August 14, 2006
Windows Live Writer, live beta testing
Posted by nitestrike in : Blogging , trackback
Install & Setup
The install was really simple and went quite smoothly. The a couple clicks of the Next button and it was done. When opening the application for the first time it launches a wizard to create an account for a blog connection. The first option is to connect to a Live Spaces blog, and even option to create a Spaces, or to another type of blogging platform. These other blogs that can be posted to include Wordpress, Blogger, MobileType, but are not limited to them. You enter the URL, username, and password of the blog; it then goes out and detects the type of blogging platform is being used and other settings, such as categories. When this is done you are now able to start posting.
Composing
Posting is really quite simple, it works like a standard word processor with the ability to format the entry with options like bullets, font color, links and inserting pictures. You have most of the options you would for your normal postings. The Catagories downloaded from your site, commetns status and trackback options can be set along with the date and time of the post. My favorite and most used feature I am happy to see is the spell check, something I have great use for.
There are also several views that you can choose from when composing. The first view is Normal which just has a plain layout with just the formatting you choose for the post during composing. The Web Layout view allows you to get a rough idea of what post will look like when posted such as width. The Web Preview view* uses the actual theme that was down loaded from the blog and see what it will look like after being posted, and is a strict view only. The final view is HTML lets you to edit the post and it’s formatting directly allowing for tweaking of the what the post looks like. The HTML view also brings to light how clean and simple the code is, expecially when compared to past Microsoft HTML products.
Live Writer also includes a plug-in feature that could allow for expandability to post to other blogging platforms and the addition of other features.
Pics & Maps
Live Writer’s picture capabilites are feature rich. Besides the obvouse inserting the picture you have Layout, Image, 
and Effects options when inserting pictures. The pictures can be uploaded from a source, or can also be linked to from another location on the web. Layout options include text wrapping, how the text flows around the picture, border, how the picture looks against the background, and margines. Image options allow you manipulate the size and setup the linking if needed. Effect options include blurring, sharpening, sepia, and back & white changes, it allows for a text watermark also. See the picture for a few examples of what can be done with pictures.
Maps can be inserted from Windows Live Local, powered by Virtual Earth. Maps are an extention of of inserting pictures and have similar options
for layout Captions, Text Wrapping, and Margins. Customize Map is how you pull the map, you enter the address and then zoom to the level you would like, anywhere from the contanent level down to the street level. Allowing for the level of detail desired.
From the map custimization you can pick from several different views The first is the Road View, what you would normally when looking at a map. The Aerial View exactly what it says, a satalite top down picture view. Last but not least is the Birdseye View, this a looking down aerial photo, with
options to view from the N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, and NW. With the Road and Aerial Views you also have the option of Pushpins allowing you mark points of imortants or interest. The Pushpins also have a “title”and description option.
Editing and Posting
(talk about posting options, drafts, retreaving past posts, etc.)
Settings
(go through the settings, SDK?, code snipits, etc.)
* This write up was done using Wordpress and results may very depending on blogging platform used.
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