Choosing An External Blog Editor

ecto
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How many times have you heard the recommendation that serious writers should maintain a blog or a personal website.  I’m guessing many of you are already actively engaged.  This post is especially for you, with some information that may help you improve your blogging experience.

FREE BLOG EDITORS

Most bloggers probably just use the internal posting feature contained within their blog platform, be it Blogger, Wordpress, or whatever.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  That’s what I mostly do.  But sometimes using an external blog editor has advantages.  I’ve rounded up a few links that lead you to thorough discussion about these advantages, along with reviews of the many options available to you.

For those wanting a free editor, I’m pointing you to an excellent post at TechHail, which gives quick, insightful reviews of 10 WYSIWYG blogging editors.  This is a really good summary of what is available these days.  I’ve experimented with several of these.  Currently, I sometimes use ScribeFire when I come across something I want to blog about while I’m surfing the web.

OFFLINE BLOG EDITORS

The TechHail list, however, leaves out some important options, especially for Offline Blog Editing.  I personally have run into occasional problems when using the editor within Wordpress, and even ScribeFire, with posts somehow lost.  And sometimes when I’m travelling, I want to write a post on my laptop, even when I have no internet connection.

When I discovered offline editors almost three years ago, I also learned the reassurance I found by having local copies of all m posts right on my own computer.  I also discovered that offline editors provide some power not available within the Wordpress online editor, especially when it comes to design and manipulation of graphics.  I settled on Ecto, an editor available for both PC’s and Mac’s, and I used it for quite a long time.

The downside becomes apparent when one goes through computer crashs and upgrades, requiring reinstallation of software.  I’ve had my share of those over the past 6 months, and now I’m back to relying to online editors that do not require any installation on my computer.  Still, I miss the added power offline editors provide.

The Wardman Fire has an excellent discussion of the many benefits of offline editors.

If you are intrigued by offline editing, here’s a very useful, though somewhat out-of-date post with reviews of offline editors at One Cool Site Blogging Tips.  Serious bloggers can also learn a lot by browsing through this site — lots of useful tips there.

WORD 2007 AS BLOG EDITOR

Lest we forget, Word 2007 can serve as one’s offline blog editor.  It’s a build-in feature.  Mind you, it has limitations, and some people don’t like it at all [see link below].

FINAL WORD

More recently, people are beginning to blog from their iPhone.  I’m sure this will proliferate as the iPad gains traction.  For more information, check the link below about four such applications.

SHARE WITH US your own experience with blogging.  What platform do you use, and why?  Do you ever turn to an external editor?  If so, tell us about it.

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