Dear Software Reviewers

Please Read Your Own Reviews

Yesterday, for want of anything better to do, I Googled “best free blog editors for windows 2022.”

This is something I do from time to time to see if there’s any compelling reason to abandon my current editor (which I’ll get to in a bit).

The top four hits all recommended Microsoft’s Windows Live Writer.

The problem with this, and the reason for the title and subtitle of this story, is twofold:

1. Microsoft stopped development on the program years ago
2. The links in the reviews return an error message when you click on them, informing you that the program is no longer available.

I suspect the reviewers have simply recycled old reviews dating from when Microsoft still made Windows Live Writer.

As for me, I started my blogging career when Windows Live Writer was indeed a thing. When Microsoft announced they were no longer going to develop the program and had turned it over to the Open Live Writer folks, I made the switch and continue to use it. So far as I’m concerned, it’s the best blog editor, free or otherwise, for Windows.

From the Open Live Writer website:

Open Live Writer is an open source application enabling users to author, edit, and publish blog posts. It is based on a fork of the well-loved but not actively developed Windows Live Writer code. Open Live Writer is provided under a MIT license.

Whenever you’re looking for new software, regardless of the purpose, do your own research and don’t rely on professional reviewers, no matter how famous they are. Treat them like Wikipedia: a great place to start, but it’s not your primary source.

Oh, and my own favorite offline editor for Medium? I use Ulysses on my iPad, then export it as a draft. It won’t show up in my iPhone or iPad, since Medium did away with their mobile editors on those platforms, but it’s there on the web editor. Ulysses bills itself as “The Ultimate Writing App for Mac, iPad and iPhone,” and at least so far as my iOS devices are concerned, they get no argument from me. It’s also the reason I’m saving my Medium earnings to buy a Mac.