Windows Live Writer - An excellent blog editor

Sometimes you come across something that you didn't realise even existed and within a few days you can't understand how you lived without it.

This is what I have found with Windows Live Writer. I got it free with the CD that came with a webcam I have just bought - but it turns out that it is a free download in any case.

What does it do? It is basically a sort of blog specific word processor enabling you to keep track of a range of blogs and edit them offline. It has a whole lot of handy tools. The most impressive feature is that it can handle accounts in multiple platforms, so I can manage both my Blogger and my Wordpress blogs.

And the best thing is that when you are happy with your piece of work, you simply press the button and it is published to your blog. I haven't quite got my brain round exactly how it works but it has already saved me a stack of time.

Probably the biggest time saver is incorporating pictures. You insert them from a menu and you can then quickly set up how you want the picture to be displayed. Compared to the Byzantine complexity of the Wordpress media handler it is simplicity itself. It is a sight easier than Blogger as well.
The funkiest feature is probably the least useful in real productivity savings, and doesn't even work consistently, but on some blogs Live Writer can download your blogs theme so when you edit it , you can see how it will look on screen.

Highly recommended.