OK, so maybe the headline is a little alarmist, however if I was the folks behind tools such as Qumana, I’d be more than a little nervous today as Microsoft has announced the launch of Windows Live Writer, from which I’m currently writing this post.
First thoughts….well if they bundle it with Microsoft Office it will take a big pile of market share…but how does it work:
Screenshots:
ok, this is my first screenshot from the program, got to say it was as easy as copy and paste. The start up image specs aren’t flash in that they offer odd combinations of sizes, however these can be easily customised.
A strong point I can see so far is Inline Image editing, something that only Blogdesk currently offers, but however theres no ability to crop an image…there is however the ability to do things like basic photoshop like edits like Sepia and adding a Watermark, which is a positive, however the way it handles the image also sucked I’m afraid, it created what I thought would be a thumbnail of the screenshot, however it just linked through to the thumbnail again!
The rest of the Writer tool is pretty basic stuff, it does have a nice post preview feature, the ability to add Windows Live Maps, inline font and spelling support..but I suppose it’s a beta so I’m being a bit harsh at this stage.
Last but not least: will this be a killer? not at the beta stages, but if they improve the inline editing features it will be. It also comes with the ability to add 3rd party plugins…that in itself could create a huge user added ecosystem that could see this tool become a killer…
More later…sorry for this disjointed post BTW, I accidently published it half way through writing it 🙂
Update: just published again and realised it was missing something: there is ZERO support at this stage for categories….that’s a biggy for me. I’ve had to ammend the category manually through WordPress, however it’s really easy to amend a previous post, I’m doing it via Windows Live Writer now. Also no Technorati Tags support.
Last Update: I noticed the option to give feedback to the Windows Live Writer team in the program itself, you’ve got to sign up to a MSN Group. If you want to leave a comment at their page, you’ve got to have a Windows Live ID….great, so they don’t really want feedback from the wider community then…oh well, it was a nice thought I guess.
