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Desktop Blogging Clients

Posted By Darren Rowse 20th of November 2005 Blogging Tools and Services 0 Comments

Ian McKenzie has a post that examines a number of different Desktop Blogging Clients – he manages seven blogs with Blogger, WordPress, MovableType and Thingamablog and is looking for a client with the following features:

  • The ability to post to multiple blog clients and handle multiple accounts.
  • Another important feature is the ease of creating and editing posts. Does the software have wysiwyg editing, with the ability to easily tweak the underlying code? Or, is it only HTML editing?
  • How easy is it to upload and link to or display files, particularly image files?
  • Can I easily add an alt attribute when uploading and inserting image files?
  • Can I easily add a title attribute when creating a link?
  • Does the software allow me to easily add social tags, either Technorati or del.icio.us.

Ian takes a look at BlogJet, ecto (I use the Mac version of this), Qumana, wBloggar and Thingamablog. I’ll let you head over to check his results but would be interested to hear what desktop blogging clients you use – if any. Feel free to share what you use in comments below.

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. I’m using pmachine pro, which is now free (the company is focusing on their Expression Engine software). Since I only have one blog and am not trying to make a profit on it, it works for my needs. No wyswyg, but very easy to use, and it supports multiple blogs. It has some nice features like pblocks, which allows me to add long stings of data in different places. I used to have a rotating string of titles up in the window bar, and I can edit my blogroll through the pm control panel.

    I wonder if, with three different blogging software packages, Ian finds it unproductive at times, trying to remember which procedure to use with which software.

  2. […] Dann habe ich bei Darren einen Link zu Ian McKenzie gefunden, der Desktop Blogging Clients getestet hat. Ich benutze zur Zeit w.bloggar unter Windows und bin eigentlich relativ zufrieden damit. Aber ich werde demnächst mal ein paar Posts mit anderen Blogging Tools schreiben, nur um diese mal zu testen. […]

  3. Stephen says: 11/21/2005 at 2:02 am

    Ecto user here too, although I’m on a Mac, which means my version of Ecto is far superior to the one he tested, and I’m sure would have come out on top. I couldn’t even think about going back to the MT interface. Ecto has a free trial download version, I believe, and I’d recommend it to all Mac users.

    Like Bill, I’m staggered that he keeps multiple blogs on multiple platforms. All my blogs run on different URLs but one server, and one installation of Movable Type, which means I’m been able to customize them all with the same set of plugins, can crosspost easily, plus hosting is much cheaper. I’m even thinking of working off a shared set of CSS templates.

    Darren – I couldn’t find a post that talked about how you configure your back end system – would be interested to read.

  4. I use ecto as well to manage several blogs – both personal and professional. It’s a tightly written and integrated piece of software.

    My only complaint is that I have trouble with it and trackbacks sometimes. Working on that.

    Matt

  5. I’m using wBloggar to manage two weblogs, and it does the job pretty good. I especially like the easy uploading feature – it takes me about 5 seconds to upload an image – and the preview feature, which allows you to use your blog’s style to preview a new entry.

  6. Thank you very much for this article. I am currently working on a desktop blogging/podcasting application as my thesis to graduate in CS with honors. My site does not have the readership that Problogger does, so I’m glad this came up here. I have the groundwork laid out but I wanted UI suggestions. Thanks again!

  7. I’m an ecto man…I use it across all of my WordPress blogs. Ecto’s Rich-Text editor isn’t perfect yet, but everything else works quite well for me, and I absolutely love the ability to create Amazon Affiliate links right in the editor (Amazon’s implementation is horrible.) Also, the image interface is excellent, allowing Alt and Title text to be easily created.

    Not to mention, Adriaan (the creator of the Mac version) is just a really nice guy :)

  8. I have played with BlogJet until the trial period expired :) It was cool.

    By the way, I was wondering if it’s possible to cross post to multiple blogs? Let’s say I have a post about Google Adsense which can go to a blog about Google, a blog about Making Money Online and a blog about something else. Any ideas?…

  9. Jim Van Wyck says: 11/21/2005 at 4:31 am

    I just started using an interesting little program
    called Elicit from Bingo Bango Software.

    You will have to Google it ’cause I don’t put
    links on other folks blogs….. :)

    It handles Amazon affiliate links beautifully,
    makes posting to multiple blogs a snap
    and has a nice calendering feature that
    has made my work a tad more efficient and
    structured

    On the down side, it’s brand new
    with a tiny user base, and a few glitches here and there.

    It’s not as SEO smart as I might like….

    Oh…. re cross-posting, which somebody asked about…
    it does that pretty well too.

    Jim Van Wyck

  10. I have used bloggar at http://www.bloggar.com in the past with blogger and wordpress, is a freeware and it works very well with lot of different CMS softwares.
    You may want to take a look at it.
    Good Luck

  11. I have been using rocketpost. It’s an amazing desktop blogging client, with some of the best tools out there.

    It works with nearly every blogging platform out there. I personally use it on MT, WP and Blogger blogs that I run

    Tables, thumbnails, image gallery, affiliate links, and much much more all built in. The developers constantly send auto updates.

    It also allows cross posting to multiple blogs.

    Rocketpost home edition is a mere $ 37. Check it out here

    I think this is the way to go in terms of desktop blogging.

  12. Has anyone tested the blogging features in the Flock browser yet?

  13. I am currently using a program called Zoundry that is working very nicely for me! On the critera above (roughly):
    * It supports multiple blog posting (doesn’t close the post after publishing)
    * Is WYSIWYG compliant, but can’t edit HTML
    * Uploads files
    * Supports Alt tag with Images
    * Has wide tagging support as well as pinging support (does about 7 different ones including Technorati and Ice rocket).

    It is still pretty new and the developers are very responsive to suggestions. One of the limitations (IMHO) is the lack of spell checking but they are working on this for the next release.

    You can find them at http://www.zoundry.com (of course).
    Molly
    PS. I am just a loyal user, no affliation with them.

    http://www.mollyzine.com

  14. Thanks for the list. I just started using wbloggar and love it. I mostly like having a syntax highligting and spell checking editor on the desktop. makes adding new posts a snap!

  15. Roger says: 11/21/2005 at 7:49 am

    I have tried most of them over the last few weeks – for the windows platform. I havn’t found one of them that I want to continue with. I’m back to the MT interface and Dreamweaver. It is a shame as I really wanted a desktop prog.
    I very much liked the elicit calendar feature but I think you need to be a programmer to understand some of the features. It went overboard on some things but couldn’t do the simple things well eg missing which category you chose.
    I found Blogjet to be the most efficient prog. for simple blog posting – but many features were lacking.

  16. Raoof says: 11/21/2005 at 8:41 am

    Azure mobile blog client . Runs on symbian Phones and Windows mobile phone edition : More info & download : http://www.mobinix.com/?q=blogbing_via_mobile_phone_using_azure

  17. Interesting, I didn’t know software like this even existed. I am going to have to take a look at some clients. This could really help me out!

  18. Kashif: You can cross-post to many blogs with the recent beta of BlogJet (1.6 beta). It’s called group posting – http://blogjet.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2005/6/1/899970.html

    Darren: Thanks for the link! ;)

  19. Gerard McGarry: I tested blogging features of Flock – here. Though, of course, my opinion is biased since I’m BlogJet developer :)

  20. I’ve tried numerous blogging clients and I just can’t give up Zoundry’s BlogWriter. It handles multiple accounts on multiple platforms. I manage about 20 blogs across WordPress, Blogger, and MovableType. You can preview pages by selecting one of your existing platform page templates.

    BlogWriter also easily creates links to Wikipedia (and other resources), and to Amazon and other e-shopping sites.Unfortunately, you have to sign up for a Zoundry account and live in the United States. I use the feature anyway; Zoundry gets a commission if one of my readers clicks a shopping link and buys a product. But Lawrence of Zoundry.com tells me they are hoping to roll the affiliate program out to other countries eventually.

    The two biggest flaws I’ve seen are: (1) You can’t add raw HTML (yet). (2) The resulting posts are squashed onto a single line, which seems to affect hard line breaks in both MovableType and WordPress.

  21. Newbie question, but why bother with a client at all. Especially in wordpress where there are so many good plugins that I presume desktop blogging clients can’t support.

  22. For Movable Type, I like SharpMT. Ecto may have the edge, but SharpMT is free and it does everything I want it to do.

    My review: http://underscorebleach.net/jotsheet/2004/10/mt-desktop-client-review-sharpmt

  23. w.bloggar user here. It works fine for me. It can handle multiple blogs and is packed with nice features. The only problem is that the connection to server fails sometimes.

  24. I used BlogJet but then decided to write my own. as always some tolls are not perfect to use. Will try to follow other links suggested here

  25. I’m using Qumana. I have a few blogs and then I write as a team member for a few others. I like the dropping feature. I can add images very quickly. Play around with fonts. I like it. But I will look at this list, to see how it works against the others.

    Thanks for the link.

  26. No one at all using MarsEdit by the same folks who make the excellent NetNewsWire?

  27. Thanks Dee. And as a part of the Qumana team, I can say there’s some great ideas and feedback here for us to gain more headway on certain features and needs. :)

  28. I have a question about these desktop clients though. With the exception of ecto, how do the others do pings? I see that bloggar only allows one ping site? What about BlogJet? I didn’t even see that option. Does the site still get pinged by WordPress when published?

  29. Desktop Blogging Engine

    Thanks to Ian over at Ian's Messy Desk for doing a review of different desktop blogging clients.
    A few weeks ago, before my parents got here, I started to look around…

  30. I have a question about desktop clients and WordPress.

    I have noticed that they have a list of sites that are pinged. Ecto is the only one I see which has the ability to add to the list. For the other clients, when you pubish to your WordPress blog, does WordPress do its own pings or is it just left up to the blogging client?

  31. Another Zoundry user here (www.zoundry.com). It was the only free tool that didn’t crash *and* supported posts to http-password-protected sites.

  32. […] So, this will be my first cross-post, using w.bloggar. I read a lot of nice ideas from this site regarding multiple site handling. Some of the tools there look very intriguing, so I think I’ll try a few out, and use each tool to post its own review. […]

  33. […] CMS Wire Prologger Telidesign Posted by martinz Filed in Uncategorized […]

  34. […] While BlogDesk may not be as feature packed as other blogging clients, it is lite and does the job for me. […]

  35. Have used thingamablog for awhile. It’s not perfect, but handles multiple blogs, is windows software based, and has templates for different purposes. Am always looking to see if something is better.

  36. I also use Blog desk as it is lite and easy to use. The only thing it misses is a html editor but other than that a nice little bit of software.

  37. Quentin, I am Blogdesk user too. The HTML editor is available in it. Just press F5 and it will change the editor to HTML.

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