The next program I want to talk about is a great blogging tool.

The engine behind this blog is Wordpress.org which is a self hosted blogging platform.  It has its own on-line posting capability (as you would expect) but in my opinion it’s all a bit clunky.

As well, I need to be able to write my posts even while I’m offline.  Enter my main blogging editor…

Windows Live Writer

Yup, I’m pushing something written by Microsoft.  I know my brother will claim that means I’ve gone to the dark side but I quite simply haven’t found a better editor.

Here’s what Live Writer lets me do:

1. Draft posts while offline.

2. Insert pictures, which it then automatically uploads to the server.

3. Set up automatic hyperlinks for certain words including the option to have the word hyperlinked every time or just the first time it appears.

4. Set my tags to automatically become Technorati tags.

5. Pick feeds from my feed reader and insert specific sized portions of chosen articles.

6. Set delayed publish dates and times.

7. Automatically send a tweet (Gives option to not send also)

8. Lets me see exactly what my post will look like as I type as it extracts the look from my blog.  A real case of WYSIWYG.

There are heaps of other benefits and a ton of plug-ins that are really cool and useful.  But the best thing for me is that everything is set out just so cleanly that if really is a pleasure to use.  Functionality is all very well (and Live Writer has that in spades) but its also a pleasure to use.

Michael Sampson suggested, (and he was limited to 140 characters), the following definition for Productivity.

Achieving what you want to achieve with the optimal investment of time, money, energy and stress.

What Live Writer does for me is to keep any negative stress to a minimum when blogging.

Windows Live Writer is a free download via Windows Live.

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