Well, I love wordpress. I like my blog’s admin interface and included WYSIWYG editor (TinyMCE), But am not a big fan of it. So I started looking for a perfect desktop blogging client. Well, let us see how my search turned out.
Criteria for a perfect blogging client were as follows.
Must
- Be Simple, reliable and stable.
- User oriented.
- Support for Multiple blog types and protocols.
- Offline blogging. i.e. Save posts, edit them later. Also we should be able to edit the previous posts/pages.
- Produce valid semantic markup. (HTML/XHTML)
- Support WYSIWYG (rich text editing) as well as HTML source edit mode.
- Upload/Insert images easily.
Preferred
- Free.
- Streamlined interface with a smooth learning curve.
- Categories, Trackbacks, pinging support.
- Full encoding support.
- Spell checker.
- Support for multiple languages
- Preserve/remove formatting when content is pasted from word.
- At least minimal image editing/thumbnail creation.
- Not dependent on any browser for its full functionality.
Skip to the review | Skip to the decision
Skip to: Qumana | Windows Live writer | w.Bloggar | Blogdesk
Skip to: Blogjet | Rocketpost’10
My search for the ultimate blogging client was based on the above criteria.
- My blog is powered by WordPress 3.0.1. For the purpose of testing, I created a blog using wordpress 3.0.1. Just to be safe.
- I usually blog on my Windows 7 machine (Intel Core 2 Quad/2GB RAM/250GB 7200RPM hard disk/Dual screen(1920×1080/1440×900). I also blog on my Lenovo S10-3T netbook tablet and iMac(24” 2007 iMac).
- I chose to try only the stand-alone blog clients. Reason is simple. I would rather use my wordpress admin than to use Browser based client.
- I am looking for a stable, trouble-free blogging client. It need to work flawlessly for both quick posting and writing more detailed posts. What we primarily need is convenience, but definitely not at the expense of basic features. Convenient user experience brings out more creativity.
- My testing blog can be found here http://kav.in/test/wp301 . Posts are done by individual programs and include some minimal rich text editing. Just for viewing, people.
Continue reading the next page.
Qumana (Free)
Cost: Free.
Developer: Qumana team
Download: Get it here.
Support: MSN Spaces, Blogger, TypePad, Movable Type,Blogware, WordPress, Drupal, Bryght, Roller, Angelfire, Tripod and APIs – metaWeblog, Blogger, MovableType and more..
Features
- Convenient Blog manager to manage multiple blogs easily.
- WYSIWYG and HTML (source view) support.
- Simple intuitive layout.
- Spell check with as you type.
- Categories, tags, pings(more than 30 sites) and Trackback support.
- Technorati tags are integrated right into it.
- Included Droppad allows you to add new post, insert images,text, links. It can also be hidden.
- Ability to save posts for later, post and cross-post.
Suggestions/Wish list
- Images are shown in preview only after clicking “Upload and Insert”. I kind of not sure about this feature, as I am always indecisive about the images until I upload them,some times even after. It may be nice to upload images after we click the “Publish post” button.
- As you can see in the published post in the test blog, the images appeared in size larger than it is meant to be. It looked okay in the preview. I was not able to reproduce the problem.
Preview
Verdict
Definitely recommended. Don’t let the Advertisements (Q-Ads) and “Powered by Qumana” footer text fool you. That can be removed through options.
Windows Live Writer (Free/windows)
Despite my strong disbelief about MS Apps, I decided to try it anyway.
Price: Free.
Developer: Microsoft
Download: Install through Windows live installer. Get it here. I chose only to install Windows live writer. My system is enough bloated already.
Support: WordPress, Blogger, Typepad, MovableType, Live spaces, Sharepoint and most popular services. Supports major APIs like MovableType, XML-RPC, Atom etc.
Features
- Most streamlined and intuitive interface I’ve seen. Uses Word ‘10 style ribbon interface which offers a smooth learning curve. Setting up a blog was a very easy and painless process.
- Ability to download and use your blog’s own custom theme in the post window. It can be done while setting up the blog, or by using “Update theme” option. This is actually uber-cool.
- Manage posts and blogs.
- WYSIWYG, Preview and HTML source view.
- Spelling checker.
- Excellent text formatting options.
- Simple toolbar allows entry of categories, tags and timestamp, Comments, Pings, Author, slug, password protect, excerpt and trackback. Too easy even my 82 years grandma can blog now.
- Insert images from your computer or from windows live – Live SkyDrive (Windows live registration required ) album. Excellent Picture formatting allows you crop, align, add some effects, margins, borders to your images.
- Embed videos, Bing maps(Sample below). Use smileys, tables and tag your posts.
- It produced valid markup and published post was good.
- There are plugins for windows live writer in the windows live gallery, which adds more functionality.
Preview
- Persons using writer will be definitely missing similar software in other Operating systems.Okay, okay. This is not really a negative point
- There is some lag when scrolling through the document. When you click too below the last line you typed, cursor moves to the first line.
- I was not able to select the paragraph text from last line (in Edit mode). But instead, when I tried from the last line of that paragraph, I was able to do that.
Verdict
Awesome Software. Definitely usable. Too good to be a MS software. I cannot believe I typed this and I am guilty . Excellent work , Developers.
