Writing on the web is pretty easy, but formatting text and uploading photos is tricky at the best of times, and a headache-inducing nightmare at the worst.

Luckily, Windows has a great piece of desktop software called Windows Live Writer that takes the guesswork out of web publishing. It’s part of the Windows Live pack of applications, so if you’ve ever got MSN up and running, you can easily install Windows Live Writer.

1. Download Windows Live Writer here: http://download.live.com/writer

2. Run the installer and choose “Writer” and then “Install”.

After the software is installed, you will then add your blog information. (For members of the Taipei Tech Club, you automatically receive a free blog upon registration. You can create your account here: http://taipeitechclub.com/user/register. Remember your username and password as you will enter it in Windows Live Writer later.)

3. The first time you open Windows Live Writer it will ask you which blogging service you use. Choose “Other blog service” and hit “Next”.

4. To add your Taipei Tech Club blog, paste the following link into “Web address of your blog” section: http://taipeitechclub.com/node/add/blog so it appears as follows.

Note: if you are behind a pesky corporate firewall, then add your proxy server info as required.  

5. Last step, choose “Movable Type” as the blog type you are using and paste the following link in the “Remote posting URL” section: http://taipeitechclub.com/xmlrpc.php

Windows Live Writer will download the proper website and theme settings from taipeitechclub.com and then you are finished.

To show you why the software is so nice, here is a screenshot of this post in Windows Live Writer. It appears exactly on your desktop as if you were composing in a web browser. This creates a friendly, easy-to-use writing environment.

Changed the changed because we might as well get Wordpress out of the way since we’re here!

Adding a Wordpress blog or website to Windows Live Writer

I’ll quickly show you how to add Wordpress using our soccer team’s website, Taipei City FC, as an example.

1. Go to Blogs > Add blog account in the top menu of Windows Live Writer.

2. Add your Wordpress site/blog address, username and password.

3. Finished! (Windows Live Writer automatically recognizes a Wordpress site so there’s no need to define the path of the xmlrpc.php file. Simple.)

And just like above, the website theme is downloaded to the desktop so you can easily format your posts.

So now that I’ve got both accounts added to Windows Live Writer, I can easily post the same content to both sites in a matter of seconds.

Windows Live Writer makes it dead easy to upload content and I’m especially impressed with how simple it is to add images, hit “Publish”, and have everything turn out as expected. No more crossing your fingers as you hit submit and I look forward to using it to manage my websites.

So leave the Tylenol in the medicine cabinet, get the idea wheels spinning; it’s time to set off on a fresh blogging adventure!

Edit: here’s a final screenshot of WLW publishing to the web.