How to Blog using MS Word 2007

Is there a person on the planet left who doesn’t have a blog? If not, I certainly haven’t met them. From the cradle to the grave, we blog, therefore we are.

But anyone who’s blogged knows that the text editing and word processing tools on blog sites are, to put it mildly, dismal. With Word 2007, though, you won’t need to go to your blogging site in order to write and post a blog entry because you can do it from right within the program.

First, write your post. You can include text formatting because Word will remember it and use it on your blog. Once you’ve written your post, here’s how to make it live in your blog:

1. Click the Office button, and choose Publish --> Blog. A dialog box appears telling you that you need to register with your blogging service if you want to be able to post. Click Register now.
2. From the screen that appears, choose your blog provider from the drop-down list, and click Next.
3. If your blog provider isn’t listed on the drop-down list, choose Other, and click Next. Fill out the form that appears. You’ll need information such as the API your blog provider uses as well as the blog URL.
4. The New Blogger Account screen appears. Enter your username and password for the blog, and check the box next to Remember Password. Click OK. You’ll get a warning that Word will send your username and password to your blog service provider, and that it’s possible that other people could see it (this is because many blog hosts do not use encryption for the usernames and passwords). Click Yes if you want to proceed.
5. If you have more than one blog on the site, a screen appears asking which blog you want to post to. Select one, and click OK.
6. Your blog post will now appear in a new window. Click Enter Post Title Here, and type in the title of your blog post. You can now type in the rest of your post.
7. At the top left of the screen you’ll find the Blog Post group. To publish your blog, click the Publish button. To publish a draft, click the down arrow beneath it, and choose Publish as Draft. Other tools in Blog Post group let you open an existing post for editing, manage your blog accounts (adding, removing, or changing them), assign a category to your post, and view the home page of your blog.
8. When you click Publish you’ll receive a warning that Word will send your username and password to your blog service provider. Click Yes to proceed.
9. The post will be published to your blog, and you’ll see a notification at the top of your Word document that indicates your post was published. You can either save the Word document with the blog in it or discard it. Even if you discard it, the post is live on your site.

File Hosting in MS Word 2007

If you include a graphic in your Word document, you may not be able to post it to your site. Your blogging site may require that you use a separate Web site to host graphics or files for your blog.

If that’s the case, how can you get a picture into your blog? When you’re asked for your blog user name and password in Word, click Picture Options. Then select My Own Server, enter information about your picture provider, and click OK.

If you forget to do this the first time you set up Word for blogging, you can set it up later. On the Blog Post group, click Manage Accounts, highlight the account for which you want to add pictures, click Change, then click Picture Options and fill in the information.