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Windows Live Writer Beta 2 Now Available

The Writer team has been working hard on a new release and we're excited that it is now available for download!

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This release incorporates a ton of feedback from our discussion forums and your blogs. Here are some of the new features you'll find in Beta 2:

 

New Authoring Capabilities

  • Inline spell checking
  • Table editing
  • Ability to add categories
  • Page authoring for WordPress and TypePad
  • Support for excerpts and extended entries
  • Improved hyperlinking and image insertion
  • Paste Special
Integration and Compatibility

  • SharePoint 2007 support
  • New APIs enabling custom extensions by weblog providers
  • Automatic synchronization of local and online edits
  • Integration with Windows Live Gallery
  • Support for Blogger Labels
Plus...

  • New look and feel
  • Available in 6 languages
  • Improved accessibility and keyboard support
  • Many other frequently requested enhancements!
  Tables and spell checking
Tables and spell checking   
Adding categoriesAdding categories

Page authoring
Page authoring

We're also excited to announce that Windows Live Spaces, WordPress, and TypePad have all taken advantage of our new Provider Customization API to expose additional service-specific features within the Writer UI.

customstacked3aThese APIs enable both rich customization of Writer's behavior as well as the opportunity to add new functionality to the product.

If you are a weblog provider check out the API documentation here and don't hesitate to contact us with your feedback and questions.

Final note: Along with Writer, new beta releases of Windows Live Mail and Windows Live Messenger are also available today. Hope you enjoy the new releases and keep letting us know what's on your mind so we can make all of the products better!

Windows Live Writer Team

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Send feedback
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Digg!

Comments (61)
  • View space
    Zack Kushner
    June 05 6:10 PM
    great new build.
    small bug: now when you click "insert picture" and then  go to the "recent" folder, it won't  accept  the shortcuts  there.  it reads them as  .lnk  files, not  images. this didn't happen in the previous build.
  • View space
    Eric
    June 05 10:12 AM
    Hi, I found a file upload problem when using Windows Live Writer Beta 2. I can see the picture I added to the blog in the writer but when I upload the blog to the website, the picture is gone with no reason. 
    Is there any bugs for the file uploads? Please check that and I appreciate your help! Thanks
  • Cain
    June 05 9:16 AM
    I'm totally confused why my WLW has no check spelling functioning...Is it because my Windows is chinese version? 
  • View space
    June 04 4:57 PM
    Hello,
    Latest WLV gives me the following error when I try to access my wordpress blog (2.1.2).
    ---------------------------
    an unexpected error has occured
    ---------------------------
    an unexpected error has occured while trying to detect the blogs parameters :
     
    Unable to cast COM object of type 'mshtml.HTMLMetaElementClass' to interface type 'mshtml.IHTMLElement'. This operation failed because the QueryInterface call on the COM component for the interface with IID '{3050F1FF-98B5-11CF-BB82-00AA00BDCE0B}' failed due to the following error: No such interface supported (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80004002 (E_NOINTERFACE)).
     
    Maybe I need wordpress 2.2 ? But a nicer message would be nice.
    Some side notes... the comments cannot be read and adding one is not possible using opera.
    Is there a search feature on http://groups.msn.com/windowslivewriter/home ?
     
    John.
     
  • June 04 10:16 AM
    Great Work! But when I used Windows Live Writer beta2 with my wordpress blog, all the Chinese characters were garbled (both in UTF-8), and I can not figure out why. Several guys have the same problem. Hope you can fix it :)
  • (no name)
    June 04 9:28 AM
    I can't connect to any of my WordpressMU blogs.  I get an error that "No weblogs found on server.  A successful conncetion was made to your account however the server reported you do not currently have an active weblog.  Please ensure that your account with this provider is current before preceeding."  I am hosting my own site therefore I know my account is current.  It doesn't matter what account I try to use, I get the same error.  I was able to work with my blog using the previous Live Writer software.  I already uninstalled, deleted any live folders, and registry entries. Any ideas?
  • Raf
    June 04 5:29 AM
    Same problem with the CPU going 100%!! Ok, this is a beta version, but you guys (M$) could at least give us some clue on how to fix this problem!!
  • View space
    吸血伯爵
    June 03 11:06 PM
    That is so beautiful , so fantastic!
    Winodws Live Writer! GOOOOOOOOOOD!
  • View space
    (no name)
    June 03 8:33 AM
    Yeah,  the CPU being sucked dry is the problem with me also.  With all the people here complaining about this,  I'm a bit disturbed to see no replies to this from somebody in the know.  Even for Microsoft,  I am a bit disappointed in the absence of support here. This is unusable. 
  • View space
    June 03 6:50 AM
    Hi! i find bag on LiveWriter: i use wordpress 2.2+ so... if i post my enteres to "upload" in LiveWriter and my post have more than 1 tag (example tag: fun, nice, storm, ...etc.) in published (on my blog) i see only 1 tag!, and all anothers (nice, storm, ...etc) termenated! Why?
  • (no name)
    June 02 1:43 PM
    I've been trying to get LiveWriter to work with Wordpress.  I have noticed that LiveWriter does not have the same role  behaviours as the Wordpress Mu Site.

    EDITOR ROLE:
    save_post, publish_post, tagging, all work as expected via LiveWriter

    AUTHOR ROLE:
    save_post worked properly via LiveWriter
    publish_post did not work properly via LiveWriter.  Via the web interface I was able to write a new post and publish it.  With LiveWriter, I could write and save, but not publish.
    tagging worked properly.

    CONTRIBUTOR ROLE:
    save_post does not work, with new contributions.  Via the web interface, a contributor can create a new Post and save it.  In LiveWriter, I cannot save it.

    publish_post does not work for contributors as expected.

    tagging works properly.

    Has anyone else had this kind of experience with LiveWriter?  I'm hoping that I'm missing something obvious that will make the capabilities of each role work properly via LiveWriter.  If not, then it makes LiveWriter not usable with WordPress.

    #pasbozos

  • View space
    Jamie
    June 02 11:36 AM
     
    -Jamie
    jamieATjamieDASHthomsonDOTnet
     
  • View space
    Dan Yurman
    June 02 5:14 AM
    Program will not install.  Unpacks files, then quits.  Had no problem installing Windows Live Mail Desktop beta. 
  • View space
    June 02 2:24 AM
    Hello.
    I have strange question, it seems like i have spellchecker missing! Is it because I have non-english Windows or what?
    I wrote a post about it here.
  • June 02 12:27 AM
    This might be a silly question but what do you have to do to your WordPress blog to allow the Writer to Add/edit Pages (i.e. Pages not posts)?

    TIA
    Molly
  • Bob
    June 01 2:20 PM
    nevermind - finally figured it out! Now back in business with Live Writer working against the new blogger. Thx!
  • Bob
    June 01 1:37 PM
    Folks,
     
    I love Live Writer but it stopped working for me when I got forced to move my blog to the new version of blogger. I've gone through the config options and reviewed threads where others are having the same issue, but still can't resolve it. Anyone want to take pity on me and give me the magic solution? I'm having to use Qumana currently - which worked against the new blogger no problem I'm sad to say - but I don't like the whole UI nearly as much as Live Writer. Please please haalp!
  • View space
    Jubei
    June 01 1:01 PM
    After spending hours trying to figure out why Live Writer Beta 2 sucks my CPU dry I discovered that it triggers svchost.exe into running the CPU at 100%. I have had to uninstall and turn off windows auto update to get my PC back in shape. Even after applying patches, I still cannot get auto windows update back to normal without running my CPU at 100%. This really sucks since both are Microsoft products!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
  • View space
    Got Map?
    June 01 9:01 AM
    It looks nice.
     
    Now, as home court for Live Writer, if only Spaces could take advantage of the new API to add some badly-needed stuff like jumps, excerpts and file storage, I won't have to consider shelling out for a host and Wordpress or Community Server...
     
    Which I may anyway. For as glorious as Live Writer has been, if I can use this same excellent product on a real blog host, I'm all over it like a Detroit Piston at a How to Stop LeBron seminar...
  • View space
    Eric Fong
    June 01 8:41 AM
    Which and how many blog it support ???