Google announced earlier this week the release of Blogger for Word, a free add-in, downloadable from the Web, that allows users of the Web log service Blogger to post directly to their sites from Microsoft Word.

Once the add-in is installed, three additional buttons appear on a user's Word toolbar: Publish, Open Post, and Save As Draft. These allow users to publish new posts directly from the text document, open and edit their last 15 posts in Word, and save posts without publishing them.

In order to use the Blogger for Word add-in, users must have a free Blogger account, and be running Microsoft Windows 2000 or higher, and Microsoft Word 2000 and higher.

"There are millions of people who live in Microsoft Word —
especially people who write stuff for a living…. What doesn't make sense is that if you want your words to wind up on the Web, you have to trade this writing environment, and the tools you're comfortable with, for a flaky text area," said Evan Williams, a founder of Pyra Labs, on his Web log.

Blogger was developed by Pyra Labs in 1999, and came to Google with their purchase of Pyra in 2003.

Google has warned that users who don't have the Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 Rollup, the latest Windows Installer, the latest Office Service Packs may have difficulty installing and using the plug-in. Users also may encounter problems with the plug in if they are running Outlook and Word at the same time (if Word is their e-mail editor), Google warned.

"We designed this for maximum compatibility with older version of Word going back to Word 2000 on Windows 2000," says Jason Shellen, Pyra Founder and Google product manager, on his Web log. "That means that this is a very simple toolbar, but once you try round-tripping a document (publish, view on the Web, make some changes, view again) you will see that it is powerful as well… The trade-off was that we couldn't support images, tables, or some of the wackier formatting in Word."

Shellen added that he had tried to find a good developer to make a Mac-supported version and came up short.

Early reviews of the add-in have been positive.

"What makes this tool so attractive to those who like to ensure their copy is properly spelled and punctuated is the ability to push the 'Publish' button on the toolbar and see their work actually posted on their blog," opined Chris Richardson, a contributing writer for WebPro News.

Gina Trapani, author of computer productivity Web log LifeHacker.com, said that she was pleased with what she found.

"After typing out a post, I clicked Save as Draft. Blogger for Word promoted me for my account and password and then loaded the post quickly and correctly," she blogged.

Google's Blogger competes with MSN's Spaces, Six Apt Ltd's Movable Type, hosted Typepad and LiveJournal services, and blogging services from ISPs and portals such as Lycos and AOL.

Google has made several changes over the past year to Blogger. It has encouraged users to create revenue from their site with Google Ads ; phased out a paid version of the service; and released a major revamp of Blogger in 2004.