Killer Tech Tips

If you’ve been blogging for quite a while, you should of heard of Windows Live Writer, a desktop blogging client from Microsoft that lets you manage and post stuff to your blog easily. It’s a hell of an app for bloggers, and it is a big productivity booster. There are plenty of plugins available for Windows Live Writer as well. They can be used to add new functions to the already powerful Windows Live Writer.

Let’s take a look at some Windows Live Writer plugins that could replace some standalone programs. These plugins may not stand up to the features offered by their equivalent standalone counterparts, but they do the simple tasks pretty quickly and effectively.

Text Templates Plugin

As a blogger, you might use the same piece of text in many of your blog posts. For instance, I frequently end my blog posts with a sentence that invites readers to post their comments and opinions on a blog post. It’s quite boring to type this manually in every blog post of mine, and it’s time-consuming as well.

Text Templates plugin comes handy by allowing you to save common text and html snips that can they be quickly inserted in your blog post in a matter of seconds. Once you’ve installed the plugin, click on the link in the WLW sidebar and add templates by using the Add New Templates option. When you want to insert a template that you’ve created in the blog post, just double click on the template from the Text Templates Window.

This could replace any common text substitution tools that you may be already using. Sure, it doesn’t have the bells and whistles of a powerful text replacement app, but it does the task for you perfectly.

Download Text Templates Plugin

Screen Capture Plugin

A screen capture tool is indispensable for bloggers, especially tech bloggers. Some people use SnagIt, while others stick to free screen capture apps.

However, if you’ve got this Screen Capture plugin for Windows Live Writer installed, you can quickly capture screenshots of your screen and add them to your blog posts without having to launch another bulky app for the same purpose. Admittedly, this plugin doesn’t have the bells and whistles for editing the captured image, but it just works and that might just be what many people need.

Download the .dll file from the link below and place it under the Plugins directory under C:\Program Files\Windows Live Writer. If the directory doesn’t exist, create it.

Download Screen Capture Plugin

Flickr Upload Plugin

If you upload your photos to Flickr using the official Flickr Uploader and then copy paste shitloads of codes from the Flickr site to insert the photos in your blog post, you should take a look at the Flickr upload plugin for Windows live writer.

Install the plugin, click on its name in the sidebar, authorize and you’re pretty much ready to use it. To upload photos to Flickr, just click on Flickr Upload from the sidebar, choose the photos, add tags and click the Upload button. The image is uploaded and is added to the blog post instantly. Makes your job a piece of cake.

Download Flickr Uploader Plugin

That’s all I could think of. Know of any other addons for Windows Live Writer? Sharing them in the comments is much appreciated.

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