If you’ve ever maintained a blog and experienced the dreadful ho-hum web-based interfaces of WordPress, Blogger etc.,  then l’ve got a tip that will get your fingers moving happily again!  First, I should state for the record that I am not a Microsoft fan.  I prefer my Mac or Linux workstation in just about every situation but…

The whole Windows Live team is doing some really kick @$$ things these days.

I’ve been using Windows Live Writer (WLW) on my various WordPress blogs for a few months and now I wouldn’t use anything else.  It’s super easy to change between blogs, or if you have one post you want to post to both places, just select it from a drop down menu.  If you change the theme of your blog, you can even download the look and feel into WLW as well so you can see what your post looks like before you publish.  Way cool.  It’s also simple  to manipulate the placement of photos in your blog (left, right, center) and also a snap to insert video from YouTube or Vimeo.  The capability of scheduling your blogs for publication at a later date is a handy feature for those of us who have flurries of creativity followed by days of writer’s block.  Ever find a typo in your post and want to update?  Just fix it in WLW and republish –  it’s smart enough not to duplicate the post.

Bottom line:  Windows Live Writer is unquestionably and undoubtedly the best blog writing program on any platform.  Period.  Bar none.  It is the one reason I keep a Windows machine around (well, I guess Unreal Tournament and Office are pretty good reasons too).  I have yet to find any program on the Mac that remotely comes close to Live Writer in terms of functionality and just general program goodness.  If someone knows of one, I would love to know.

Best of all — its free and you can download it now at Windows Live.