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New version of Windows Live Writer (Beta 2) is out!

Wednesday, May 30, 2007 5:51 PM

imageIf you are like me, you will use Live Writer a lot to blog with. I think it's a great tool. I especially like the new Beta 2 which has got in-document spell-checking which the previous version didn't which is a huge boon for me because my spelling is rubbish. One small draw back, can I have an British English dictionary please?

It does have a new kind of Vista feel about it which is perhaps just the colour scheme but is still a lovely and simple, uncluttered and straightforward freebie tool to use.

 The nice thing about Writer is it does have a nice array of plug-ins that set this tool apart from using a word-processor or notepad tool.

One little comment, where has the categories combo gone? That was dead handy.

You can get Windows Live Writer Beta 2 for free from here.

Update: The new category combo box is on the bottom right of the window I didn't spot, thanks to everyone that pointed it out to me. Ho hum another case of status bar myopia!


Feedback

# re: New version of Windows Live Writer (Beta 2) is out!

Hey,

I work on the Writer team at MS. Check the lower left corner- we just moved the category control :)!

-charles 5/30/2007 6:29 PM | Charles Teague

# re: New version of Windows Live Writer (Beta 2) is out!

Category control is now at the bottom of the screen.

We hope to add more dictionaries in a future release. Thanks for the feedback. 5/30/2007 6:30 PM | Joe Cheng [MSFT]

# re: New version of Windows Live Writer (Beta 2) is out!

I've tended to use Ecto (see http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/) for most of my blogging, partly because it has both Mac and PC versions. Having said that the fact that Firefox now has built in spell checking - including British English dictionaries has made a big difference to being able to blog straight from a browser. PC wise I'd probably spend a lot more time in IE7 if it wasn't for the lack of spell checking... 5/31/2007 3:31 AM | Richard

# re: New version of Windows Live Writer (Beta 2) is out!

Thanks for pointing out where the categories box had gone guys, I feel like a right dunder-head now!

I looked at Ecto a while back and it's a good tool but it's not free.

Spell-checking in IE7 can be achieved in more than one way, there is ofcourse the free-spell checker on the Google toolbar or a little util I found called IESpell that is cool if you don't want to get further sucked into the Google black-hole. 5/31/2007 6:18 AM | Dave Oiver

# re: New version of Windows Live Writer (Beta 2) is out!

I'm having trouble installing WLW beta 2. I've tried uninstalling beta 1 and deleting all associated registry enries but when i install the beta 2 download, i keep getting beta 1. What am I doing wrong? 5/31/2007 10:45 PM | Jim

# re: New version of Windows Live Writer (Beta 2) is out!

I see the cagtegory selection, but how do you edit categories? I see no way to add/edit/organize the categories 6/10/2007 3:38 PM | Dale

# re: New version of Windows Live Writer (Beta 2) is out!

The reason why there is no add/edit/organise categories is it merely reads them off the site the api (or so I believe) doesn't offer the facility to update the categories. 6/13/2007 5:36 PM | Dave Oliver

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