Microsoft released Windows Live Writer this past week, and I thought I would give it a try (like everyone else in the blogging world, it seems). Here are my initial impressions:

• The interface is more intuitive and less complex than my current blogging tool, w.bloggar. This doesn’t mean that it isn’t as powerful, though; it seems to have all of the features that I used with w.bloggar – and looks better doing it.
• Connecting to dasBlog to post was almost too easy. Live Writer supports the new Really Simple Discoverability (RSD) standard, which means that for those blogging engines that support the standard, connecting and posting is as simple as pointing the interface your blog’s URL. At 1.8, dasBlog doesn’t support RSD, but it will in 1.9.
• The availability of plugins and an API should be a huge boon to the Live Writer project. Omar Shahine has already got a couple of plugins up his sleeves that I am excited about, and I plan on trying the “Currently Listening” plugin later this week.
• Another strength that I see in Live Writer is its image and mapping capabilities. You can add images, change the layout and image properties (including adding custom watermarks), and edit images without leaving the blogging window. The image editing capabilities remind me a lot of Picasa. Adding custom maps from the Windows Live Local service is just as easy, and is a real asset to the application.
• The ability to preview your post – CSS and all – from within the Windows Live interface is outstanding. Whereas before I often had to publish the post and then go into the built-in editor to correct formatting errors, now I can just post and go.

Overall, I am – as you can see – very impressed with Live Writer. It has the exact capabilities that I need, and nothing that I don’t. I really look forward to using some of the plugins that will undoubtedly come out of the API.