I’ve been using Windows Live Writer for some time to post to various SharePoint blogs I’ve had over the years. I’ve found it very convenient to be able to write blog posts off-line while I’m traveling and then post them once I gain access to my network. The functionality of Live Write has been fairly good, but not good enough for it to be great. Well, I’ve just downloaded the latest version of the Windows Live Suite, Windows Live Essentials 2011, and I have to say that I’m very, very impressed with the enhancements to several of the applications that I use. Some of these changes will, quite honestly, make me a frequently user of this increasingly powerful Microsoft application suite.
Automatic Linking [Live Writer]
See the word ‘SharePoint’ in the paragraph above, the one with the hyperlink to the Microsoft SharePoint page? As I was typing the word into Live Writer, Live Write linked it to the Microsoft SharePoint site with a URL I provided in the Automatic Linking configuration area. Every time, from this point forward, I write the word “SharePoint” in a blog posting, it will be hyperlinked to the URL I setup. This makes it extremely easy to have a wealth of links stored and available and simply refer my readers to them by typing in the words I’ve associated with the URL. Now, having the word ‘SharePoint’ linked EVERY time I write it in a blog post would make the post appear a little strange (to me, at least), so I’ve checked the box at the bottom of the Automatic Linking setup screen to “Link to each term only once per post”. That’s VERY cool! Now the links won’t be overwhelming within my posts.
