How to actually set up Microsoft Word to create + edit posts to your WordPress blog (updated April 2018)

I just stumbled onto this obscure feature in Microsoft Word and wanted to share this with you.

This post was originally published on my blog at https://efficientHacks.com/word2wp

Why would I want to do this?

• Have you ever wanted to just directly paste in pictures/screenshots from your clipboard and have them automatically uploaded?
• Have you ever wanted to create your post offline without distractions from the internet?

You can do this with Word. (This articles uses the latest desktop version of Word as of April 2018)

How do I do this?

Just launch Word > New and type in ‘blog’ in the search box, this is the one you should select:

Just type something up and hit publish as Draft so that you can get the box to set up your account.

This next step is the one that is not intuitive.

What the heck is an xmlrpc.php?

The short story is that it’s an endpoint that is enabled on ALL WordPress sites (unless you’re running a really old version) — it allows non-wordpress applications to send posts to this URL.

Just make sure your URL starts with https:// (not http://) and the URL ends with /xmlrpc.php

Your ‘blob URL’ would be just your domain name — for me, I entered ‘https://efficienthacks.com/xmlrpc.php’

Then you type your post and hit ‘Publish’.

Granted, you are going to have to log into WordPress to set a featured image and whatnot, but the core part of your article is there (with images and all!)

Other things to know

You can also edit existing posts!

You can categorize your post from Word

Things you can’t do from Word

You’ll have to set the featured image manually by logging into WordPress.

You can also manually import your story into Medium.com once you are happy with your changes.

Click your profile image in the top right, then click on “Stories”

Then click “Import Story” — it’s a grey button, but it works.

Or navigate to medium.com/p/import

Conclusion

There is a huge advantage for creating and editing blog posts in Word. The feature of pasting in screenshots from your clipboard alone makes it all worth it.

If you don’t have Microsoft Word yet, you can get it from Amazon here. Look for ‘Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition’ for the one-time payment option. The Office 365 edition is a subscription.

Full disclosure: I get a small commission from that Amazon link at no cost to you. I also work at Microsoft, but I’m not in the Microsoft Office team. This post is not affiliated with Microsoft.

Originally published at efficienthacks.com.