mcinroy.org

So today I found out that I can post to my blog from Microsoft Word 2007. I’m not sure if earlier versions of word can do this but there is also a program called Windows Live Writer which does the same thing but in a standalone application. From what I can see Windows Live Writer has more features than Word 2007 but it has the added hassle of installing another program.

From what I’ve seen so far Microsoft Word 2007 doesn’t add anything special to my wordpress install, mainly a means of making a blog post whilst I’m offline. One of the main reasons I don’t blog as much is because of the hassle of logging in, slow writing response in the browser, no spell check etc. I know that when I’m offline I could always write my post in word and then copy and paste it into wordpress’s admin interface but I’m lazy. Now I can write away and use my favourite keyboard shortcuts to increase the speed of my typing. Also inserting hyperlinks using the wordpress interface is dire, inserting hyperlinks with Word 2007 is the exact same as it was in FrontPage (for those of you that remember that far back).

Inserting pictures in Word is surprisingly fun. You can insert a picture anywhere you want in a blog post easily, whether it be a file, chart, shape, everyone’s favourite clipart or smartart, which is basically diagrams you can add text to yourself, such as flowcharts, arrows, fancy lists etc. You can also make small adjustments to the picture, such as adding fancy borders, making the edges rounded, softening the edges, 3D rotation and more! You can also compress the images to make them smaller and then Word will upload them to your blog.

I think I’ll give Microsoft Word 2007 a chance for a couple of weeks and see if it increases my productivity or is just another fad. How do you blog?