Windows Live Writer is a great tool for bloggers who regularly publish content, but anyone trying to write articles of a specific length will notice a glaring hole in functionality: word count.

That’s where the Word Count Plugin for Windows Live Writer steps in. Its creator, Ben Watson writes “I’ve fixed one of the biggest holes in functionality in Windows Live Writer. It’s simple, but essential: the ability to count words (and characters and paragraphs) in your posts before publishing.”

To install the Word Count Plugin:

1. Download the plugin from the Windows Live Plugin Gallery.

2. Make sure Windows Live Writer is closed, then run the LiveWriterWordCountSetup.msi file you just downloaded. This screen should appear:

3. Click on the Next button.

4. On the following screen, browse to your Windows Live Writer plugins folder. By default, it’s located here: C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Writer\Plugins\ .

5. Click on the Next button and finish out the wizard.

To use the Word Count Plugin

1. Launch Windows Live Writer and open or write an article.

2. Select all of the text by pushing CTRL+A.

3. Click on the Insert menu, and within that, Word Count…

- Hint: you could also hold ALT and type I W to access the feature using hotkeys.

4. You should then see a screen like this with all of your statistics:

Why did Ben put Word Count under the Insert menu? He explains “Windows Live Writer doesn’t really offer a way to extend the menu system itself, but you can create an ‘Insert…’ plugin that just analyzes content instead of creates it . . .”

More on Live Writer plugins

For those who would like to write their own Live Writer plugins, Microsoft provides three flavors of the Software Development Kit (SDK).

- Application API, for launching Writer to create new posts or “Blog This” items for links, snippets, images, and feed items.

- Content Source Plugin API, for extending the capabilities of Writer to insert, edit, and publish new types of content.

- Provider Customization API, for customizing both the capabilities of Writer as well as adding new capabilities to the Writer user interface.

Additionally, here is some information on the Live Writer API.

Related:

3 reasons Microsoft should charge for Live Writer

Microsoft launches Windows Live Hotmail

Microsoft backflips on ridiculous Hotmail name change

Microsoft bringing PC and console gamers together

Microsoft issues 20 Windows patches but none for Vista. Yet.

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Entry was posted on Monday, February 11th, 2008 at 2:51 pm under Tips and advice, Tutorials.

Read more entries by Matt Jansen.
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