WordPress Desktop Client Search

UPDATE: I have found another desktop client that is actually the new winner. The post for that is here.

A NEWER UPDATE: I was not expecting to get responses back from the companies that I reviewed in the article below but 2 companies have already responded pointing me to their beta builds. Therefore, I am not going to declare a winner at the top of this post every time someone takes the lead but rather do an individual review of their product. So look for those individual post throughout my blog. Also, I have added a new category of “Blog Desktop Clients” where all related post will be located.

Now to the original review –

I have been searching high and low for a desktop client to manage all of the blogs that I am setting up. You may ask – “Why a desktop client when WordPress 2.0 has such a good interface?”. Well these are the reasons –

1. There is no spell check in WordPress and there are no plug-ins that word with the Built-in Rich Text editor or my hosting.
2. The Image upload feature while cool, does not quite work well (there are no horizontal or vertical space settings in the insert image properties)
   

Ian’s Messy Desk” that went into the same quest. After reading that article I tried out the majority of clients he reviewed and a few others that were listed by other in his comments section. These were my findings –

• ecto
• • Cost – $17.95
  • When I tried to install it said that I needed .Net 2.0 or a service pack update – I do not like software that says that I need more software to run it – that is far as that went.
• Qumana
• • Cost – Free
  • Uploads worked after a little research to find out which folder to list.
  • Spell check worked well
  • Bulleted lists were terrible – When you click the button to add a list the entire post became a bullet and then you would press enter and it would not add another. I could not find a work around for that at all.
• w.Bloggar
• • Cost – Free
  • Uploads worked just fine
  • Spell check was awful. If you misspelled a word it would give you a list with every word that started with the same 2 letters. It was a pain
  • Bulleted Lists – Did not like the way it did it at all. This is a hybrid WYSIWYG/HTML editor where when you hit the return key you get a line break but not a <br> tag. But when you insert an image or a bullet you get tags, not the visual representation. It does have a preview tab which shows you how the HTML renders but you can not edit in that screen. – Too much trouble
• Thingamablog
  • Cost – Free
  • Did not try – the web site was not clear about how it worked. Their web site said “Thingamablog does NOT require a third-party blogging host” which means� I do not know, I have WordPress, I need something that works with that. It sounded like it was it’s own blog software.
• RocketPost
• • Cost – $99 – Expensive
  • Uploads – could not get it to work
  • I was really excited about this software from their web site. The have a cool little video that shows all the cool stuff you can do with it. I tried the upload feature and could not get it to work so. I did a quick search to see if some else had a solution and found several posts of people that had this issue and other and had not gotten any response from support (even after 5 e-mails). I don’t think so especially for $99.
  • I did not try anything else
• BlogJet
• • Cost – $39.95
  • Uploads – originally it was a little trouble to get it setup but after READING the directions and FOLLOWING them, it worked (me not them ). Also, it will automatically resize the image for you.
  • Spell-check – awesome
  • Bulleted Lists – worked like they are supposed to except sublists (like this line). Generally tabbing will give you a sublist – BlogJet does not work that way. At first I just switched over to the Code view and added it by hand but then did a quick search on their web site and found the answer – Ctrl M – Cool.

I am actually typing this post with BlogJet and have to say that it is really very transparent in regards to word processing. I am able to concentrate on the content instead of little work arounds to make it look the way that I want.

Oh, one other thing I like about it is that you are able to post as a draft to your blog which was not an option on a few of the above. I like this so I can preview the post on my blog before posting it. Finally, I like the smiley’s that come with it . They are cool. No one else had them.

Is it worth $40? I think so after all the time that I have spent looking around and the time that I save witting posts. I am planning on doing a lot of blogging in the future and the right tool will make all the difference.

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Since this original post I have reviewed more Desktop Blogging Clients. Below is the running list of those reviews –

• 06.08.13 – Windows Live Writer Test Post
• 06.05.13 – WordPress Desktop Client Search – Ecto 2 Review
• 06.05.04 – WordPress Desktop Client Search – Bleezer Review
• 06.04.07 – WordPress Desktop Client Search – Qumana Beta 3 Review
• 06.04.01 – WordPress Desktop Client Search – Zoundry Review