On plane today: testing offline blog editors

MarsEdit for the Mac, without a doubt:

http://ranchero.com/marsedit/

Almost every post at Blankbaby was written using it (though I'm not sure if that is a good or bad thing).

Sort of offline I use Performancing with Firefox, but the Zoundry Blog Writer is a good option too, with lots of tagging options.

I like w.bloggar. Free, efficient, small.

In a pinch, notepad will do ;)

I've been using Flock's inbuilt editor, and recently switched to ecto -- I've seen there is a win version, now:

http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/

Ecto is nice, it knows the difference between tags and categories.

I am starting to use OPML with the wordpress root to write stuff and then send to my blog. So I would guess that this is offline.

Still stuck with BlogJet, has Qumana got any better with the code they produce? Last time I cecked it created an html-soup almost impossible to look at.

I have to second the vote for ecto - I have used it for almost a year with Wordpress. Better for my uses than marsedit.

--Jim

MarsEdit for mac.

Here here...

On the Mac, I know tons of people that use MarsEdit or Ecto. I blog with Expression Engine, but haven't ventured into the offline editor foray as of yet.

Blogjet is excellent by me www.blojet.com ...works flawlessly...

My only complaint is that it would be nice to be able to add tags on the fly in Blogjet, but if you can, I haven't figured it out yet...

For free, I suggest performancing

I use Aconia Rocket Post. I'm still pretty new to the blogosphere, but I like having an offline copy of my whole blog as a backup. then when I want to refer to something I said earlier, I can copy/paste. Also has a decent image insert function.

I've used w.bloggar for a while, but it doesn't seem to be actively updated anymore (eventhough the author says otherwise on his site.) Other editors like ecto and Zoundry have moved past with additional features.

Had a quick look at Qumana just now. Feels too dumbed-down for me (e.g. no full HTML or template edit modes), but there's an audience for "lite" interfaces like this.

I wish w.bloggar can be actively developed. Perhaps the author will release the code as open source?

ecto

I love "ecto" and it does come in a Win version too which I have used only a couple of times. I usually use the mac version, and do like it very very much.

I'm currently using the Performancing extension for Firefox and like it. There are a few things it could use (spell checker ;) )but it's a great start.

http://performancing.com/

Qumana of course Robert! The new beta is Mac and PC!

You could try Bleezer (www.bleezer.com), though I'm biased because I wrote it. Windows, Mac, Linux, and soon for BlackBerry and Java-based phones. The current release is not WYSIWYG, but that will be available soon as well.

It also has configurable tagging (work with ANY tagging service) and pinging (any ping service). And of course it's free!

Another thumbs up for blogjet. I tried “ecto” for Windows - I could not find a way to increase the size of the type while writing: too small for these tired eyes...

Another vote for MarsEdit on the Mac.

Blog jet on PC ( wish they had a Mac version )

MarsEdit on Mac (came free with my Net NewsWire service)

Ecto, it totally rocks, and on the Mac side, is scriptable, as all good Mac applications are. It's as simple or as complex as you want it to be.

I'm using the NewsGator Add-in for Microsoft Word, but have just downloaded Qumana for a trial.

One of the great things about Qumana is that you can just use the "dumbed down" version, but click the tab for the source HTML and you can have at it with HTML editing at its finest - This allows you to edit in WYSIWYG or source code. So my vote is for QUMANA.

I tried Ecto on Windows and wasn't a fan. I am a Blogjet paid user now and am pretty happy with it. I heard from Dmitry the BlogJet dude that he is working on adding easy tag support. I sure hope so, because I desperately need it. I'm using a bookmarklet now and it's a pain.

I stick to Zoundry for its unicode support. Also, tagging and pinging support is great. Unicode not matter for those who do not blog in the languages which require this, of course :)

Definitely Blogjet. Simple and reliable.

It seems people are talking between "etco" and "performacing". Why not make it more wide from here? How about qumana? I used it once and gave it up.

Qumana's okay, but it's annoying. The drop window thing blows, and you can't get rid of it, so sits there and blocks screen space. When I pointed it at bynkii.com, it didn't get all the posts, just a few by default. If you ctrl - click the drop pad, and select Exit, (which is used, incorrectly, as a synonym for Quit. This is BAD UI, only Quit is Quit), you get a blank modal dialog that in theory is asking you to save a post, even if you don't have one, but since it has no buttons, you can't dismiss it without force-quitting the application.

It doesn't allow me to preview the posts in either an external browser or by using Webkit, as ecto does, and it is sllllloooooow, and reeks of Windows Port, especially the keyboard shortcut underlines.

the team needs to spend a little more time with how stuff works on a Mac. I did attempt to send them some feedback, although a specific Beta Feedback email address would be a lot better.

I used Blogjet for a while but have switched to Rocket Post. I love this program.

I checked the Mac version of Qumana, but I didn't like its GUI too - too much clutter. I bought ecto - it rocks.

Tris, your app looks too Java-ish :)

Oh, and for Windows you'd better go with BlogJet. I know what I'm talking about because I develop it. LOL :)

Performancing plugin for Firefox

Yes, the Java-ish UI is something we're working on ... it is written in Java, after all!

The DropPad can be hidden and we're working on a preference for it never to show at all. It's opaque because Java doesn't support transparency right now.

John ... I just replied to your e-mail.

Tris

PERFORMANCING.COM : Its just getting started and is out-of-site already!

Learn It, Know It, Live It, Love It! ;-)

Performancing - Firefox Plugin.

Andre - http://blogs.ebusiness-apps.com/andre

I saw that Tris, but it's also that in OSX, that panel functionality is what the Dock is for. The OS has a UI element to handle such things. Creating another one isn't going to get you a large user base.

I've tried BlogJet but could never get it to FTP my pictures up. The Support folks...er, Dmitry, did his best but with no luck. I really, really like it, but am now using Performancing too. It works well enough.

Another vote for ecto on the Mac. I compared MarsEdit and ecto when I was trying to decide and ecto came out on top for me. Excellent product.

NVu for the big jobs, but mostly Performancing.

So Robert, what are your results? What did you try and what works well?

ecto on Mac - Qumana 3 on Mac not as good IMHO (too slow at present) MarsEdit can be had as a NetNewsWire (ace RSS reader/browser) bolt on - no extra cost but...ecto wins out for me.

Hey Scoble - you're lad's got a Mac and you're not tempted? Come on, wassup with you. I just came off Wintel after 24 years. I feel liberated. If Kim can blog on WP AND put Infocard on it - surely you can make the switch?

I used Ecto for a bit a few weeks ago, and really liked it. Still considering dropping the cash.

Qumana is still what happens when you wave the magic Java wand and don't really understand the UI conventions and rules for the platforms you run it on.

Fair play to the Qumana guys though - I posted a quick review of the app and within a couple of hours had 3 commnents from them discussing my issues.

Wow, I use multiple editors:

For quick posts about things I read/see online, I use Performancing for FireFox.

For pre-written things (that I've done in Notepad++ or another text editor, usually while on the road, or offline), I use Ecto, as I've already got HTML styling inline.

For quick WYSIWYG updates, I use Qumana or a dev build of Ecto that I'm testing for the author.

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I use Circus Ponies Notebook on my Mac. Imports and exports OPML, saves as HTML, saves as PDF, text clips from Netnewswire, indexes and sorts every word, saves to my iPod.

When I need to put something online, I use OPML Editor, MarsEdit, or Firefox.

Jim Armstrong

I use Ecto on the Mac, and Blogjet on Windows.

Although I will try out Qumana now though.

I try to keep a updates list of editors @
http://emergens.net/2006/03/18/blogklienter-til...
Just a list though. No feature examinations and evaluations.

OK, and what about Linux. I am looking for quite a while now for a good blog editor (for wordpress) under Linux... Any idea anyone ;-)

Have you had a look at Blogo (http://www.drinkbrainjuice.com/blogo) recently? We just released version 1.2 with support for HTML editing and comment moderation in WordPress 2.7. Blogo is also a full Twitter client with support for Ping.fm.