I’m currently testing a number of blogging clients. Clients that free you from the web browser for post writing and editing. This is a post written in and posted via Zoundry Raven. Among the many blogging clients available, I’ve selected three for closer inspection: the aforementioned Raven, BlogDesk and Scribefire. The last one is an add-on for Firefox, the first two are standalone Windows applications. All support pretty much every blogging platform available. This post goes into some of the differences.
Scribefire
Pro:
- This is a Firefox plug-in. And that is both a good and a bad thing.
- Conceptually, integrating an editor in my favorite browser looks like a winner. I’ve got all my prefered plug-ins and on-line tools right there, so this sounds like a winner.
Against:
- This is a Firefox plug-in. And that is both a good and a bad thing.
- The interface is a mess. I tested this plug-in a few years ago, but the interface doesn’t seem to have evolved much. I’m not sure if this is a technical reason (it’s build on XUL) or laziness.
- The integration really isn’t quite as I imagined. I’m not sure what I expected, but certainly a little more than a Technorati search.
- Really, the interface. Buttons are all over the place. Most elements aren’t properly aligned which gives a cluttered impression.
BlogDesk
Pro:
- BlogDesk offers a fairly intuitive one-window interface with every option you need close-by.
- An extensive image wizard, with which you can create some pretty neat effects, right out of the box. No PhotoShop needed.
- Post templates. I haven’t tested this feature yet, but this could be mighty useful if you publish a series of articles or regularly returning special features.
- It’s possible to add custom fields to a post on a WordPress blogs.
Against:
- No multi document interface. For me, this is a fairly major drawback, as I tend to work on many things at once. You can save draft posts, but they aren’t easily browsable.
Raven
Pro:
- Raven has great content management options. First, there’s a specialized explorer-like interface to quickly manage blog posts (published and drafts), links, images and tags. And secondly, you can add a number of media storage sources. I haven’t experimented with this feature yet, but it looks promising.
- Recently, Raven has been open sourced. It’s a Python application that is freely available from Google Code. The disadvantage is that the original creators no longer have time to seriously work on the application.
Against:
- There’s a pretty annoying bug where you can’t insert H2 and other header tags in the WYSIWYG editor. You can still use the XHTML editor to add them, but in a tool this good, this little blemish stands out.
- Sometimes, the interface isn’t very intuitive. For instance, if you want to schedule a post for future publishing, you need to click on the “configure” drop-down and select the appropriate tab. Not very intuitive at all.
There’s still one thing missing in all of these editors, and that is the possibility to add a thumbnail. Since version 2.9, WordPress has implemented a standardized way of adding a thumbnail to a post. Something that I solved via custom fields, but that never felt right. So I was happy to implement the thumbnails in the new design. Too bad, none of the clients support this (probably with very good reason, this isn’t exactly anything standardized).
So for now, I’m in a limbo, either set the thumbnail manually every time, or not use the thumbnail functionality at all.
But one thing is sure, typing in a proper text entry application is truly a relief from the on-line editor.
Do you have a preferred blog editor?