Five Things To Do After Installing Windows Live Writer
Travis has already introduced Windows Live Writer to Make Use Of readers so I just thought I would tell everyone about some features that can be turned on, some settings that can be configured so that you can make use of Windows Live Writer better.
1) Turn on Spell Check
One thing that I missed a lot on Windows Live Writer (WLW) is a spell checker. But when Travis told me that there was a spell checker inbuilt and only that it needed to be turned on, I was overjoyed. Here’s how you can turn it on:
- Go to Tools > Options
- Under Dictionary, select a language of your choice to turn on spell checking
- Turn on real time spell checking by selecting the 2nd option.
2) Use Link Glossary
Link Glossary - What is it anyway? You can add a few words, and relate URLs with those words. For example, Make Use Of can be coupled with http://www.makeuseof.com. You can do this using the options in Tools > Options > Link Glossary.
This way, the next time you type Make Use Of in any of your posts, the words will automatically be linked to the URL http://www.makeuseof.com You can add an endless list of commonly linked sites from your blog here, it’ll save you a lot of time.
3) Configure FTP
Please don’t neglect this one. Don’t forget to configure FTP settings for your blog. Without configured FTP settings, using images in your blog post is worthless, and then you’ll have to manually upload and insert images via the WordPress post editor, which is a pain.
You’ll have to configure FTP settings from the Tools > Accounts > (Select the blog account) Edit > Images > Upload Images via an FTP server > Configure FTP.
FTP hostname should contain the FTP address of your server, for example, ftp://mysite.com. In the next fields, type in your username and password, specify the folder in the server where the images should be uploaded and also specify the address of the folder as a http:// URL.
Here’s another example: if your site’s ftp address is ftp://mysite.com, and the folder where the images are uploaded is ftp://mysite.com/images/, the http URL will usually be http://mysite.com/images.
4) Learn the Shortcuts
Windows Live Writer comes with a set of shortcuts that are make using it very easy, convenient and also productive. Here’s a list of shortcuts supported by WLW. Make sure you keep them by heart, they’ll come in big use when you’re writing posts.
| New Post | Ctrl + N |
| New Page | Ctrl + G |
| Open | Ctrl + O |
| Save Drafts Locally | Ctrl + S |
| Publish | Ctrl + Shift + P |
| Ctrl + P | |
| Insert Link | Ctrl + K |
| Insert Image | Ctrl + L |
| Check Spelling | F7 |
| Normal View | Ctrl + F11 |
| Web Layout View | F11 |
| Web Preview | F12 |
| HTML Code | Shift + F11 |
| View Post Properties | F2 |
| Toggle View of WLW Sidebar Options | F9 |
5) Set Blog Pings
Don’t you want your blog posts to get listed by blog search engines and other sites as soon as possible? It’s good for getting traffic since Google tends to rank a page using the time it was published for keywords that are gaining instant popularity on searches.
Go to Tools > Options > Ping Servers and check ‘Send Pings to the URL below’ and specify the ping URLs one by one.
Here’s a screenshot that lists two ping servers. The first one notifies Google Blog Search that a new blog post has been published, and the second one tells FeedBurner to update the feed with the new post:
Do you use Windows Live Writer? What settings are your favourites? Or do you prefer another blog editing tool? Let us know in the comments!
(By) Shankar Ganesh, a 16 year old Blogger and Freelance Writer from India. He writes about computers and software at Killer Tech Tips
I love Windows Live Writer! Thanks for the tips.
For some reason I could never get Windows Live Writer to work with my wordpress. I tried everything but still got nothing. Maybe I will try again now.
You know this software’s been discontinued…right?
As far as I know, it’s still in development and they’re continuing to release the updates. I think you’re not aware of them, Owen.
Check their blog - http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/blog/
Thank you for these! The Link Glossary seems especially helpful!
Definitely a good list.
I will add one more point - If you are on WP, tick the box that says “Remind me to add Categories” - it’s a life saver.
Wow, thanks for dropping by to leave a comment, Amit.
And yes, keeping that option checked is really useful.
Windows Live Writer is THE reason which brings me back to Windows even on a Mac!
Thanks for the tips.
Haha yes I’m sure WLW will be useful for Mac guys too. It’s a great program, though it’s from MS
I am not sure I agree with #3. It seems if you leave it to ‘Upload images to my weblog’ it works fine. Also On #5 if you have a wordpress blog then it seems that if you use the ping service there it would negate this option. Unless when you publish a post from WLW it does not use the ping service built in to the wordpress theme?
Other than those two issues I found the post a great resource and look forward to using the keyboard shortcuts. I have always used the spell checking which is highly recommended. Using the link glossary is something I have never done but will start what an awesome resource.
Thanks for the great information.
Jeff B
Thanks Jeff.
Clarifying your doubts - I don’t think #3 - ‘uploading to weblog’ works all the time. Configuring FTP is much better and will save you from hassles later.
#5 - Yep, I agree with you on that - however for those who’ve not put up ping server list in the WordPress settings could use with this list on WLW.
I love using live writer. I also have a lot of plugins on mine for various tasks. The plugins can be found at http://gallery.live.com/default.aspx?pl=8
I don’t care for their spellcheck so far; it doesn’t allow for ignoring single words. I either have to add a word, or ignore all. I don’t want to add every single unique word if I’m not going to be using it in the future; it would slow things down after a while. But I would like being able to load different dictionaries like with Word.
Sherri, FYI… “Ignore All” means ignore all instances of that word, for the current post. It doesn’t mean to ignore all spelling mistakes in the post. (I can see the confusion though)
Joe,
I think what Sherri meant was that if the same word is spelled wrong in three places in one post, there is no way to have the spell checker fix it once but leave it wrong in the other instances.
I can think of many occasions (with names and technical terms) where I would want this.
I have Writer and I actually love to see the post before posting and not having to be thinking about the conexion. But there is only one thing that bothers me and it’s that as Sherri says there is no way to include other dictionaries like in Word. Does anybody knows how to include other dictionaries you might be using in Microsoft Word?
Thanks a million for the help.
Is there a way to keep it from doing this: “windowslivewritersellyourownhomeday6-10d06forsale-sign-2.jpg”
to my carefully chosen filenames (”forsale-sign-2.jpg”) that were named EXACTLY what I wanted them before this piece of junk decided that it would be so much better to put a big fat microsoft ad in every single one of my filenames on my personal finance web site?
I’m pretty sure this happens even if I configure the FTP settings.
Brian–if you’re using WordPress and uploading through WP rather than via FTP, Writer should leave your image filenames alone. If that’s not working for you, feel free to drop me a line at joe.cheng *AT* microsoft.com.
I also suggest activating the “Save Drafts Automatically” setting. It’s funny how it isn’t activated by default. When using a WYSIWYG blogging application one so often forgets its not actually a word processor…until you get a power shortage or whatever, and return to find your half-written post totally disappeared. So the first thing I do after installing WLW is to turn on the option.
Thanks for the Link Glossary tip
I hadnt seen that expalined before and hadnt bothered to work it out for myself
I host my 2 blogs with Blogger (on custom domains)
I put categories (blogger calls them labels) on my posts and use the Blogger widget to make a list of posts by topic. The link assigned to each topic has a url and I have assigned that url to the topics/categories so that when I type a keyword into a post it will automatically link which is cool
Need to be careful I guess or I could get over-linkified
Cheers
I am also having the problem with WLW changing my image file names to “windowslivewriter[RANDOMSTRINGHERE][imagename].jpg
I tried switching to FTP transfer and now it dropped the windowslivewriter, BUT added a folder RANDOMSTRING to wp-content/upload/ and then dropped the correct filename in there. But why would I want a RANDOMSTRING folder!!!?
I am using WordPress 2.6 and WLW 12.0.1370.325
How do I fix so that WLW just pushes the filename to wp-content/upload/ without messing with the filename or adding thumbnails?
I didn’t even know there was a Windows Live Writer, lol. Seems like Vista isn’t too bad afterall.
-Mike
Mike,
Live Writer is not a Vista thing. I have Vista on my laptop and wife’s PC and have not warmed to it yet. My home and office PCs are still happily running XP - and those are the two PCs I put Live Writer on. Heh, I guess I subconsciously avoid Vista