Word 2007, Adobe Contribute or Windows Live Writer ?

Which is the best blog authoring software for composing posts offline ? Tim Anderson reveals it all:

On Adobe Contribute CS3

It’s more WYSIWYG than Live Writer. The editing tools are impressive too: along with basic HTML formatting, there is an Insert menu offering Flash, Video and PDF, a spell checker, a table editor, and an image editor with options to rotate, crop, sharpen, set brightness and adjust contrast. 

Well, I miss the clean, uncluttered appearance of Live Writer. It feels a touch over-engineered.

On Microsoft Word 2007

Word does not attempt to display the surrounding furniture of the blog, so it feels less cluttered than Contribute, and you get the benefit of Word’s proofing tools.  It’s a comfortable editing environment, but it does not feel safe.

For example, I can insert a WordArt text object, or shapes of various kinds, but it’s not clear what sort of code it will generate, and as with Contribute there is no easy way to view the HTML.

Verdict: I suspect Writer will remain the tool I actually use.