and upload Flickr images, videos and create tables.
I’ve done a review of the blog clients on my own blog before this Beta arrived. It’s here: http://acornservice.blogspot.com/2006/08/7-blog-writing-clients.html and also connects to my review of Zoundry, Elict and Rocketpost.
Jim
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seems there is a myriad of different opinions on WLW here..it seems a whole lot better than its earlier version…just uploaded a very small simple, text only blog entry with no headache. Am certainly worried about the code-addition stuff mentioned here though….still, they appear to be “getting there” though it does take them a long time.
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