Move over, Word 2007, here comes something leaner!

About a month ago, I posted about blogging from Word 2007. At the time, it seemed pretty cool. I quickly discovered, though, that blogging from Word was pretty limited. If your post consisted of anything more than text and pictures, you were pretty much out of luck. It seemed that there was no way of embedding Flash video, for example, because there was no way to get to the raw HTML code of your post.

Then Joe told me about Windows Live Writer, which is what I’m using right now! In fact, I’ve used it to create the last three or so posts. And I have just three words to say about it:

It. Is. Hot.

On its surface, it’s a WYSIWYG editor, similar to Word 2007. But the WYSIWYG environment is uber-enhanced by the fact that it pulls down the stylesheet from your blog, and uses it to render the editor, making it much more what-you-see-is-what-you-get than Word 2007. Lo and behold, there is also an HTML Code view, making it easy as pie to plop down code to embed a Flash video.

I haven’t tinkered around with any of the other features, but there are hyperlinks to insert maps, tags, and video. You can also extend Windows Live Writer with plug-ins.

It’s still in beta, but really, what isn’t in beta these days? Check it out!