MarsEdit

Hohoho… now i'm back in full force to blog! Actually, its cos i downloaded this MarsEdit blogging tool… the trial version at least… Its free for 30 days… and so far its been working just fine… save for a few quirks which i will mention in a while. The really terrible thing about MarsEdit is that it costs a heft 40USD! You can download the free trial from their website here: http://www.red-sweater.com/marsedit/ The full version is sold both on the website, and on the Apple App Store. Good thing is that i've yet to see any of those irritating messages bugging you to buy the app...

This app supports a variety of blogs… but the ones i'm concerned with are basically blogger and live journal (recently got an lj account).

Pros:

Has both WISIWYG and html mode - well… this is quite standard i guess.

Can use keyboard shortcuts like command+B etc...

Very easy to add and upload pictures --> very very impt to me

Can show and add tag categories for blogger

Cons:

Tags/categories do not work for LJ! (doesn’t have full support for LJ)

Text formatting in a drop down list format - i would prefer a text formatting tool bar (like in msoft word etc kind, easier to use right?)

Cannot use photo caption  - something recently added in blogger posting web version

No Facebook or twitter integration

 

 

Ok, let me elaborate more on the important points (in my POV)...

1st: formatting of text. You can right click and select formatting from the drop down menu too, but i'd rather a text formatting toolbar really… like even posting from the web browser and lj or blogger has that right? This is ok if i'm just making a regular post, where normally there won't be much formatting to talk about… but if somehow there's loads of formatting to do in that post, this could be a bit of a hassle.

2nd: no tags for LJ and no fb/twitter integration. So i'll have to go to the lj page and add the tags from my journal page… and i'll have to visit my blog after posting to post a notification to fb and twitter. The no lj tags is irritating… posting to fb/twitter… i still have to do that if i'm using web edit… plus if it’s a post on my gaming blog i'm post to both my regular and gaming fb acts (which i log in on two diff browsers) so that can't be avoided i guess?

3rd: no photo caption - not much of a problem i guess, even on the blogger web i didn’t use that caption feature till recently. i'd just have a line of text below the photo and that's fine...

 

The most impt draw for me is the ease of photo upload. Most of the time the blogger photo upload gives me problems… the pics won't get uploaded - ok at least some time back it was almost always NOT working. Recently it seems to be better though. But if my photo is in iPhoto… i'll have to 1st export it to photo bucket, than open photo bucket to fetch the link, than insert it into the blog. SUPER TROUBLESOME and really discourages me from posting pictures… where as the media center in MarsEdit is really good… you can select the photos from iPhoto - you can view it sorted out by the diff events, and you can select the photo to put in directly.. MarsEdit will sort out the uploading issue for you.

Here's the media center, you can see the iPhoto pics by event.

 

You can drag folders from finder in there to access as well… and oh, i just tested… upon changing the height or width of the photo, the other is automatically changed as well to keep the aspect ratio. Neat.

 

MarsEdit will auto upload the photos for you… you can go on and make a new post in the mean time (or just do other stuff…) You can save it as drafts too, so you can do offline blogging (and publish the post later when there's internet connection)

 

Here's the post editing interface… no categories for lj tho :( What i like is that all your available categories are shown… so you don't end up making a new category just cos you typed friend instead of friends as your category was called...

 

and finally this is the main window...

 

So far so good on MarsEdit… with the only major downside being the lack of tags on LJ. And the price tag… at 40USD its really hefty for a blogging tool. And its not like i'm a professional blogger or anything of that sort… just blogging as a hobby??? and all… 40USD too let me blog easier? hmpphs…. very tempted but its soooo expensive! Sponsors anyone? :X