Open Live Writer

What do you like best?

It does what it promises to do - a simple offline editor that lets you write blog posts for your blog and post them when you are again online. I love that you can add multiple blogs and save your posts as drafts. It easily allows you to add images and videos without any hassle, and I sometimes feel it is actually better than the wordpress block editors. It also allows you to customize the HTML code and see its changes in real time. It also displays how your posts will look with your blog theme, which is a very helpful feature. Your posts can also be categorized and tagged.

What do you dislike?

The interface is old-style and rather unimpressive. Adding private blogs can be a chore as you'll have to first make your blogs public, then login to the software and go back to your blog and make it private. Your blog posts are saved in Open Live Writer's own format, so you cannot access it outside the software unless you copy paste the text. Also, the HTML text is unformatted and messy with no line breaks, so it can get difficult to edit the HTML source code directly.

Recommendations to others considering the product:

Opt for Open Live Writer only if you need offline editing for your blog. It can also be great to have a platform to write blogposts without accidentally publishing them. You can simplify HTML codes by copying them onto editors like Atom and reformatting them.

What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

I have an unstable internet connection, so having an offline blog post editor was a blessing. Open Live Writer has served me well with its customizable features. It allows me to write posts, save them as drafts, and easily schedule their publication on my blogs.