Open Live Writer

Open Live Writer (also known as OLW) is a free and open-source desktop blogging application released by .NET Foundation. It is a fork of Windows Live Writer 2012 by Microsoft. Open Live Writer features WYSIWYG authoring, photo-publishing and map-publishing functionality, and is currently compatible with WordPress.com, WordPress (hosted), and Blogger, with support for more platforms planned. The application's source code is available on GitHub under the MIT License.

Open Live Writer

Open Live Writer 0.5
Original author(s)	Microsoft
Developer(s)	.NET Foundation
Preview release	0.6.2.0 / May 23, 2017; 7 years ago (2017-05-23)
Repository	github.com/OpenLiveWriter/OpenLiveWriter
Written in	C# and C++
Operating system	Windows 7 and later[1]
Platform	IA-32 and x64[1]
Type	Blog software
License	MIT License
Website	openlivewriter.com

History

Windows Live Writer

Open Live Writer is a fork of Windows Live Writer, which is based on Onfolio Writer,^[2] a product Microsoft obtained from the acquisition of Onfolio in 2006. The Onfolio Writer team worked together with the Windows Live Spaces team to release Windows Live Writer.^[3] After the release of Windows 8, Microsoft encouraged the team responsible for the software to focus on Metro-style apps, and the last major version of Windows Live Writer was released in 2012.^[3]

On June 12, 2014, Scott Hanselman announced the idea of making Windows Live Writer open-source.^[4] Nearly a year later, it appeared that open-sourcing the program was approved by Microsoft.^[5] Later that year, .NET Foundation announced an open-source fork of Windows Live Writer.^[3]

Initial announcement

On December 9, 2015, Scott Hanselman announced the forking of Microsoft's Windows Live Writer as an open-source project called Open Live Writer.^[6] The announcement notes that the original Windows Live Writer 2012 application will remain a property of Microsoft and will continue to be offered as part of Windows Essentials while Open Live Writer will be developed independently as a separate project as part of .NET Foundation.^[7] A downloadable preview version of the application was offered the same day^[8] alongside the full source code on GitHub.^[9]

On 27 September 2016, Open Live Writer became available on Windows Store.^[10]

Version history

Legend:

Old version, not maintained

Old version, still maintained

Latest version

Latest preview version

Future version

Table of versions: Open Live Writer
Version	Release date	Highlights
Old version, not maintained: 0.5.0.0[11]	December 9, 2015	Initial public release Relatively unchanged from Windows Live Writer 2012 with the following features removed: Spell checker, "Blog This" API, and the "Albums" feature.[6] Supported publishing platforms: WordPress.com, Hosted Wordpress, Google's Blogger.[11]
Old version, not maintained: 0.5.1.2[12]	December 16, 2015	This release provided the initial version of Blogger support using their latest API to unblock users of Blogger. Blogger categories/labels not yet supported.
Old version, not maintained: 0.5.1.3[13]	December 22, 2015	This release provided some bug fixes and enhancements to the Blogger support based on feedback.
Old version, not maintained: 0.5.1.4[14]	December 23, 2015	Minor update that addresses the bugs introduced in previous update
Old version, not maintained: 0.6.0.0[15]	February 13, 2016	Added spell checking through the built-in spell checking functionality of Windows 8 and later.[16] This feature is not available on Windows 7. Added support for categories when working with Blogger. Bug fixes and general improvements
Latest version: 0.6.2.0[17]	May 23, 2017	Made available via Open Live Writer at the Windows Store. Updates are now installed through the Store rather than a built-in background updater. Fix scaling of categories dropdown and options dialog Implement per-monitor DPI Support Add support to CSS3 templates

See also

• Free and open-source software portal

• Desktop Publishing
• Content Management System