Here’s a list of 20 applications that allow you to create blog posts from the comfort of your operating system environment, no internet connection required.

Mars Edit 2: Mac

Mars Edit is among the most popular desktop blogging apps for the Mac. It supports all of the major blogging platforms such as WordPress, Blogger, and Drupal and even many of the newer ones like Squarespace and Tumblr. Composing a blog post in Mars Edit can be as simple as writing an email but there are enough advanced features like macros (reusable snippets) and TextWrangler integration to keep professional bloggers happy.
Price: $29.95

Flock: Mac & Windows

I know this doesn’t strictly fit the category of a desktop blogging app, but it is a desktop app and it does have blogging integration… so there. Flock is the most unique web browser I’ve ever come across and is absolutely worth checking out. The thing that makes Flock unique is that it has integrated tons of the services you use online into the browser itself (by default). This means you can browse the web while keeping tabs on your social networking and blogging services. The built-in blog editor isn’t as fully featured as Mars Edit, but as a free utility bundled in a browser it’s pretty impressive. Check out all the services Flock supports below.
Price: Free

Flock Services

Ecto: Mac

Ecto is a surprisingly fully featured blogging application with support for a ton of platforms. Ecto features include both a rich text editor and an HTML editor, full local control of recently posted entries and drafts, and the ability to convert and scale images. In my own testing Ecto seemed a bit rough around the edges but it’s definitely a good alternative to Mars Edit if you’re looking for something a little cheaper.
Price: $19.95

Qumana: PC & Mac

Qumana is another free option with most of the necessary features we’ve already discussed: WYSIWYG and HTML editor, support for most major blogging platforms, and local control of previous posts. What sets Qumana apart is its emphasis making money with your blog. Qumana lets you easily include ads in your posts so you can (theoretically) earn cash as viewers click on the ads.
Price: Free

Blogo: Mac

Blogo breaks ground in the interface category by delivering a slick, minimal UI for updating your blog. Blogo supports WordPress, Blogger, Typepad, Typo, Drupal, Expression Engine, Twitter, Ping.fm and more. Notable features include a bookmarklet to easily grab content from your browser, a fullscreen editing mode and easy drag and drop photo uploading/resizing.
Price: $25

MacJournal: Mac

MacJournal is geared more towards private journaling than professional blogging, but it does include full support for LiveJournal, Blogger, Movable Type, and WordPress. MacJournal takes full advantage of OS X by offering features like Quicklook integration and iSight compatibility.
Price: $39.95

BlogJet: Windows

BlogJet is one of the nicer Windows-only options that I came across. BlogJet sports a ton of great features including posting to multiple blogs simultaneously, Flickr and YouTube integration, file sharing/attachments for your readers to download, and browser/feed reader integration. And of course, support for WordPress, TypePad, Movable Type, Blogger, MSN Live Spaces, Blogware, BlogHarbor, Squarespace, Drupal, Community Server, etc.
Price: $39.95

RocketPost

Another really impressive Windows only app, RocketPost claims to be the “only one with WYSIWYG editing, full local editing and full blog import.” RocketPost boast tons of top notch features like automatic linking to related posts, quote tracking, quick linking, auto save, instant photo album creation, and scheduled posts. If you’re on Windows and are serious about blogging, this may be the way to go.
Price: $29

And a Bunch More!

After you’ve listed the features for eight desktop blogging apps, things start to get redundant. So I’m going to stop there and let you check out the rest. The apps above are the ones I found particularly impressive or unique, but here’s another 12 that are definitely worth looking into.

• myBlogEdit: Mac
• iBlog: Mac
• Bleezer: Mac/Windows/Linux
• RapidBlog (RapidWeaver Plugin): Mac
• QuickPost 2: Mac
• BlogDesk: Windows
• Chrysanth: Windows
• Windows Live Writer: Windows
• Post2Bog
• JBlogEditor: Windows
• QTM: Windows/Mac
• w.bloggar

Conclusion

You should now be more than equipped to enrich your blogging experience with a desktop application. Use the comments below to let us know which options you prefer, which you hate, and what we left out.

iFlickr Review

By way of a basic introduction, iFlickr is a WordPress plugin that allows you to easily find free images on Flickr and insert them into your blog post while automatically putting the attribution link underneath. It can save you quite a bit of time when looking for related images to your blog post, but doesn’t satisfy the requirement you may have for putting your own personal images on your blog (we’ll cover some methods for doing this later on).

Here are some of the various bits we liked and didn’t like so much about iFlickr:

The Good

• iFlickr makes it very easy to search for images as you’re writing
• It gives you more flexibility and precision than other plugins which attempt to automatically find related images
• It’s a very simple way to add some graphical content to a news article or blog post
• It’s fairly easy to use CSS to customize the way the image appears
• It’s completely free!

The Annoying

• iFlickr only works with PHP5. This may be fine, but not all servers come with this by default
• You can’t choose to only show your own images
• It can be a bit tricky to get working correctly (it took us a while)

If you’re looking to use an appropriate Flickr photo with your blog posts on a regular basis, iFlickr is definitely a good way to go. However, if you’d like to mix things up in a different way, trying one of the following might be a better option:

Other Flickr/WordPress Plugins

• WordPress Flickr Manager – This is a very fully fledged offering, which lets you search for both personal and public photos and insert them into your posts. It’s not as simple as iFlickr, but you might appreciate the bigger set of features.
• Flickr Photo Album – This plugin allows you to add a set of photos to your site as an album. Rather than picking one or two images, you are able to display a whole collection. Great for showcasing screenshots, or your holiday pictures!
• FlickrRSS – This lets you display a selection of your Flickr images as a sidebar widget. There are some useful advanced options for customising the display exactly as you want it.

We’d be really interested to hear about any other plugins which you find useful for integrating Flickr with your blog – drop us a line below!

Most designers are familiar with the relative pros and cons of different publishing tools – but what about the websites of the blog platforms themselves? We all know that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but I would argue that there’s no harm in looking…

We’re going to take a look at the homepage for four popular platforms: WordPress, Textpattern, ExpressionEngine and Blogger. Which ones are beautiful enough to compel you to use their platform, and which ones have the design aesthetic of a hello kitty toaster? Hopefully through a critique of these designs you can take home some good pointers for use in your own work.

WordPress

The WordPress homepage has recently gone through a complete re-design for the release of version 2.5 of the software. Whilst the site does have a huge amount of content, the homepage is simple and easy to read.

What works:

• The use of orange to highlight download links makes the task that most people visit the site for a simple one
• The style of language – “WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time” is a great sentence.
• It makes WordPress understandable to someone who has very little knowledge of technical aspects. The words PHP and MySQL are not even mentioned!
• Form input fields have been painstakingly designed

What doesn’t work:

• The WordPress for Dummies image in the bottom corner clashes with the colour scheme
• The fact that the site ironically doesn’t seem to be powered by WordPress

Textpattern

Textpattern is the most basic of designs and does not go a very long way to ‘selling’ itself to potential users. However, with all the focus being placed on textual content it does live up to it’s name. We use Textpattern to publish certain sections of Design Shack and we’re more than happy with it!

What works:

• Splitting the layout using only text columns screams professionalism
• A subtle use of yellow defines the Textpattern ‘brand’
• The requirements and interface features are quickly found

What doesn’t work:

• The site is focused towards the technically minded
• There is no emphasized area of text which introduces the software
• Screenshots are displayed in a fairly flat and uninteresting manner
• The download link is tricky to see
• The amount of content on the page is excessive, overloading visitors a little too quickly

Blogger

Blogger differs from the other platforms we are analysing as it is a hosted service. Powered by Google, it allows completely non-technically minded people to start publishing a blog with great ease.

What works:

• Content is kept simple with a minimum of technical information
• The ’3 easy steps’ idea easily guides the user through a straight forward process
• Branding is used well, imprinting the Blogger logo on the readers mind

What doesn’t work:

• The use of typography is confused, with too many different effects, colours and faces
• The site lacks professionalism, clearly focused towards a certain user group
• The icons look decidedly dated
• Tables are used for layout in certain areas which really should be styled with CSS

Expression Engine

As the only commercially sold platform in this analysis, Expression Engine has a different motive to persuade publishers to use their software. This leads to a design more reminiscent of other commercial software sites.

What works:

• A professional, well designed colour scheme
• The use of tabbed content on the homepage to show a greater amount of information in a visually appealing way
• The website is powered by Expression Engine itself
• Unlike Blogger, the icons and graphics used and professional and well crafted

What doesn’t work:

• The bold logo for the testimonial section immediately draws the eye – away from the main Expression Engine logo
• Due to the heavy graphical nature of the page, loading time is slightly longer than the other designs

Lessons to take away

• From WordPress: Place emphasis on the most important reason the user came to the site, in this case, to download the software
• From Textpattern: Too much information can overload the reader, and a brand can be created using a single line of colour
• From Blogger: Guide the user through a process
• From Expression Engine: Using a dynamic area can allow more information to be conveyed without overloading the user at first

We hope you enjoyed this “design analysis” concept and found it to be useful. Please feel free to give your two cents on the above designs in the comments.

If you think that your site has a great design, great quality content and regular updates then it is definitely worth submitting. There are some great tips to help with deciding whether you will qualify as well.

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