I am trying out Microsoft’s new blog authoring tool - Windows Live Writer.

So far, it looks great.

In some ways, it is ridiculously easy to use.   To take the screen shot at the right, I simply hit Alt-PrtScn and then typed in Ctrl-V.   It even created the drop shadow.

Note that it even picked up my headline format, so I can see exactly what my blog post will look like.

Windows Live Write has even worked the width format of my blog posts, thus showing me a true WYSIWYG representation of my post.

Microsoft is playing nice here too.   Windows Live Write works well with MovableType, WordPress and other blogging platforms that conform to the MetaWeblog API

Why is Windows Live Write A Big Deal for Enterprise Users?

Not everyone is going to get instantly comfortable with Enterprise blogging tools.   Not everyone in a large organization is going to be willing to deal with HTML mark up.   And finally, not everyone is always connected.   It’s tough to write blog posts on a plane.

Windows Live Writer is a stepping stone application for users who are more comfortable with old-school desktop applications.   As such, it will be a useful tool for companies looking to roll-out wide scale internal enterprise blogging.

The only weird thing I noticed is that “blogging” was not included in the Windows Live Write dictionary.

Implications for Weblog Platforms

Long term, I am not convinced, however that an application like Windows Live Writer is going to be the idea way to author enterprise blogs.

The problem is the Windows Live Writer will inevitably always lack integration and context.

Right now, this tool is set up to post to my Innovation Creators blog.  However, in an enterprise setting, I will be using lots of blogs.   For example, I could imagine writing in the following:

• My People Page
• Project ABC Worksite
• Project DEF Worksite
• Client 123 Page
• The IT Practice Worksite

A good blogging system would aggregate all my posts into a back page of my People Page, but would also provide structure and context.   Ideally, although the interface would be similar, I would be able to clearly see which blog I was posting to at all times.   Making that happen on a web based hosted solution would be easy.

I am not sure that it would be that easy to do all that with a desk top application like Windows Live Writer.   Who knows, prehaps it would be possible.

There are other important integration issues.  For example, in WordPress, today, WordPress provides you with an AJAX powered list of the category names that other people are using.

In an enterprise setting, it helps to have tools in place that let a community develop tagging conventions.

A deployed app will always have trouble keening up with these kinds of things.

In the meantime, however, the WYSIWYG interface provided by Windows Live Writer does through up a new standard that AJAX rockstars will, no doubt, be working hard to meet.

How many weeks do you think it will take them? ;)

Updates

Did Microsoft beat Apple to the punch on this one?

As far as I can tell, right now, it looks like it is easier to write good looking blog posts on Windows than it is on a Mac.

HEY! Yo! Steve Jobs! When am I going to get something like Windows Live Writer for my iMac at home. iWeb only seems to work with .mac, and it certainly does not work with MovableType and WordPress.