Windows Live Writer....
Microsoft is pouring copious energy into Windows Live. Live is a platform with potential - but so far little real hits to show for it.
The launch of Windows Live Spaces was a minor nightmare, with people having serious formatting issues and users being caught totally off-guard by the switch. Sort of like waking up one day and someone telling you, "I got rid of your old girlfriend and got you a new better one!"
Windows Live homepages are boring and currently rather pointless.
Windows Live Local is recognized as being actually pretty good stuff, but they aren't really pushing it. So it's languishing.
Today enter Window's Live Writer. I am writing this on Windows Live Writer. Which even Windows dislikers seem to like.
This post has a good handle on the flexibility.
Some observations:
1. I dropped in this picture - the system asked me how much of a text border I wanted, where I wanted text placed, if I wanted a nifty shadow and other nice additions.
2. Perhaps the nicest thing is that I'm typing this in the same font and with the same formatting as my blog itself. So, theoretically, I don't have to worry about weird formatting after publishing. You don't know how much time I've spent in the past reformatting on Typepad after using Performancing or Flock.
3. I hate the fact that it only integrates with IE. Microsoft, you gotta understand, even IE 7 isn't as advanced as Firefox. I'm not going to switch my browser for loose blogging integration. Want me to switch, build a better browser.
4. Having said that, it at least works with Typepad. The fact that I'm publishing this on Typepad is proof of that.
5. Little nice touches like:
- The photo insert also lets you do alt-text
- The link inserter lets you do tag and nofollow
- The link inserter lets you open in a new window
- There's a link removal tool
6. At least initially, it's fatal flaws are: no tagging, no integration with flickr, and no integration with digg or del.icio.us.
7. This is the first application ever from Microsoft that has generated clean HTML!
Om Malik Says (in the quote to test quoting):
Live Writer has the look and feel of Office 2007. ( Folks commenting on the post say that the interface is Onfolio like.) It is very clean interface, and still retains some of the “Microsoft Word” features that would make it attractive to a larger mainstream audience. (My Macy-Microsoft analogy still works!) It supports quite a few blogging platforms, and also offers newbie users an option to sign for Live Spaces.
So it lets you easily put in interactive on line maps. You can use any mapping client. (Wow that is an ugly push pin). And the monochromatic shot of Seattle makes it look like I'm sitting next to a tarpit. But still, it's damn easy to drop that map in.
When this evolves a little, it will be really excellent. It's almost there. ... almost.
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