Are you tired of composing your WordPress posts in a clunky web browser interface? Do you wish there was a faster, more intuitive way to write and publish content without the distractions of the WordPress backend?
If so, Windows Live Writer may be just the tool you need to streamline your blogging process. In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll walk you through exactly how to set up and configure Windows Live Writer to work with your WordPress site and start publishing great content more efficiently.
What is Windows Live Writer?
Windows Live Writer is a free desktop application for Windows that allows you to compose and publish blog posts without logging into your WordPress dashboard. With an interface that looks and feels more like a word processor than a web browser, many bloggers find they can write faster and stay focused better using a desktop publishing app like Windows Live Writer.
Originally developed by Microsoft, Windows Live Writer was discontinued in 2012 but remained hugely popular among the blogging community. In 2015, an open-source fork called Open Live Writer was launched to continue development on the project, which I‘ll discuss more later in this guide.
Why Use Windows Live Writer Over the WordPress Editor?
So why would you want to use a separate application to compose your WordPress posts instead of just writing in WordPress directly?
There are a few key benefits:
Faster, distraction-free writing environment. Windows Live Writer provides a clean, minimal interface for focusing on your content without the overhead and distractions of the WordPress backend.
More intuitive formatting tools. The Windows Live Writer editor will feel instantly familiar if you‘ve ever used Microsoft Word or similar word processing software. Formatting text, images, links and more tends to be smoother than WordPress‘s block editor.
Work offline. With Windows Live Writer, you can compose blog posts even when you don‘t have an internet connection, then publish them later when you‘re back online. No worrying about losing your work if your browser crashes or your connection drops.
See a live preview. Windows Live Writer downloads your WordPress theme‘s stylesheet so you can preview your post and see exactly how it will look on your live site before publishing. This can save a lot of back-and-forth previewing and tweaking in WordPress.
Easily manage multiple blogs. If you run multiple WordPress sites, Windows Live Writer allows you to manage them all from one central dashboard and quickly toggle between them.
Of course, using a desktop publishing app isn‘t for everyone – some bloggers may prefer the simplicity of the WordPress editor, especially with the newer Gutenberg block editor. But if you‘re looking to speed up your writing workflow, Windows Live Writer is definitely worth a try.
Step 1: Set Up Windows Live Writer
Before you can start using Windows Live Writer with your WordPress site, you‘ll need to download and install the application on your Windows PC.
Downloading and Installing Windows Live Writer
The easiest way to get Windows Live Writer is to download the installer directly from Microsoft‘s site. Even though the application is no longer actively developed by Microsoft, they still host the most recent version on their downloads archive.
You can grab the offline installer here:
Download Windows Live Writer 2012 from Microsoft
Once the download finishes, double-click the installer file to begin the setup process. The installer will guide you through a few basic configuration screens – just keep the default options and keep clicking "Next" until the installation is complete. The whole process should only take a minute or two.
Launching and Configuring Windows Live Writer
After the installation finishes, go ahead and launch Windows Live Writer from your Start menu or desktop shortcut. The first time you run the application, you‘ll see a welcome screen with some basic configuration options.
On the welcome screen, select "Weblog service" and choose "WordPress" from the dropdown menu.
Next, you‘ll be prompted to enter the URL of your WordPress site‘s homepage (e.g. https://yoursite.com) along with the username and password you usually use to log in to the WordPress admin dashboard.
After filling in your details, click "Next" to continue. Windows Live Writer will connect to your WordPress site and download some information about your blog, including your active theme‘s stylesheet. This allows Windows Live Writer to display a live preview of your posts that matches the look and feel of your actual WordPress site.
If the connection is successful, you‘ll see a confirmation screen letting you know that Windows Live Writer has been set up to work with your WordPress blog. You can optionally click the "Edit blog settings" link here to set some default options like your posting file upload path and image file names.
Click the "Finish" button and you‘ll be taken to the main Windows Live Writer authoring screen, ready to start working on your first post.
Step 2: Compose Your Blog Post
Now that you‘ve got Windows Live Writer installed and configured, let‘s walk through the process of actually composing a post in the app.
The main Windows Live Writer authoring interface looks a lot like Microsoft Word or other popular word processors. You‘ve got a ribbon toolbar across the top with formatting options, while your document itself takes up most of the screen.
Start by giving your post a title in the top text box, then write your post content in the main text area below. You can use the formatting tools on the ribbon to customize the look of your text with different fonts, headings, bullet lists, alignment options, and more.
The formatting options in Windows Live Writer tend to be more expansive and intuitive compared to WordPress‘s built-in editor. More advanced features like tables, special characters, and font customizations are easily accessible from the ribbon.
One of my favorite features of Windows Live Writer is the ability to assign your post to categories and tags directly in the app. On the right side of the screen, you‘ll see a sidebar with fields to set your post‘s categories, tags, and other metadata.
To add your post to a category, simply check the box next to the category name. You can also create new categories on the fly by clicking the "New" button.
For tags, start typing your tag into the "Tags" field and Windows Live Writer will automatically suggest existing tags that match. Hit enter to add the tag or comma to separate multiple tags.
The sidebar also lets you set a variety of other options for your post, including:
- Permalink (the URL slug for your post)
- Post date and time (to schedule posts in the future)
- Featured image
- Excerpt
- Post author
- Comment and ping status
Take a few minutes to explore the different sidebar options and configure your post‘s settings. If you want to schedule the post to be published automatically at a later date and time, you can check the "Post date and time" box and select your desired publishing time.
Step 3: Inserting Images and Media
Visual content like images, videos, and embeds are an important part of most blog posts. Let‘s look at how to add different types of media to your posts in Windows Live Writer.
Adding Images to Your Post
To insert an image into your post, position your cursor where you want the image to appear, then click the "Picture" button in the ribbon toolbar (or press Ctrl+Shift+I).
In the "Insert Picture" dialog box, you can either select an image from your computer by clicking the "Add" button, or provide the URL of an image already on the web by pasting it into the "Web address" field.
If you select a local image from your computer, make sure the "Upload to server" option is checked. This will ensure that your image gets uploaded to your WordPress site‘s media library when you publish the post (as opposed to just embedding the local image file path which won‘t work for site visitors).
You can then adjust the size, alignment, and spacing of your image using the options in the right sidebar. By default, Windows Live Writer will use the full size version of your images. If you want to display a resized version instead (to save space or fit your theme better), you can select a percentage to scale the image down.
Windows Live Writer will automatically take care of creating the resized versions of your image and uploading them to WordPress. If you‘ve set a featured image for your post, that will be automatically resized as well.
Embedding Videos and Other Media
In addition to images, Windows Live Writer supports embedding videos and other media into your posts using the "Video" button on the ribbon (or press Ctrl+Shift+V).
Clicking this button will open a dialog where you can paste the URL of a video from popular hosting services like YouTube or Vimeo. Windows Live Writer will automatically detect the video service and embed the appropriate player in your post.
You can also embed content from other web services like Twitter, Instagram, or SoundCloud by pasting the URL into your post in Windows Live Writer. Just make sure the oEmbed functionality is enabled in your WordPress site (it usually is by default these days).
Step 4: Previewing and Publishing Your Post
Once you‘ve finished composing your post and you‘re ready to publish, it‘s a good idea to preview it first to check for any formatting issues or errors.
Using the Preview Feature
To see a preview of your post exactly as it will look when published on your WordPress site, click the "Preview" tab in the lower left corner of the Windows Live Writer window.
Because Windows Live Writer stores a local copy of your WordPress theme‘s stylesheet, the preview should be a pixel-perfect match for how the post will look on your live site. This is a huge time saver as it allows you to catch any formatting or styling issues before publishing.
In the preview screen, you can also click the "Web Preview" button to open your post in a web browser for a final check before publishing.
Publishing Your Post
Once you‘re happy with your post preview, click the "Publish" button in the top left corner of the Windows Live Writer window to send the post live to your WordPress site.
Windows Live Writer will upload your post content, images, and other media to WordPress and set the post status to "Published" (or scheduled if you set a future publish date). Any categories, tags, and other metadata you set will be applied as well.
After a few seconds (depending on your internet connection speed), you‘ll see a success message letting you know that the post was published. You can click the "View Post" link to open the live post in your web browser.
And that‘s it! You‘ve just published a post to your WordPress site without ever opening your web browser or logging into your WordPress dashboard. Pretty nifty, eh?
Tips and Best Practices for Windows Live Writer
To wrap up, here are a few tips and best practices I‘ve learned from over a decade of using Windows Live Writer with WordPress:
Use the built-in image upload feature. When inserting images, always make sure the "Upload to server" option is checked in the Insert Picture dialog box. This will ensure your images get added to WordPress‘s media library and are accessible to your visitors.
Be careful with copy/pasted content. If you‘re pasting text from another application like Microsoft Word, check that the formatting is correct in Windows Live Writer. Sometimes pasted content can bring over unwanted styling from the original application.
Use a spelling and grammar checker. Windows Live Writer doesn‘t include its own spell check feature, so be sure to run your post through a spelling and grammar tool before publishing. There are many browser extensions that can help with this.
Preview on multiple screen sizes. While the built-in Windows Live Writer preview is usually quite accurate, it‘s still a good idea to check how your post looks on different screen sizes before publishing (especially smartphones and tablets). You can use the "Web Preview" button to open the preview in a resizable browser window.
Keep Windows Live Writer updated. As an older application, Windows Live Writer can sometimes have issues connecting to newer WordPress versions. Be sure to keep the app up-to-date by downloading the latest release from the Open Live Writer project on GitHub.
What About Open Live Writer?
As I mentioned earlier, Windows Live Writer was discontinued by Microsoft back in 2012. But the application still worked well enough that a group of volunteer developers forked the code into an open-source project called Open Live Writer in 2015.
Open Live Writer looks and functions almost identically to Windows Live Writer, but with a few additional features and compatibility fixes for newer WordPress versions. If you‘re running into issues with Windows Live Writer, I‘d recommend checking out Open Live Writer as it‘s more likely to be actively maintained.
You can learn more about Open Live Writer and download it from the official website: OpenLiveWriter.org
Frequently Asked Questions
Before we wrap up, let me address a few common questions I see about using Windows Live Writer with WordPress:
Can I use Windows Live Writer with a Mac?
Unfortunately, Windows Live Writer is only available for Windows PCs. If you‘re on a Mac, you might want to check out a similar desktop publishing app like MarsEdit or Blogo.
Does Windows Live Writer work with Gutenberg blocks?
The WordPress block editor (also known as "Gutenberg") was introduced after Windows Live Writer was discontinued, so there‘s no official integration. However, Windows Live Writer should still work with WordPress sites using the block editor – you just won‘t have access to the individual block-level controls.
Can I edit previously published posts in Windows Live Writer?
Yes! To edit a post that‘s already been published on your WordPress site, open Windows Live Writer and go to the "Open" menu. Select "Posts on your weblog" to see a list of recent posts on your site, then double-click the one you want to edit. The post will open in Windows Live Writer where you can make your changes and republish.
Can I use Windows Live Writer with multiple WordPress sites?
Yep – Windows Live Writer supports managing multiple WordPress blogs from the same app. Just repeat the initial setup process for each site (entering the URL, username, and password when prompted). You can quickly switch between blogs using the dropdown menu in the top left corner of the Windows Live Writer window.
Wrapping Up
I hope this guide has given you a thorough overview of how to publish content to your WordPress site with Windows Live Writer. While it may not be the best choice for everyone, many bloggers swear by the speed and efficiency of desktop blog editors like Windows Live Writer.
With a clean, familiar authoring environment, built-in previewing, and easy publishing tools, Windows Live Writer can be a powerful addition to your blogging workflow. Give it a try and see if it doesn‘t save you hours of formatting headaches!
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