My Tools: Windows Live Writer

Every one of the blog services provides an adequate online post creation capability – but I prefer to use an application on my PC. I’ve tried the online capabilities, they are adequate, but there is something about them that impacts upon my creativity. I don’t really know what it is, perhaps it’s just the way I have been wired after years of using client based applications, perhaps it’s something more fundamental than that. I’m not a trained psychologist or a creativity expert so it’s just a perception.

My current preferred client application is Windows Live Writer. I’ve been using WLW all the way through the various beta iterations and onto the current 2008 version.

It’s interesting to go back to a very simple editor after years of using more complex ones with lots of formatting capabilities. Having the format constrained actually helps my writing, the fact that there is really nothing to fiddle with helps me focus on the words. It’s not dissimilar to the effect of the clean interface of outlining in Word.

There are lots of plug-ins available, but I only really use one of them and that’s Flickr4Writer. Flickr4Writer, as it’s name suggests, allows the easy insertion of Flickr pictures. I have tags set up on my Flickr sets so that I know which pictures I’ve already used, and which ones I haven’t. It’s a process that isn’t perfect, but it works well enough.

I also try to add categories and tags to each post so I’ve set up WLW to remind me before it posts. These are both very easy to add with WLW, I keep meaning to go and look for an automatic tagging plug-in but haven’t, so it can’t be that big a deal.

Some of my most popular posts are ones about the dictionary in WLW, they still get lots of posts even though they are largely redundant, especially from a UK English point of view.