So, I was looking for a blogging client application for the Mac. As you're aware, my blogs are hosted on Google's Blogger application site. I had been spoiled by the Windows Live Writer application (for PC's only) by Microsoft. Now, as a general rule, other than their developer tools and MS-SQL server, I don't really think about Microsoft as writing particularly compelling software, but I gotta give 'em some props here. The Live Writer application is quite simply the best blogging client I've worked with, and believe me, I've seen a ton over the last week.
I'm not going to critique every application I've tried, but I will say that there's nothing on the Mac that even approaches the Microsoft offering. It's intuitive, provides a great editing (WYSIWYG) environment, and is extremely compatible with various blogging platforms. Setup is a dream, and publishing is a snap. I'll never abandon the Mac for personal use, but I'm definitely looking forward to an Intel-based system that will allow me to run Windows so that I can get back to using Live Writer!
I finally settled on Ecto for the Mac. It's pretty nice, and provides a reasonable blogging implementation. In particular, what really swayed me was its ability to embed pictures for Blogger. Apparently this is hard (God only knows why) and other blogging clients just "punt" on this feature, or you have to jump through so many hoops that it would be easier to just do the damn blog on the web to begin with. In any case, if you're looking for a Mac blogging client, I'm gonna have to say that Ecto leads the pack at this point. Briefly, it offers:
- A good Rich Text editor
- The ability to edit HTML directly if needed
- The ability to embed images (import from disk, iPhoto, or Flickr) for Blogger
- Nice posting management interface - delete posts locally and on the server
- At about $18.00, a compelling price
All-in-all, a pretty nifty package that's growing on me the more I use it. Quickly, here are some of the other Mac clients that I investigated - any one of them may be better for you.
Journler - primarily a journaling application, this also provides Blogging support, but if it works (and it doesn't often), it's not very robust, and, they're dropping blogging support in the next release. Really nice journaling application though.
Mars Edit - probably a blogging client for real power-users. Mostly wants you to use HTML editing to author your posts. Has some nice features, but just not easy enough for me to use. I have basic needs for blogging and this felt like hunting rabbits with an elephant gun. More than I could handle.
Mac Journal - another journaling tool, and pretty damn decent blogging support. I would have chosen this one due to the combination of an excellent journaling application and a blogging client, but for one reason: I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to embed pictures in the blog posts, and the support forum didn't seem to want to tell me how either, even though a lotta people seemed to have the same problems.
4 comments:
Very nice post - I've been looking for something like this myself. I hear there's a Firefox extension that also lets you blog from a dashboard-like interface, but I haven't tried it myself. After reading this post, I'm going to have to try Mars Edit, because I do like to think in code when I blog.
Also, SQL server is pretty notable. Too bad they won't have a final version for the Launch Event; but at least at launch there are some promotional copies of the software.
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Nico del Castillo
Microsoft Grassroots Manager
http://www.microsoft.com/2008jointlaunch
Nico - thanks a bunch for the kind words. If you like to think in code, you'll love Mars Edit, especially its ability to use an external editor of your choice (BBEdit perhaps).
FYI - reason it took so long for me to reply was that I was out in Seattle interviewing at Microsoft. Don't know how it'll work out, but a great experience. Love the idea of a "Grassroots Manager". Enjoy
RJ
Nice! I do use BBEdit on a regular basis so this might be just the thing I'm looking for. Good luck with the MS thing, too!
**************
Nico del Castillo
Microsoft Grassroots Manager <--[this is actually a real job :) ]
http://www.microsoft.com/2008jointlaunch
Nico - I think you'll really like Mars Edit, although I'll have to say that Ecto growws on me more each day. Since each offers an evaluation period, I'd download both of 'em and do a bake-off.
Take care!
RJ
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