Microsoft has announced a Beta version of Windows Live Writer, a free desktop application that makes it easier to compose blog posts. Writer is a WYSIWYG (What You See is what you get) Editor.

Writer knows the styles of your blog such as headings, fonts, colors, background images, paragraph spacing, margins and block quotes and enables you to edit your post using these styles. Writer also includes other views including HTML source-code editing and web preview mode. Writer can also insert, customize and upload photos to your blog. It can also insert a Windows Live Local map directly into a post.

Is supports the following blogging platforms:

- Windows Live Spaces
- Blogger
- LiveJournal
- TypePad
- Wordpress
- All blogs that support RSD (Really Simple Discoverability)
- Metaweblog API
- Moveable Type API