Reviews of Desktop Blogging Tools

Thanks to Glen Stansberry and Smashing Magazine for this great article: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/08/01/15-desktop-blogging-tools-reviewed/

Desktop blogging tools can benefit
designers-bloggers in a number of ways. They provide extra functionality
that can significantly speed up the blogging process for both newbies
and professionals.

One of the main benefits of using a desktop client is the ability to
comfortably write a post offline, and publish it later. Many clients
also have a scheduled post feature, so you can define what time you
would like to publish your articles. Some editors provide a spell
checker, drafts saver, remote publishing and WYSIWYG-editor with
advanced formatting options such as inserting media or structuring the
post — they may be hard to deal with using standard online
blogging-engines.

Let’s take a look at 15 desktop blogging editors which can speed up the blogging process.
Some are free and some cost a few dollars, but in the end all of these
editors can significantly improve your workflow, regardless of your
skills.

 

Windows Live Writer (Windows)

 

Windows Live Writer
is an impressive blog editor, and is probably the cleanest one. It
provides the familiar user interface that one would expect from usual
Microsoft applications. Writing a blog entry with intuitive features
like a rich text editor and spell checker is easy. Users also have the
ability to quickly add images and other media.

The distinctive feature that puts Live Writer ahead of the competition is that you can can add plugins to the editor. For instance, there are plugins that seamlessly integrate with Flickr and Facebook photos; word counting as well as many further features are available as well.

Live Writer is useful for people who don’t necessarily want to mess
with HTML and just want to quickly write a blog post, but it’s also
great for more advanced users with the ability to add specific features
with plugins.

 

MarsEdit (Mac)

 

The main advantage of MarsEdit
lies in its ability to integrate with other text editors. The client
integrates cleanly with BBEdit, SubEthaEdit, TextMate, or TextWrangler.
It has a simple yet robust user interface. Users can define powerful
markup macros to insert commonly used snippets of code. The tool works
with WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, Movable Type, LiveJournal, Drupal, and
Vox. You can also quickly scan your Flickr library, then insert an
image into your blog post with the click of a button.

Another nifty feature is the preview functionality. The tool allows
you to build a template to match your blog, then let MarsEdit’s live
preview show you how your posts will look before you publish them.
Extensive AppleScript support makes it possible to add further features.
Price: $29.95. A free 30-days-trial-version is available as well.

 

BlogDesk (Windows)

 

BlogDesk
is a robust, multi-language blog editor that supports all of the
popular blogging platforms except Blogger. If that isn’t a problem for
you, then you’ll love the unique and intuitive features BlogDesk
provides. The Image Wizard allows you to upload and edit pictures, without editing images in image processing applications. You can also define frequently used phrases and keywords to speed up your writing time, much like TextExpander (Mac).

Links can be easily inserted and edited. If you link to local files
(such as MP3 or PDF), BlogDesk will automatically upload them.
Dictionaries in 14 languages are available for the integrated spell
checker. Posts already published can be edited afterwards and deleted
directly from the server. In the Notebook you can insert and rearrange
text before you actually use it in your weblog entry. For your
convenience you can create multiple categories where text can be saved
separately.

 

Zoundry Raven (Windows)

 

Zoundry Raven
is a free advanced WYSIWYG-blog editor with XHTML editing, drag and
drop from browser-functionality. It also provides the Unicode (UTF-8)
support, quicklinks and a template-based preview. Users can manage
multiple blogs online and offline and use a built-in indexer that allows
to see posts by blogs, links, tags and images.

Zoundry Raven supports Blogger, TypePad, MovableType, MetaWeblog and
LiveJournal. The tool is available as a portable application which you
can use on your flash/thumb drive. Finally, you can use Raven to create
and modify your WordPress Pages just like any other blog post and set
WordPress tags as well as import tags from all of your posts.

It is worth mentioning that Zoundry Raven also has an integrated HTML validator built into the code view and includes a publish menu to finalize your decisions, tags, trackbacks, etc.

 

Ecto (Mac)

 

Ecto is one of the most popular blog editors, and has earned the respect of some top bloggers like Darren Rowse. It’s a powerful tool with all typical features (Rich text editor, spell check, draft saving, etc.), but it also allows you to extend the functionality by using plugins,
much like Windows Live Writer. Amazon’s affiliate scheme seamlessly
integrates in Ecto and makes it easier for you to link to a particular
Amazon product page.

Ecto also has support for Flickr and del.icio.us. In addition, ecto
also lists the tags you have used with del.icio.us and Flickr, so that
you can reuse them for your blog entries. The only drawback is that the
software costs $17.95, but you can try it out for free for 21 days.

 

w.bloggar (Windows)

 

w.bloggar
is a professional blog editor for advanced users who are fairly
technologically savvy. It’s snappy and has a lot more advanced features
built-in than Live Writer. While the interface isn’t as intuitive or
elegant as Live Writer and some of the others, it’s a useful little
editor.

With w.bloggar you can save posts locally for further publishing,
import text files, post to many blogs and ping to Weblogs.Com, blo.gs,
Technorati and ping-o-matic. Also, you can download a portable version that you can take with your anywhere on a USB drive. Perfect for bloggers on the go!

 

Thingamablog (Window, Mac, Linux)

 

Thingamablog is a hybrid of a blog editor and RSS-feed reader.
It’s not quite as polished as other blog editors, but is great for
someone needing a cross-platform blog editor. Setting up the blog is a
bit cumbersome for the first time, but not unbearable. You’ll need to
have Java Virtual Machine downloaded and running on your machine to work.

Thingamablog has a few advanced features that are different from
other blog editors. You can import RSS feeds, and you can post to your
blog while reading your RSS feeds. It’s a nice program for bloggers who
typically write news-related posts. The editor also allows publishing
remotely to your blog via email and saving entries as drafts.
Thingamablog is released under the terms of the GPL.

 

Qumana (Windows, Mac)

 

Qumana
has an interesting feature that isn’t found in other blogging
platforms. If you are interested in joining an ad network for your blog,
Qumana has a built-in ad network (Qads) that allows you to insert ads into your post.

You can use Qumana when you are offline. Save your blog posts to your
hard drive and upload whenever you like. Useful for bloggers on the
move. Apart from standard features the editor has a handy little feature
called the DropPad, which adds drag-n-drop capability
to snag links, pictures and text to a desktop pad. Qumana is very
intuitive and is definitely an option worth consdering for both newbies
and advanced bloggers.

 

Scribefire (Firefox)

 

Scribefire
is quite different from the other blog editors as it is a Firefox
extension. When you want to blog about the page you are currently
viewing, hit “F12″ and the scribefire extension pops up in the
lower-half of your browser. You can blog about a specific web page without having to leave the browser. You can also click an icon to move blogging frame into a separate tab, if you’re going to need some more space.

Scribefire isn’t as feature-rich as an editor like Ecto or BlogDesk,
but it is fast and easy, and works well for everybody in a hurry.

 

BlogJet (Windows)

 

If you are a power blogger, BlogJet
is definitely a solution worth considering. While the application costs
around $60, it manages to combine a number of useful tools in one clean, intuitive interface. It supports most blogging services, integrates with RSS-readers and also allows you to use keyword-shortcuts (like BlogDesk).

BlogJet cares about typography: it automatically replaces quotes and
dashes with proper ones as you type. If you are on the road and there is
no Internet-connection, or if you want to finish your post later, save
it as draft. Then you can get back to finishing and publishing it. The
tool also has Flickr and YouTube support, Spell Checker, Word Counter
and Blog Statistics, Post Management and Searching. And BlogJet can
automatically insert the title and the artist of the song playing in
iTunes, Winamp or Windows Media Player.

If you are looking for a free alternative, stick with BlogDesk. It
has almost the same features and is free. However, if a beautiful,
intuitive design is important to you, then give BlogJet a shot. You
won’t be disappointed.

 

Flock (Mac, Windows, Linux)

 

Flock
is a web-browser that has a built-in blogging tool. The blogging tool
allows you to blog directly from the page, similarly to Scribefire, with
a keyboard shortcut or a mouse click. However, the interface on Flock
is a bit nicer, and has a slightly more seamless integration
than in case of Scribefire and Firefox. Also you can use the web
clipping tool to save and store clips of information in your browser.

Flock is an optimal tool for simple bloggers who don’t need a lot of bells and whistles that come with other blogging editors.

 

Post2Blog (Windows)

 

On the surface, Post2Blog appears to be a very simple blogging tool. If you dig under the hood for a bit, you’ll notice that this lightweight blogging tool
has some pretty nifty features. You can quickly add amazon affiliate
links to your posts. It even has plugins for Firefox and Internet
Explorer for quickly blogging a web page.

The tool also has a “Portable Mode” support, integration with RSS
Bandit and Sharp Reader — you can post selected items from these RSS
readers using Post2Blog plugin. You can also add Technorati,
Del.icio.us, Buzzwords, 43 Things tags to your posts and earn money
using “Insert Amazon Link” feature.

The only drawback is that the interface isn’t as elegant or intuitive
as other Windows blogging platforms, and the tool isn’t supported by
the developers.

 

Bleezer (Mac, Windows, Linux)

 

Bleezer
is a light piece of software that has all standard features as well
some advanced functionality which one would expect from robust editors.
Spell checking, pinging services, uploading files and FTP capabilities
are available. It’s a handy little tool that is quick and efficient.
Again, it doesn’t have the beautiful design that BlogJet has, but it’s
free and works smoothly. Bleezer is an optimal choice for advanced
bloggers who can appreciate the advanced functionality that the software
provides.

Using Bleezer you can work with every blogging service
(even Blogger). You can also create custom markup by defining your own
key strokes for custom HTML markup. As usual, you can also compose posts
offline and post them when you want to. Windows and Linux users should
extract the .zip file into a directory and double click the .jar file to
run. You will need Java Virtual Machine.

 

Further Desktop Publishing Tools

Let’s take a look at the brief overview of further desktop blogging tools which may be also useful:

• AirPress (cross-plattform, Adobe Air)
  
  AirPress was a promising client with a file I/O API for saving FLV
  webcam videos record and ActionScript / JavaScript bridging to interact
  with the text editor made in HTML/Javascript. In the last release
  AirPress supported only WordPress and DotClear. The project’s official
  page (AdobeAir.org) has somehow disappeared few months ago. We don’t
  know the reason. 
• SharpMT (Mobile, Windows Mobile 5/6, PocketPC)
  
  harpMT is an offline blogging tool that is designed for
  MovableType-based systems. There are three versions of the application:
  desktop, PocketPC, and SmartPhone, all of which share the same file
  format for offline drafts. The application uses text boxes for post
  entry: it was a design goal to not support WYSIWYG. It also includes the
  infrastructure to support plugins and XML-RPC calls that were designed
  to inteface with MT or TypePad. Freeware.

 

Conclusion

If you have little experience in blogging you might
try either Flock, Windows Live Writer or Scribefire. Those three have
fairly intuitive interfaces and don’t have all the advanced features
that more robust programs have. Also, they are free so you can check out
what application better manages to cover your needs.

Advanced bloggers looking for a bit more firepower
should try Ecto, BlogJet or BlogDesk. BlogDesk works especially well for
bloggers who frequently use photos in their posts (Image Wizard).
Windows Live Writer and Ecto have extra functionality built in, as they
both allow you to install plugins to add specific features.

Every desktop blog editor is a great benefit to any blogger’s
toolkit, as it saves time and has features that traditional blog
platforms don’t always have.

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