Sparkzy.com

Back in November I started experimenting with various blog editors or blogging clients. I wanted to be able to use drag-and-drop to insert pictures, edit entries offline, and create blog postings with a minimum of fuss and bother. I planned on using the software on my PowerBook, so it had to run under OS X. I tried the following:

• Ecto
• MarsEdit
• Journler
• Google Docs
• Bleezer

Ecto came out ahead of the others (for my criteria), with Bleezer running a close second.

Ecto
http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/

Closed source, $17.95, 21-day trial download available, Mac/PC
Drag-and-drop image insertion? YES
Offline editing? YES
Ease of use? YES

I was quickly sold on how easy it was to add images. Ecto took care of all the details. A few of the other Ecto features include a spellchecker, the ability to insert media from iPhoto, insert what you’re listening to in iTunes, or link to products on Amazon.com.

I was hoping the custom HTML tags feature would include lists, block quotes, and horizontal rules. It didn’t. Then I noticed that I can update the list and add any tags I want. Sweet. I really like that. There are lots of other ways to customize Ecto, that I haven’t even looked into yet. Ecto also supports the more tag, which allows you to split entries (like I did with this post).

I’ve purchased a copy of Ecto and have been very pleased with it. (This post was created using Ecto.)

MarsEdit
http://ranchero.com/marsedit/

Closed source, $24.95, full-functioning 30-day demo download available, Mac
Drag-and-drop image insertion? NO
Offline editing? YES
Ease of use? SORTA

To be honest, I stopped poking around with MarsEdit after I noticed that the image I draged onto the blog post only showed the local path. Sure enough, after publishing the entry, there was only a line of text that listed the path to the image on my PowerBook.

It also was more expensive than Ecto.

Journler
http://journler.com/

Closed source (API available), Donationware, non-crippled download version, Mac
Drag-and-drop image insertion? NO
Offline editing? YES
Ease of use? SORTA

Drag-and-drop photos looked ok in Journler, but were only local. They didn’t get uploaded to the blog. Journler has a nice list of HTML tags that you can add to your entries including block quote, unordered list, and horizontal rule.

If I was looking for only a journaling program, Journler would be a great choice.

Google Docs
http://www.google.com/google-d-s/tour1.html

Need Google account, no cost, no software to download, multiple platforms
Drag-and-drop image insertion? SORTA
Offline editing? NO
Ease of use? NO

Google Docs doesn’t meet the offline editing criteria, but I was curious to try the blog posting features. They didn’t work very well. I could drag-and-drop an image to the entry, but when it got uploaded to the the blog, it was formatted oddly and overran the current post intruding into a previous post.

In the end, if you’re going to be online anyway, using the editor built into WordPress is faster and easier.

Bleezer
http://larryborsato.com/bleezer/

Open source, Free/donation, non-crippled download version, Mac/PC/Linux
Drag-and-drop image insertion? NO
Offline editing? YES
Ease of use? YES

Bleezer doesn’t have drag-and-drop image entry, but it will upload images that you insert as you’re editing. Like Journler, Bleezer offers HTML tags like block quote, unordered list, and bulleted list. In the end, the image entry wasn’t as straight-ahead as I wanted.

However, if you’re on a tight budget (student?) and willing to handle some of the details yourself, Bleezer is a good choice.