I also love eye candy, as you might have judged from the colors of this site.

Finally, I like seeing something before I “buy” it. When it comes to plugins for Windows Live Writer I’m no different. And because I think some of you out there are living along the same lines I like to add images from the plugins I write about.

To take those screenshots I use TechSmith’s SnagIt which is one of the best, if not the best, screen capture tool out there. It comes with a powerful editor with effects: handy. It can capture a menu, a complete web page, region of your screen, a window. Handy. It can save, email, FTP and instant message that screenshot. Again, handy.

The Snagit Screen Capture plugin for Windows Live Writer makes the process of taking a screenshot with SnagIt two steps easier. After the automated installation you click on the Insert SnagIt Screen Capture menu option in your sidebar or insert dropdown.

From the capture menu that comes up you can select most of the same options you could as when you would have started SnagIt itself. By default the settings you choose here do not persist unless you click Save Settings.

Now there’s one important, handy option here which exact use threw me off a little bit: Don’t save image file. Check the option’s checkbox, take the screenshot — and SangIt still prompts you to save it. Cancel the saving and… no image.

As the plugin author puts it:

Images can be captured and optionally do not need to be saved to disk permanently. Checking the Don’t save image file option will capture the file to disk and let Live Writer pick up the image for internal storage, but the actual captured image on disk will then be deleted so you don’t clutter up your drive with captured images.

The key phrase here is: do not need to be saved to disk permanently. In other words, when you check the option SnagIt will prompt you to save the image in the folder you selected in tne Snagit Screen Capture plugin options screen. Upon closing SnagIt the plugin then picks up the image and deletes it from the disk.

A couple of times while still unfamiliar with the plugin I had a SnagIt alert popup telling me it couldn’t perform a screenshot. That hasn’t happened since.

SnagIt Screen Capture plugin is a solid solution for anyone who blogs using Windows Live Writer and regulalrly needs to insert a screenshot of some type or another. For me it is not a solution I can make use of simply because I upload my screenshots to Flickr. No harm done though.

Download page for SnagIt Screen Capture plugin for Windows Live Writer

Like he says:

Starting to use Windows Live Writer more and more it becomes apparent that it would be really nice to take it with me between computers. If you have more than one blog it is tedious to set everything up every time you need to install again.  You have all your blog settings, ping server settings and FTP settings to redo.

As a solution he has made a Windows Live Writer portable launcher. It runs Windows Live Witer in its own environment, as he puts it. That’s one part of the puzzle.

The other part of the puzzle is getting WLW on a stick. This involves copying all WLW files as stored in Program Files to your stick. After that you can uninstall the thing if you want.

To use Windows Live Writer Portable you then simply click on the portable launcher.

Smart solution.

Download page for Windows Live Writer Portable

After the manual installation position your cursor where you want the preview to appear and click the Insert Thumbnail of URL… entry in the insert side menu or insert dropdown menu.

A dialog box comes up where you can specify which URl to snap. The caption defaults to “Thumbnail via WebSnapr” followed by the URL but you can change it.

Size of the image can be set as well as if it has a border around it or not. You can op to have the link open in a new window.

Using the default settings a preview of the Windows Live Writer Plugins home page looks as shown on the left.

WebSnapr Plugin for Windows Live Writer is a simple, clean solution. If you don’t need preview images of all sites, the way you have with Snap, then WebSnapr’s service delivers an easy, fast solution. And the plugin does what it should do: make life a little bit easier, eliminating the need to switch to code view, insert image URL’s etc.

Download page for WebSnapr Plugin for Windows Live Writer

Out of the box Now Playing is rock solid, fully functional and works with iTunes, Windows Media Player and WinAmp. It’s able to get all the data (artist, song, album) without a problem.

The new twist is that this is a plugin which can be extended with plugins… I’ll take a sip of tea while you read that sentence again :-)

Right now Now Playing comes with two plugins. One to get album information from Amazon, one to get artist information from MusicMap.

The download page offers both an easy installer and for those who wish to keep their registry clean a manual setup (how to manually install a Windows Live Writer plugin).

Once installed it is a good idea to visit the options/preferences screen (ToolsPreferences PluginsNow PlayingOptions).

Here you first select your player. You can then select the web services you wish to use. If you select Amazon, don’t forget to click the Options button to its right. You’ll be presented with a box where you can enter your Amazon (Web Services) Subscription ID (get it - it’s free). This is required if you want to use the Amazon service. You can also enter your Amazon Associate ID (optional - sign up here for free).

Still in the options screen of Now Playing it’s a good idea to have a look at the Markup tab, even if it’s just to be familiar with it. It is here that you define how the music signature will look.

All setup? Time to test. Open your player and start playing. At any time when you feel it’s needed, hit the Insert Now Playing… option in the insert menu in the sidebar or in the insert menu dropdown.

What you end up with could look something like this (oh, and yes, that is a great track — see YouTube – and yes, that link in the music info is an example of an Amazon affiliate link):

BassHunter - LOL (Red Edition) - Boten Anna (Radio Edit)

Now Playing is, if not the best now playing/music signature plugin, at the very least the most promising one.

Recommended.

Download page for Now Playing plugin for Windows Live Writer

In my mind Insert Video is the only video plugin you need with Windows Live Writer — and currently I’m simply not considering any others.

Insert Video comes as an installer and once installed comes with a smart set of default options. Default, I say, because as you insert the video of your liking in your Windows Live Writer post you can override most of these:

Upon insert you can choose between full video with preview of an image and a link to the video. The video size is set and cannot be resized.

When you paste a wrong URL you’re going to get, as the plugin so nicely puts it, a big fat hairy error:

What was interesting in the case of my video is that the URL copied from the address bar for YouTube gave me this error but the URL in the share box did not — even though they are exactly the same. Go figure.

Going with the default options (Tools / Preferences / Plugins) and the settings as they appear in the Insert Video dialog except for enabling Show Title, we easily end up with this:

Download page for Windows Live Writer Insert Video plugin

After using the convenient installer Windows Live Writer Backup is therefore not available from within Windows Live Writer. Instead you have to go to your Start Menu and select the shortcut there.

The program can run while Windows Live Writer is running.

Windows Live Writer Backup, as the name suggests, backs up everything that matters for Windows Live Writer: the blog settings, the drafts, recent blogs and even the plugins!

Each of these is optional. You can opt to only backup drafts but not the rest.

Windows Live Writer Backup is a basic utility which does not do incremental or differential backups — but what it does it does solidly good.

Especially when you have more than one blog in WLW, Windows Live Writer Backup is a great, I would almost say essential, part of your WLW plugins library.

Download link for Windows Live Writer Backup

Yes, you can highlight what you’re doing with Windows Live Messenger and paste it into Windows Live Writer but the Windows Live Messenger Quote plugin lets you insert any part of your Windows Live Messenger history into your post.

Click the button in your sidebar or menu entry in the insert menu dropdown. From the dropdown in top of the resulting window select your correct history file (note: some users with Windows in other languages than English have had problems having the plugin find the history files).

Once selected you’ll be able to select one or more lines the Microsoft Windows way. Hit OK and the lines are inserted.

The inserted lines look pretty much the same way Windows Live Messenger’s own history view displays them. If you’re not comfortable with that you can select Use Color and set some of your own styles.

At the time of writing the plugin is listed in one of the CodePlex downloads but once downloaded is not actually available in that download.

Download page for Windows Live Messenger Quote plugin for Windows Live Writer

Download the file, extract it and put the single resulting file in the Windows Live Writer plugin folder (see how to manually install a Windows Live Writer plugin).

There are no configurable options.

When you’re ready, click the Insert Technorati Tag… menu entry on the insert sidebar or on the insert menu dropdown.

Enter your tags. Watch out — they’re separated by a semi-colon, not by a space or colon as is usual.

Click OK and the result appears in your blog post (note: style will differ per blog).

Download page for LiveWriter Technorati Plugin

The Insert Bible Verse plugin for Windows Live Writer comes with an installer, if you so want. The developer also makes available a version which you can just drop in the right folder yourself. (How to manually install a plugin).

There is nothing to configure. It uses the ESV Bible service.

Click on the Insert Bible Verse… menu entry in your sidebar on dropdown menu. The logo of the Bible service is chopped off: to see it completely, resize the dialog box.

The tricky part now is that the Insert Bible Verse plugin requires sound Bible knowledge in order to enter a verse. You start typing the book (say, Psalms). An auto-complete dropdown helps you speed things up. You then enter the beginning and end verse. If you omit this, the complete first chapter will be inserted.

There is no look-up, search or concordance function so if you’re not sure where something is, you need to find it elsewhere, then use the plugin to insert the verse.

Download page for Insert Bible Verse plugin for Windows Live Writer

For those not in the know, I’m Feeling Lucky is a Google search button which will take you to the most relevant result for your search at that time. Today a Lucky search for “Windows Live Writer plugins” takes you to this site, tomorrow or next week it might be another one.

Getting such a “jump to the best result” live link in your blog post is now childs play.

Manually install the plugin (how to manually install a plugin in Windows Live Writer) and an Insert I’m Feeling Lucky Link option appears in your Insert menu dropdown and/or sidebar.

Click it. Enter the text you want to use for the link. If it’s the same as the search you want to perform, put a check in the relevant checkbox. Otherwise enter your search term(s).

Optionally you can have the link open in a new window.

Clicking OK inserts the link. Remember, when you click this link you’ll never see a Google search page but instead will be kicked forward to what Google at that time considers to be the most relevant site for the search you entered.

Download page for I’m Feeling Lucky Link plugin for Windows Live Writer.