Make Blogging Easier With Windows Live Writer

Tweet I usually try to participate in the Crafterminds tweet chats on Monday afternoons.  Blogging always comes up, and Live Writer is inevitably mentioned by a few people as a way to make blogging easier.  I made the switch from using the Blogger post editor (which made me want to stab myself in the eye with a pencil) to Live Writer a few months back and boy oh boy am I happy I did.



In case you’re not familiar with it, Live Writer is almost like a word processing program that will post straight to your blog.  I type up my post, add my links and pictures, and export it straight to Blogger.  Easy peasy!

Here are my fave Live Writer features:

• Hyperlinking.  The best part about inserting links in Live Writer is that you can choose to permanently connect a url to a typed phrase.  For instance, whenever I type my Etsy shop Live Writer automatically inserts a hyperlink to my shop’s url.  This has come in handy for the Weekend Links posts – it makes it so much easier to link to sources!

• Pictures.  The first time I inserted a picture to a post, I set everything exactly how I wanted it - width in pixels, rounded corners, watermark, centering.  I then saved that as the default for all pictures.  Now whenever I insert a picture, all the images are consistent.
• Drafts.  I have a bajillion drafts going at one time, including one that is all post ideas.  Live Writer keeps them all lined up on the side of the screen so I can easily view them.  There’s also a list of recently posted entries.  You can view how your post will look on your blog by clicking a button.

The one downfall so far is I can’t tag my posts, so I have to remember to tag them in Blogger before I publish.  Once I got used to that it wasn’t really a big deal, but it is something to consider.

My process with Live Writer is pretty simple.  I type up the post and save the draft in Live Writer.  I then post the draft to my blog (a prompt pops up for the blogger user ID and password).  Then, I switch over to my browser, go to my blogger dashboard, and the new blog post is right there.  I typically read over it really quick, add my tags, set the publish time and date, and I’m done!  No messing with the crazy Blogger editor!

 

I know there’s a bunch more I can do with Live Writer – heck, there’s a list of links to the right of this post as a type that I haven’t even investigated.   Evidently there are plug-ins available too. 

Where do you write your blog posts, and what do you do to make blogging easier?  If you’re a Live Writer user, what am I missing?  Share, please!