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Google announced earlier this week the release of Blogger for Word, a free add-in, downloadable from the Web, that allows users of the Weblog service Blogger to post directly to their sites from Microsoft Word.
Once the add-in is installed, three additional buttons appear on a users Word toolbar: Publish, Open Post and Save As Draft. These allow users to publish new posts directly from the text document, open and edit their last 15 posts in Word and save posts without publishing them.
In order to use the Blogger for Word add-in, users must have a free Blogger account, and be running Microsoft Windows 2000 or higher, and Microsoft Word 2000 and higher.
“There are millions of people who live in Microsoft Word — especially people who write stuff for a living…. What doesnt make sense is that if you want your words to wind up on the Web, you have to trade this writing environment, and the tools youre comfortable with, for a flaky text area,” said Evan Williams, a founder of Pyra Labs, on his Weblog.
Blogger was developed by Pyra Labs in 1999, and came to Google with their purchase of Pyra in 2003.
Google has warned that users who dont have the Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 Rollup, the latest Windows Installer, the latest Office Service Packs may have difficulty installing and using the plug-in. Users also may encounter problems with the plug in if they are running Outlook and Word at the same time (if Word is their e-mail editor), Google warned.