Review: Windows Live Writer(Beta) & Windows Live Mail (Beta)

Well, I just started Blogging, so what's a better topic than my first experience using a Blog Editor?

I discovered that 'Windows Live Writer®' (Beta) had been released and decided to give it a try. While downloading/installing Live Writer, an option to choose other 'Widows Live' products was offered and I decided to include Live Mail as well (I have been using Outlook 2002 and its time I decided to try a newer version).

I should note that the download/install does appear to 'hang', but eventually does continue (about 3-5 minutes for me). I have  nice Comcast  Cable® connection and 3-5 minutes now seems like an eternity.

I was immediately impressed: Live Mail auto-discovered and imported my email AND my registered newsgroups. The password and user information for the newsgroups was imported as well, but I had to manually enter my username, password and email server settings for my email accounts. I was up an running in minutes.

 

Here is a screen shot of my newsgroups using Live Mail:

The new Live Mail newsgroups is essentially the old (Outlook Express)with a prettier face: I have not noticed any new features regarding newsgroups. Perhaps there is something "under-the-hood", but I didn't notice any difference in functionality. I did like how it was imported automatically and I like how my email and newsgroups are integrated into one program.

I did; however, notice improvements for email. For example, the new Live Mail versus Outlook 2002 was recognizing spam and moving it to a junk folder automatically. I think I will keep using Live Mail and give a longer test. So far, I am happy.

 

Live Writer is what I am using to post this Blog and it was very easy to configure. A few wizard screens had me enter my Blog info and my account info (required to have permission to access the Blog). Within less than a minute Live writer downloaded my template and I was looking at a great WYSIWYG editor.

I am finding this editor (Live Writer) to be very easy to use and here is a screen shot:

 

Overall: I am happy with both products and will continue to use them. Live Writer truly is a WYSIWYG editor and I am very happy. I will certainly discover any problems over time, until then I will assume the best.

Nice job Microsoft!