Hi.  I’m Becky Pezely, the Program Manager for Windows Live Writer. I hope you’re all having fun with the new Windows Live beta and discovering all of the ways it is now possible to stay connected, and share, with the people you care about most. In this post I’ll explain how Writer is yet another way Windows Live can help get you on a path to sharing things – like photos and videos – in ways that are easier and better than before.

Writer is a tool for publishing to blogs.  For those of you who already have a blog, Writer works with almost every blog provider in the world – including Windows Live, Blogger, Wordpress, Live Journal, TypePad and many others.  If you don’t have a blog Writer will help you make a blog on Windows Live.  Either way, getting started is easy:

When you first launch Writer, there will be a wizard that helps you set up your blog.  The first screen will ask if you already have a blog.  Select the option that applies to you.

If you said you already have a blog, then on the second screen choose “Other blog service”.  The wizard will then ask you to provide the website, username and password that you would normally use to login to your blog.

If you said you don’t have a blog, then the second screen will ask you to provide your LiveID username and password and will proceed to create a blog on Windows Live for you.

Once you have Writer connected to a blog, it’s easy to share photos, videos and much more.  The rest of this article illustrates some examples.

Photos

Whether you want to quickly show a snap-shot of your “life right now” or if you need a photo to accompany a longer story that you want to tell, Writer makes you look like a pro.

How it works

Simply insert your photos resize them, apply border styles and effects, or change the alignment and text wrapping.  The whole time, Writer shows exactly what it will look like when you publish it.

How to do it

1. In Writer, click on the Insert menu and select Picture.
2. In the Insert Picture dialog, select the picture you want click the Insert button.
3. Use the options in the Picture sidebar to make it look the way you want. 

Here are some examples:

Border: Drop Shadow Effect: Watermark	Border: Reflection	Border: Photopaper Effect: Tilt

What it looks like

Photo Albums

Writer will automatically create and upload photo albums to Windows Live when you publish to your blog. 

How it works

Tell Writer which photos you want to have published as a Windows Live photo album and choose from a list of pre-set album styles to display a beautiful montage inside your post.

How to do it

1. In Writer, click on the Insert menu and click Photo Album
2. In the Insert Photo Album dialog, click the Add button to add photos to your album, then click the Insert button.
3. Use the options in the Photo Album sidebar to make the album look the way you want. 

Here are some examples:

View Full Album Album style: Spread

View Full Album Album style: Scatter

What it looks like

Video

Just like photo albums, Writer will automatically upload videos to your account on MSN Soapbox or YouTube or directly embed videos you have already uploaded.

How it works

Insert a video file from your computer in Writer and it will automatically get upload it to Soapbox or YouTube when your post is published to your blog.

How to do it

1. In Writer, click on the Insert menu and click Video
2. In the Insert Video dialog, click the From File tab, browse to the video file you want to insert, then click the Insert button.
3. Use the options in the Video sidebar to make the album video appear that way you want. 

Here’s an example:

What it looks like

Insert Video From File & Publish to Soapbox or YouTube

Insert Video From Soapbox or YouTube

And More

The possibilities are endless.  Visit Window Live Gallery to browse and download Writer plug-ins that let you insert everything from Flickr photos to emoticons.
 
We’d love to hear what you think.  Please visit the Windows Live Writer newsgroup and drop us a line!