I love my blogging platform
Serendipity. It is easy to setup and administer. Theming is a breeze and their plug in system is a wonder.
However, I find using their online editor for posting a bit klunky. There isn't anything inherently wrong with it really. It handles media well, it supports textile or other markups, and there are wysiwyg editors available. It just isn't as easy as I would like - and my hunch is that I would find similar results with other platforms.
So I began my search for a good offline client. Windows Live Writer wouldn't even install, BlogJet didn't impress, ScribeFire had promise but just didn't feel comfortable. The search continued.
I really only had a few requirements:
Enter
BlogDesk.
So I've been using BlogDesk for a few weeks now and am now ready to give it my recommendation.
Here is what I (really) like:
Image handling is done particularly well. I can resize, add borders, and do other basic manipulation without modifying my original file - and when I post, the images are uploaded automatically.
Not only did BlogDesk recognize my Serendipity system for easy setup and configuration, but it does also support multiple blogs. I can choose which blog I am working on - and even select multiples if I want to cross post.
One of the issues I had with some of the other tools I tested was that basic things like line spacing and basic formatting didn't transfer well when I published. I expect that what I compose should at least be a reasonable representation of what will show up on my blog. BlogDesk has really been flawless in this regard.
The program is easy to use, but the help is also well written and comprehensive if you should need it.
I would be willing to pay for a good blogging tool but BlogDesk is free.
A couple of issues - some most likely my fault...
Running on Vista requires a
download from Microsoft. Not really a problem, but is noted only in the FAQ - would be easier if it alerted us on the download page as well.
BlogDesk seems to handle categories well but I have a tagging plugin that I use instead of the normal categories. BlogDesk has support for Technorati tags but I haven't been able to figure out how to use it with my tagging module. For now, I have to go in and manually edit my tags before publishing.
So I guess the short version of all of this is - I just love BlogDesk. I have recommended it to family, friends, clients - anyone who blogs really. It makes the process easy and fun, which means I post more often.
So
give it a shot and tell me in the comments how it works for you.
SB
has a tagging plugin that you install on wordpress and enables offline writers like "blogdesk" to enter [tag] tag1, tag2 [/tag] etc.
Installing it right now, but good article on blogdesk, I absolutely love Blogdesk.
As for blogdesk, I can't imagine doing this without it - especially image handling.
Thanks for your comments
SB