QuickLink Plugin For Windows Live Writer

One of the things that always bugged me about blogging was the difficulty in adding a link to a site that I didn't know the URL of.  In the end, I had to do the following:

1. Fire up a browser window.
2. Search for the site (they weren't usually in my Favorites).
3. Copy the site URL to my clipboard.
4. Click the "Insert Link" button.
5. Type in the text for the link.
6. Paste the URL into the popup.
7. Click the OK button.

Well, with the wonderful extensibility of Windows Live Writer, I am finally able to do something about it.  With my new plugin, the steps become the following:

1. Click the "Insert A Quick Link"  button in the sidebar (or in the top menu).
2. Find the site.
3. Type in the text for the link.
4. Click the OK button.

It not only rids me of 3 steps in the first process, but it makes the entire operation part of Windows Live Writer, so I don't have to move back and forth between applications.  I know that other plugins allow you to insert a link from del.icio.us or images from Flickr, but those are both for situations when you have visited the site before or have previously uploaded photos. 

This plugin makes sense if you're searching for an item on Amazon or a movie on IMDB or any other of a million other random link opportunities.

In any case, you can download it from here. 

One thing I did find, though, is that Windows Live Writer disposes of the objects instantiated within a plugin in a weird way.  Maybe this is me, but for the other applications, I never had to call the Dispose() method within the plugin itself.  Originally, I didn't here, either, but then when I closed Windows Live Writer, it threw an exception and crashed.

It turned out that the object that I used to handle navigation and display of the sites on the web needed to be Disposed manually when I was finished with the operation.  Overall, I figured it out and all is well.

Current Mood:    thoughtful