Windows Live Writer beta: test posting

Windows Live Writer is out, in beta. Read about it here and download it here.

This is a trial posting from Live Writer. Installing the software for this blog created a test post:

Had to format the image (above) manually in order to centre it.

Nice, clear, user-friendly interface.

Technorati tags info (below) entered manually.

Installing Live Writer might see you choosing to install Windows Live Toolbar — IE only — which adds tabs to IE 6:

TechCrunch:

Windows Live Writer has a lot of bells and whistles - preview in WYSIWYG or HTML mode, support for most blogging platforms (Windows Live Spaces, Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, WordPress and others), easy insertion of photos and things like Live.com Maps, and tagging. Good stuff, but none of it differentiates it from existing year old products.

What does differentiate Live Writer is that they’ve released an API that allows developers to extend the capabilities of the software to publish additional content types.

Ed Bott's first take here. Nathan Weinberg has a very full first view:

The centerpiece of Live Writer is the Web Layout view. In it, your blog appears relatively similar to its real world styling, and the text is formatted as it would appear on the final website. All this is done by the program downloading and using your blogs own HTML and CSS in the program. Brilliant! It falls apart, as you can see above, if you have a black sidebar, but other than that, this is the most visually pleasing way to edit a blog I have ever seen.

Technorati tags: Windows Live, Windows Live Writer, Microsoft, blogging software