Desktop blogging clients - REVIEWED!

Desktop blogging clients, WHAT are they for? Simple, they make blogging a snap! Just like the WYSIWYG Editor that comes along with your blog, but these tools are fully loaded with tons of features that a professional blogger needs! and most of all, you can compose your posts offline. I'm currently using both Post2Blog and BlogJet. Desktop blogging clients reviewed are ecto, BlogJet, w.bloggar and Post2Blog, there may be some I missed out but these four tools are the major players! Scroll down for the review!

ecto
The beauty of this tool is that it is available for both Windows and MacOSX. So, Mac users don't miss out!

Latest version: v1.8 (Windows), v2.39 (MacOSX)
Platform: Windows & MacOSX
Requirements: Windows 98/later, MacOS 10.2/later
License: Shareware (US$ 17.95)
Homepage: http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/
Download: http://www.mineblogging.com/ecto.zip (Win)

ecto is a feature-rich desktop blogging client for MacOSX and Windows, supporting a wide range of weblog systems, such as Blogger, Blojsom, Drupal, MovableType, Nucleus, TypePad, WordPress, and more. ecto is the successor of the wildly popular Kung-Log, which has been in use by thousands of Mac users and which earned a 4.5 mice rating in the MacWorld July 2003 issue as well as high ratings at VersionTracker.com and MacUpdate.com.

With ecto you can write and manage entries for your weblog(s). The advantage over using your weblog's control panel is that you can compose entries offline and use the extra features ecto offers, such as spellcheck, creating links, attachments, and much more. ecto is designed to make blogging much more easier and yet give the users as much power as possible to manage their weblogs.

Features for Windows version (for MacOSX, go here MacOSX features)

• Support for multiple weblogs and servers
• Support for Blogger's Atom API
• Support for MovableType, TypePad, cocolog, WordPress, Nucleus, Drupal through metaWeblog API and MovableType API
• Support of all available remote control options of MovableType and TypePad (posting entries with continuation, summary, keywords, multiple categories, trackback, text-formatting, comment options)
• Intuitive interface for creating and editing weblog entries
• Quick access toolbar menu with HTML tag templates (fully modifiable)
• Easily change the posting date of entries
• HTML-rendered preview of entries
• File and image upload tool (supports thumbnailing images)
• Save settings on a per-blog basis
• Send notifications by email
• Spell checker to make sure no spelling mistake get published
• Post template for saving frequently used post text and formats
• Insert details of the currently playing songs in WinAmp/WMP9/iTunes (via free plugins) in your entry
• Japanese and French localizations
• ‘Blog This!' support in FeedDemon 1.10
• And much more!

I'm not an ecto user, so I can't actually tell how good it is, but base on its rating at MacWorld (4.5 out of 5) one thing I can say that it's the best for MacOS!

BlogJet

BlogJet is the most popular blogging client for Windows, easy to use and full featured. One think that makes me stick to BlogJet the ability to insert smiles with just a click! I love smiles!

Latest version: v1.5.0.37, v1.6 beta1 (beta version)
Platform: Windows
Requirements: Windows 98/later, Internet Explorer 5.5/later
License: Shareware (US$ 39.95 - Single License)
Homepage: http://blogjet.com
Download: http://blogjet.com/download/

BlogJet is a weblog client for Windows that allows you to manage your blog without opening a browser. Those who are seriously concerned with blogging, cannot imagine their work without using this wonderful tool with elegant interface.

Easy to setup, easy to use. Intuitive Account Wizard helps you to create a new blog or use an existing one with BlogJet (it supports almost all leading blog services). Furthermore, the intuitive smart interface of BlogJet will help you to start using the program right away.

The rich word processor allows you to format your posts according to your tastes and needs; it does not require any special skills. Changing colors and fonts, underlining, italicizing or making a text bold — all these procedures are performed with just one click or by pressing a hotkeys combination. You will instantly see the changes as if you were using Microsoft Word. If you would like to hack your HTML code, all you need is to switch to Code editor, which has such features as syntax highlighting and intelligent code completion.

Built-in spell checker fixes your mistakes with a few clicks, or launches automatically as soon as you publish your posts.

If you need to insert a picture, resize it, or create a thumbnail, drag-and-drop an image from your browser to BlogJet, or click the button. BlogJet is smart enough to automatically upload it to your blog or FTP server.

If you want to add some fun to your blog, there are 20 high-quality smiles and the Now Playing feature, which detects the name of the artist and the song title for the track being currently played in Windows Media Player, Winamp, or iTunes. It can even insert a link to this song in famous iTunes Music Store, so that readers can buy your favorite music.

There is another entertaining feature — voice attachments. Take a microphone and record your voice. It will be attached to your post and uploaded to your blog. Unlike web-based audio blogging services, there are no monthly fees, and it does not require external plug-ins!

Blog This! BlogJet integrates with Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox browsers; FeedDemon, RSS Bandit, NewsGator and other news aggregators to enable you easily blog about the current web page or news items.

If you have no time to finish your post, just save it as a draft file on your computer, so that you would be able to continue writing at any time you like.

In addition, you can not only create new posts in BlogJet. The program also allows you to view and edit your previous posts.

Finally, support for secure data transmission based on the OpenSSL industry standard guarantees that the data you send by BlogJet is encrypted.

The bottom line is, this tool is highly recommended!

w.bloggar
For those who are looking for a good and most of all a FREE blogging client, consider no more, w.bloggar is the pick! FREE? Yes it is a FREEWARE. NO other tools can par with w.bloggar in terms of features/value. Also, it supports multi-language.

Latest version: v4.0
Platform: Windows
Requirements: Windows 98/later, Internet Explorer 5.01/later
License: Freeware
Homepage: http://wbloggar.com
Download: http://wbloggar.com/download.php

Briefly, here the main features

• Post and Publish on most blogs/cms tools and services
• Edit Posts and Templates
• Save Posts locally for further publishing
• Import Text files
• Add links and images
• Format text font and alignment
• Multiple accounts and blogs
• Post preview
• Colorized HTML code
• HTML tags menu
• Find/Replace option
• Post to many blogs
• Title and Category Fields
• Spell Checking
• File and Image Upload
• Custom Tags Menu
• Toolbar Icons Skin
• Supports Windows XP
• Support to the advanced MovableType options New!
• Add Account Wizard New!
• Support to Multiple Categories New!
• Option to XHTML compliance New!
• Import and Export Settings New!
• Ping to Weblogs.Com, blo.gs, Technorati and ping-o-matic New!
• No Spyware!
• No Nag Screens!

So, nothing to lose, have a try now!

Post2Blog
This is a not so popular blogging client that has the MOST features out of the rest! Simply stunning, a handy desktop blogging tool. I love its "Link to web service" feature, where one can set reference for selected words to Answers.com, Google, Flickr, Wikipedia, Yahoo, Technorati and others! Plus, it comes with a list of skins to choose from, just to spice up to your feel. BTW, it can double as your HTML editor, no kidding! But one thing sad is I cannot manage to setup my Blogger with this tool, this might be a bug (since it is not a final version yet). But I keep on using it to compose my posts, and I transfer (Copy&Paste) all my works to BlogJet to post it, NOT a problem at all. As whether it is a freeware or shareware, I have no idea. At their website, it is not stated, and in the program Help/About menu, there is an UNREGISTERED text there, but where is the PURCHASE/BUY link? This might due to the fact that it's still under development, anyway I will consider buying this tool (if it's really Shareware) when the final version is out.

Latest version: v1.00RC3
Platform: Windows
Requirements: Windows 98/later
License: NA
Homepage: http://bytescout.com/post2blog.html
Download: http://bytescout.com/files/Post2Blog.exe

Benefits:

• More than 30 major blog types are supported (including Blogger, WordPress, Typepad, MovableType , LiveJournal, Blogware and more);
• Post from Word, Firefox, Internet Explorer, send pictures to blog from Explorer;
• Insert images, create hyperlinks, link words to online dictionaries;
• Automatically upload images and linked files used in post via blog or via FTP;
• You can use Word as editor and compose posts in Word and post them using Post2Blog toolbar;
• Built-in multi-language spellchecker and thesaurus;
• UNICODE text support (for Japan, Korean and other languages);
• XHTML compliance option and ability to generate code without

  tags;

• Pings web-services automatically (Technorati, Weblogs, Moreover, Ping-o-matic, you can add new web-services);
• Ability to insert Technorati, Flickr, Del.ico.us, Ice Rocket, Buzzwords, 43 things tags;
• Set reference for selected words to Answers.com, Google, Flickr, Wikipedia, Yahoo, Technorati and others
• Collect HTML snippets from web-pages to your post;
• Skin support;
• and more!

A heavy duty blogging client, with heavy duty features! Looking forward for the final build!

Final words from me.........
Now, you had the review, if you are not using a desktop blogging client I highly recommended you get one. Which one? Up to you! Any comments please put forward!

Technorati Tags: Blogging tools, Weblog tools, Blog tools, Desktop blogging clients, Blogging clients, Ecto, Blogjet, W.bloggar, Post2blog

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