Using an Offline Editor to Post to Your Blog

I’ve been writing for a long time, and I’ve been creating blog posts for a while now. Almost 1500 entries, and closing in on five years! But the majority of those are written through the regular Movable Type editor. I’ve tried WYSIWYG editors, and I just don’t like them. But with the increase in offline editors, I figured that it was time to give them another try.

Perhaps the most advanced editor actually comes from Microsoft. The Windows Live Writer is really a decent piece of software, and competes well against established veterans such as BlogJet, Ecto, Qumana, w.bloggar and the ScribeFire plugin for Firefox. There are a lot of options!

Can Microsoft Make Me Swoon for Windows Live Writer?

What I found is that though there is a lot to like about the Windows Live Writer, it’s not quite what I want. The product is cool. Really cool. It has a live preview function that lets me see what my post will look like once it’s posted – something that is nice to see in an offline composer. Though it offers good features, it also suffers from what I call Microsoft Bloat. There’s just too much of everything in there. It starts when you install it – you get not only the software you want, but at least a couple other entries in your programs list, and I just hate getting extra things installed. I’m all for a client that makes life easier, especially when it’s small and easy-to-use, but not when it takes over everything, and that’s what WLW does.

Though you can extend the software through plugins, I really just need something that lets me write in the way that I want – give me a place to write on my desktop and let me post it. Unfortunately, once I do this, I end up with all sorts of extra markup when I post my entries to the blog. Even worse, if I should retrieve a post from the blog, it gets a bunch of extra paragraph tags in it, making it tough to edit anything unless it’s in WYSIWYG mode. Since I don’t have this on the MT side, I have to give WLW a big thumbs-down.

BlogJet, Ecto and Qumana

BlogJet seemed to hold some promise, so it was the next one I tried. Unfortunately, it had some of the same problems as WLW – namely when it comes to formatting posts. I couldn’t seem to get rid of all that extra markup, and I was really getting worried! Perhaps I would have to stick it out with the integrated editor after all.

I really didn’t give Ecto a try, because it is a commercial product. I’m not against commercial software in any way – and in fact I pay for a lot of software that doesn’t require it. But the web site for Ecto is a bit on the weak side. When you look at the documentation link, you are told to check the documentation in the product. That’s probably a good thing, that you can get help in the software, but I’d like to get some idea of what I’m getting before I go through the trouble of downloading and installing it. There are some people who like Ecto, so maybe I’m missing out here. I’ll have to consider it my loss.

Qumana is interesting because it’s some sort of editor and advertising platform, an odd combination. I have to say that I don’t like the focus on advertising, but I do like that they put so many screenshots into the product. At least they let you see what you’re getting into. I didn’t really care for the usability of the software, though. It just didn’t have a good feel to it, so another one joined the scrap-heap.

Performancing, no ScribeFire, no…

What used to be called the Performancing extension is now ScribeFire, and it’s unwieldy to say the least. I’m all for extensions to Firefox, but this time it just missed the mark. If I want to write in a browser window, I’ll just use the one that comes with MT. I just don’t get the point. The whole idea is to write in something other than a browser window, isn’t it?

Then There Was w.bloggar

Finally I decided that I’d try w.bloggar. This piece of software is one of the oldest offline editors. It’s been around for a long time. In fact, the web site (and software) only recently started being updated again, after being dormant for just about a year. And I found a match made in heaven. The software is perfect for my needs. Please realize that it might not match everyone’s needs, but I love it.

There is a preview window, and you can add styles and classes, complete with your own stylesheet. You won’t get images, but you can get an idea for what things will look like. You can easily cut and paste and do basic editing, but you don’t have all the bells and whistles that some want to throw at you, but that’s just fine for me. Perhaps most importantly, when I upload my posts, I don’t end up with all sorts of extra markup in the body. I did have to make some changes to the posting process so it could handle scheduled entries, but I’ll go over that another time.

What About You?

Do you write your entries online or offline? If you write them offline, what do you use? What features do you find useful, or do you think that most of them are just extras that go by the wayside?