Several years ago I wrote an article about a specific piece of software which was for a specific group of people. I did not think it would be very popular; however, I received a large number of emails regarding that software.
There have been some major changes regarding "Windows Live Writer" so I thought it was time to revisit this great app…or the lack thereof.
Windows Live Writer was part of a Microsoft Suite of products called "Windows Live Essentials" and all components could be installed with one file. Microsoft created Live Writer for posting to your own blog many years ago. If you are a blog owner who uses a WordPress site I highly recommended this for you. It is much easier to create pages, posts, etc. for your WordPress site using Live Writer.
However, just like Google, in 2012 Microsoft decided to no longer support any of the Essentials programs. So I guess they were not so essential.
You can still find it on the Microsoft site for download; but it is exactly the same as it was in 2012. The web changes a lot and so should the way you maintain your site. Other than possible security issues with old software you may not be able to perform some new functions.
WordPress is a content management system for building websites. I use it on all of mine, including DoubleClicks.info. It is so popular that as of a few months ago it was found that WP is used by 59.5% of all the websites who use content management systems. This is 26.6% of all websites. That is a lot of websites!
So you can still get Live Writer but it is outdated, what to do?
Enter the new kid on the block "Open Live Writer." Open LW was created from the original LW code. Several Microsoft employees who loved LW got together. They asked for, got permission from MS to proceed and took over development for LW. They then changed the name to Open Live Writer. Since December, 2015, you can now get this free application from OpenLiveWriter.org.
It is every bit as good as the original which seems obvious since it started life as the same application. It is actually getting much better than the original since the developers really care about improving it. They have added several new features but to be honest the one I like the best is a Spell Checker which MS put off for years.
So if you do not have your own WordPress site you can skip through this article pretty quickly. But if you do you should definitely use Open Live Writer as, IMHO it is much better than the default editor in WordPress.
Happy posting!
