This post was written in Microsoft Word.

A few months ago, I finally took the plunge and upgraded Microsoft Office from version 2003 to version 2010. For the longest time, I decreed that 2003 did everything I needed. But it turned out that there was one very useful feature that is in Word 2007/2010 not found in the earlier versions. While this feature wasn’t the deciding factor to upgrade-I won a free copy-it is the reason I’m typing this post in Word.

The feature? In Word 2007 and later versions, you write and directly publish posts to your WordPress, Blogspot, TypePad, or Windows Live blog.

As it turns out, it’s actually pretty simple to set up. To get started, I would recommend having WordPress open in your browser as well as having MS Word up.

First step, log into your WordPress site and go Settings -> Writing and make sure “Enable the WordPress, Movable Type, MetaWeblog and Blogger XML-RPC publishing protocols.” is checked under Remote Publishing.

Now, it’s time to go into Microsoft Word. In Word 2010, go to File -> “Save & Send” -> “Publish as Blog Post” and click on the “Publish as Blog Post” button. For Word 2007, click the Office button, then go to Publish and click on Blog.

Either way, a dialog box will come up asking you to register a blog account. Click the “Register Now” button. The next dialog box “New Blog Account” will ask you to choose a blog provider. Since I use WordPress, I chose that option.

It will ask for your blog post URL, account username and account password. For the blog post URL, you will see: http://<Enter your blog URL here>/xmlrpc.php Replace the <Enter your blog URL here> with your blog’s address. For mine, I entered edwardantrobus.co.cc If your blog is located at a different spot that just your domain, like SEAM Publishing: www.seampublishing.com/news type that in instead.

For username and password, enter your WordPress username and password as you would normally on your WordPress site. If you don’t want to enter your password each time, check the “Remember Password” box.

Don’t click OK just yet. Instead, click on the “Picture Options” button in the lower left corner. Now, you will be prompted to choose a picture provider. You have the option of “My blog provider” or “My own server” If you host your own images (you should, it’s faster), chose my blog provider.

Click OK to close that window and OK to finish the New WordPress Account dialog. You should get a popup saying Account Registration Successful. You are now set up to start posting.

Type up your post and insert any images. When you are ready, follow the same instructions to as you did to start the setup. Namely, In Word 2010, go to File -> “Save & Send” -> “Publish as Blog Post” and click on the “Publish as Blog Post” button. For Word 2007, click the Office button, then go to Publish and click on Blog.

Your post will be converted to a web view with a new blog section in the ribbon. At the top of your post, you will see [Enter Post Title Here] Enter your post title there. If you want, you can click on the “Insert Category” button in the ribbon. There will be a brief delay while Word contacts your blog to get the list of categories and a drop down box will appear under your post title. Choose your category here.

Now you are all set to publish your post. You can publish it, or publish it as a draft. I always choose Publish as Draft because I like to schedule my posts, plus Microsoft doesn’t really have a lot of metadata options… or the Zemanta plugin.

There will be a brief delay again and then a yellow bar will appear at the top of your post telling you it was published:
Do you use Microsoft Office to write your posts?

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