MEETING THE OFFLINE BLOG EDITOR
An offline blog editor is a tool that enables you to type and create your blog posts (and pages, depending on the functionality of your blogging application) without accessing the internet until you’re ready to actually publish a post online. You can download an offline blog editor to your computer, configure it to recognize your existing blogs, and publish posts to your blogs without leaving the offline blog editor tool.
Following are some of the most important features to look for when you choose an offline blog editor:
. Cost : Many free offline blog editors are available.
. Drafts : Make sure the offline blog editor you choose allows you to save a draft of a post before you actually publish it on your blog. If you’re called away
from your computer, you don’t want to risk losing the work you’ve already done.
. Tags : Your offline blog editor should let you add tags (keywords) to your posts to identify them and help search engine optimization.
. Pinging : It’s very important that you choose an offline blog editor that includes a ping function meaning when you publish new content from your
offline blog editor to your live blog, Technorati, search engines, and so on are notified of the existence of that new content with a ping.
. Time Stamps : Your offline blog editor should allow you to change the dates of your posts and schedule them for publishing at specific times. This feature
is particularly helpful when you know you’ll be away from your blog for an extended time but want to ensure that fresh content is published on your
blog during your absence.
. Image editing : Make sure the offline blog editor you choose allows you to easily insert and edit images.
. Categories : Depending on the blogging application you use, it might be important for your offline blog editor to allow you to categorize your posts so
they appear in the appropriate category archives on your live blog.
. HTML Editor : Even if you don’t know HTML today, in time, you’ll undoubtedly learn some basic HTML code. Make sure the offline blog editor you
choose allows you to view and edit the HTML code for your posts.
BENEFITING FROM AN OFFLINE BLOG EDITOR
You can get a variety of benefits from using an offline blog editor to create and publish your blog posts.
Following are some of the top benefits bloggers derive from using offline blog editors:
. Peace of mind : Because you don’t need an internet connection to use an offline blog editor.
. Speed : Offline blog editors respond to your commands quickly, unlike online editing within your blogging application, which is dependent on the speed
of your internet connection.
. Multiple blog posting : When you use an offline blog editor, you can easily publish a post to multiple blogs. Just associate each blog to your offline blog
editor and select the ones you want your post to publish to with your mouse.
. Fewer code problems : If you’ve ever tried to copy content from a Microsoft Word document and paste it into the visual editor of your blogging application,
you’ve probably noticed that when you publish that post, the formatting of the text is a complete mess. That’s because extra HTML code is added when
you copy and paste from Word or another word-processing application to your blogging application. You can avoid that problem by using an offline blog
editor that accepts text copied and pasted from Word without any problems or additional code appended to it.
. Easy image and video inclusion : Adding images and video to blog posts can be challenging for some bloggers. Those problems are solved when you
use an offline blog editor.
FINDING WINDOWS – COMPATIBLE OFFLINE BLOG EDITORS
You can choose from a number of offline blog editors if you use a Windows-based computer. The following sections focus on two of the most popular options: Window’s Live Writer and BlogDesk. Both are completely free to use and offer similar functionality.
Windows Live Writer (www.windowslive.com/desktop/writer)
Window’s Live Writer is offered for free by Microsoft. As you might expect, it is compatible only with Windows platform computers. However, you can use it with most blogging applications, such as WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, Movable Type, Live Journal, and more.
To get started using Windows Live Writer, first you have to download the program to your computer by visiting www.windowslive.com/desktop/writer and clicking the Download link. Follow the instructions provided on screen to install the program as you would any downloadable program.
Be sure to deselect the check boxes for additional programs offered for download with Windows Live Writer during the download process. If you want only Windows Live Writer, that’s the only program you need to download, regardless of how many other programs are offered with it.
When Windows Live Writer is installed on your computer, you can open it from your Windows Start Menu.
You can easily associate your blogs with Windows Live Writer by clicking the Edit Tab from the top menu bar and then clicking the Add Blog Account link. Adding blogs is a simple process, and after a blog is added to Windows Live Writer, you can select it and publish content to it. You can also preview content on your blog before you publish it, save drafts, easily insert images, videos, tags, categories and more.
For Windows users, Windows Live Writer is one of the most comprehensive, easy-to-use offline blog editors available.
BlogDesk (www.blogdesk.org)
BlogDesk is another popular and free offline blog editor for Windows users. It offers features that are nearly as comprehensive as Windows Live Writer, with a simpler interface. BlogDesk is compatible with WordPress, ExpressionEngine, Movable Type, Drupal, and Serendipity blogging applications.
To install BlogDesk on your computer, select the Download link from the top navigation bar on the BlogDesk home page. The Download page, and here you can click the Download BlogDesk link. Then follow the instructions to download BlogDesk as you would any other program.
During the BlogDesk download process, be sure to select the check box to install a BlogDesk icon on your desktop when prompted to. Having an icon handy makes it quick and easy to launch BlogDesk in the future.
When BlogDesk is installed on your computer, you can launch it, and associate your blogs to it by selecting the File tab from the top menu bar and them select the Manage Blogs link. Just follow the instructions provided to add more blogs to BlogDesk. It’s easy to switch between blog’s (they’re listed on the right side of your BlogDesk window), and you can use the top menu items to add images, tags, and more.
FINDING MULTIPLATFORM OFFLINE BLOG EDITORS
Qumana (www.qumana.com)
Qumana started out as a popular offline blog editor, because it’s very easy to insert ads into blog posts with it. If that feature is important to you, Qumana is certainly worth looking into, particularly if you’re not comfortable editing HTML code yourself in order to insert ads from other providers before, after, and within your blog posts.
You can download Qumana for free by clicking the Download button on the Qumana Home page. Just follow the instructions provided on your screen to download the version of Qumana that’s appropriate for your system – Windows, Mac, or Linux.
Qumana is compatible with all the common blogging applications such as WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, Movable Type, LiveJournal, and more. As with most offline blog editors, it’s very easy to associate your blogs with Qumana, and the post editor is streamlined and easy to use.
Scribefire (www.scribefire.com)
Scribefire, is unique because it’s not a true offline blog editor (you have to be online to use it), but you don’t have to be logged in to your blogging application account to use it. However, it’s become fairly popular as a blog editor, so it warrants mention.
Scribefire is an extension to the popular Mozilla Firefox web browser. You can use ScribeFire with WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, Movable Type, Live Journal, or other popular blogging applications to edit and publish content to your blog. Example, if you come across a web page or article that you want to blog about while you’re surfing the internet, you can simply click the Scribefire toolbar (available from Firefox after you download the Scribefire add-on), and an editor opens so that you can immediately create your blog post. When you’re ready to publish your post to your blog, you can do so without leaving Scribefire.
To install Scribefire to your computer, simply click the Install Scribefire Now link in the right sidebar of the Scribefire Home page. The Firefox Add-ons page for Scribefire opens, and you can click the Add to Firefox button to access Scribefire.
The Scribefire functionality is a bit more stripped down than what offline blog editors provide, but is easy of integration with Firefox makes it a worthwhile option for testing to determine whether it meets your needs.