Publish to your blog using Microsoft Office Word

Traditionally, blogs have been completely online projects – you read them online, you write them online. However, this has always caused problems. All too often you’ll take too long typing a post and it will disappear when you submit it, as the site confesses to having signed you out half an hour ago.

Use Office Word 2007 though and that’s a thing of the past. It doesn’t connect to your blog until you’re ready to post, and it will keep a backup of everything you write in case anything goes wrong. Here’s how to configure it so you can stop losing your thoughts and start posting them.

1. Ready, set, blog

To create a blog post, simply click New and pick New blog post from the list of available document types. If you’ve already set everything up, you’ll go straight to the editor – if not, you’ll need to enter some settings.

2. Up and atom

Several prominent blogging tools are already coded in. If the one you’re using isn’t on the list, you’ll need to find out if it supports either Atom or MetaWeblog. This information will be in the official documentation.

3. Not my type

In the editing window, the Fluent interface becomes shorter. The default font is Calibri but most sites use Arial, Verdana, Times New Roman, Georgia or Trebuchet MT. Leave it as it is; the blog will sort out the font after posting.

4. In Style

Begin typing your post. Use the style window in the top right to add headers, bold text and italics rather than trying to make it look pretty in the editor screen. More complicated text editing will likely be thrown away when you post.

5. Archive It

To save a post, click Save. When you come back, Word 2007 will remember it’s a blog post and adjust the Fluent interface accordingly. You can open posts later and make changes without visiting your blog’s admin panel.

6. Fame at last

When you’re finished, click Publish. Usefully, Word 2007 automatically puts pictures in the right place, but if you want images to go elsewhere then you’ll need to set up a log-in for an FTP directory.

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