If you're a blogger and you're searching for an offline blogging solution, you've got a few options.  You can pay for one like BlogJet or simply download one of the free blog editors like Zoundry Blog Writer or the new Windows Live Writer (beta).  I've enjoyed using Zoundry for the past couple months, but I'm always on the hunt for the "latest and greatest", so I thought I'd give Live Writer a try (this post was submitted with Live Writer).  I must say the results look promising.

my home from virtual space

First of all, it has a couple of very nice features.  The WYWIWYG "Web Preview" mode actually retrieves the CSS stylesheet from your blog so you can see exactly what your post will look like when posted.  That's really cool, but I'm not sure how important it is, since most of my blog entries are about the content, not the layout.  

Another cool feature is the tight integration with Windows Live Local, so you can add maps to your posts as easily as adding an image. The beta version still has some issues with displaying the maps while editing your post, but I'm sure this will get worked out soon. 

I'm hoping the developers extend the insertion options to include Flash video - but wait!  How about plugin support?

You got it.  Probably the coolest feature that sets Live Writer apart from the other blog writers is the ability to write your own plugins (checkout the Windows Live Writer Plugins site and the CodePlex project site).  To develop a plugin using the Live Writer API, you need the Live Writer SDK, which includes a demo solution and pretty good documentation for a beta release.  Actually, there are 2 APIs in the SDK, one for launching Writer to create new posts from links, snippets, images and feed items, and another for extending the capabilities of Writer to insert, edit and publish new types of content.  I haven't tried it yet, but it looks like a fairly straight-forward process, deriving a class from ContentSource or SmartContentSource, applying the appropriate attributes to the class and overriding the corresponding methods.

I think I'll switch from Zoundry to Live Writer.  Partly because it gets the job done just as well, but mostly because of the plugin support.  Now every time I write a post, I'll be thinking about new plugins I could write to make the task easier, and I like dreaming up new solutions.   As soon as I get a spare afternoon, maybe I'll sit down and write a plugin or two.  Got any ideas?