Using Plug-ins in Windows Live Writer 2008
November 21, 2007
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The other day when I posted a recommendation for using Windows Live Writer to edit your blog, I got a lot of good feedback, so today I wanted to showcase how some of the plug-ins for WLW can make it so much easier to edit your blog.Obviously I’m not going to show every single plug-in for the app, just the ones that I 
find the most useful for my needs. That means that this post may turn out to be rather ugly, showcasing a bunch of stuff that doesn’t go together. Let me make the errors in this one post so that you don’t wind up with something just as bad on your site. Remember - just because you CAN put something into a post, doesn’t necessarily mean that you should.
The image of the inukshuk in the above paragraph was added with the Insert Text Template plug-in, which allows you to configure small, frequently bits of code for insertion at any point in a post. I primarily use it for icons and small graphics to highlight specific posts (like yesterday’s WordPress post). If you needed to include a screenshot from a website, the Insert Website Image will allow you to specify any URL and set the size that you wish to embed it at.
One that I had just found about this morning, seemed a little interesting, is Insert SkyDrive Embedded File at the Windows Live Gallery. To test this, I created a PDF of some of the posts here at BloggingNotes and put it in my public folder. Unfortunately, I got Unhandled Exception errors when I tried to include the link to the file. Hopefully this is something that the Live team can get worked out, as this might be a plug-in that I would use.
All in all, there’s no “Oh. My. God.” plug-ins in WLW, yet, but there are some that can make some of the more routine things that you do a little easier.
If you do use it with custom plug-ins, what do you use? What’s made it easier for you?
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November 21st, 2007 at 11:21 am
I really like WLW. I keep forgetting to upgrade from the beta.
For the beta, I have a plugin called insert placeholder. Someone at the WLW forum made it when I said I had a problem with a script being activated switching between views. I don’t know if it’s needed anymore, but it shows the kind of support available.
November 21st, 2007 at 11:47 am
It does show the support available. Whenever I’ve posted anything to their forum I’ve had a response in generally less than an hour, but never over a day.