This is a post from Word 2007. I know this has been a much-discussed feature in the blogosphere, but I’m beginning to wonder if maybe Microsoft is a little late to this party? Certainly being able to use Word is nice in terms of having a spell check and other formatting feature that it brings to the table as opposed to composing in the browser or another blogging tool, but it’s not how most of us have gotten used to blogging.

Personally, I don’t see as much benefit from Word because I’m already using the Google Toolbar in Firefox to spell check. I’m using Greasemonkey scripts to do things like add Technorati tags, the Blogger interface is much easier to create links with, and I can use Flickr to post pictures directly to my blog. All of this goes on in the browser. In fact, since I don’t remember the exact code for Technorati tags, I’m going to have to go back and add them in after I post this.

Basically, the fact that they finally cleaned up the HTML you get from Word is nice, but I’ve grown so accustomed to using other tools to post to my blog, and spent so much time getting things set-up exactly the way I like, that it’s going to be very difficult to switch now. That’s why I’m wondering if they’re too late? Of course, there’s a whole lot of people out there who haven’t started a blog yet, so maybe they really aren’t too late.

The other issue about this feature concerns how much it’s going to keep businesses from upgrading. I know our firm has a no blogging policy. Basically it says that you’re at work to work, and you aren’t to be posting to or maintaining your personal blog using firm resources. You’re free to have a blog but you must maintain it on your own time using your own tools, and you should be very careful about discussing the firm’s business publicly. Given that, why would I roll out software with a specific features for bloggers? Is MS betting that businesses will embrace blogging, therefore making this feature in Word part of their website maintenance? It’s certainly not out of the question that our firm will be maintaining a blog for our clients in the future, which would certainly change the way I’m thinking about this now. I guess we shall see.