Other ways to post to your blog: Offline editors
Sometimes you have an epiphany that you'd like to post to your blog, but maybe you're on the bus, or ferry, or some other place where you're not connected to the Internet. Okay, you could use notepad or other text editor, write your thoughts down and then copy and paste into your blog through the standard web-based tool. But what if you have an image you'd like to include? What about formatting?
If you use NewsGator you can use one of the posting plugins and save it for later. I've been using and posting with the Blogger plugin for several months now (you can probably tell when I do because of the link appearing at the bottom of the post). It does work great. There are also plugins for other platforms too. The MovablePoster plugin for MovableType and TypePad works well and also works with Blogware.
If you don't have NewsGator what are your options?
I've been working with three tools lately and here's a quick review of them.
This is a really good free tool. Simple, light and has spell check. It supports most major packages (BlogWare and WordPress are coming). It's not WYSIWYG, though. You don't have to know the codes to edit your posts, though. The toolbar lets you bold, italics, indent, etc. The preview tab gives a pretty cool rendering of what the page will look like. Since this is an offline tool you can start a post, save it, and then post it later.
w.bloggar also supports multiple accounts so I can write a post, and then post it to my Blogger blog and my other blogs quickly.
I've found this to be a great little tool and have been using it a lot recently. As a free tool, I recommend it.
This is not as flexible. It is intended for MT-based blogs, but it is also free. It's not WYSIWYG, but does let you edit some of the extra information like trackbacks. I was able to set it up to post to my Blogware-based blogs, but the trackbacks didn't work. I didn't like this tool as much as w.bloggar. The interface isn't as nice, but does have more features. Also I can't post to my Blogger blog, so it isn't as useful to me right now. When I switch my blog to Blogware, I'll use this as my posting plugin for NewsGator, though.
This is a tool I saw listed on another blog hosting site and decided to try it out. It's commercial, but has a 30 day demo available. If you want to buy the software it's only $20 USD. I'm writing this post from BlogJet now, and so far I like it. If I do buy after the 30 days are up, it would likely replace w.bloggar. The main reason is that it is WYSIWYG. It has all the other features of w.bloggar and a nice interface. It does support BlogWare natively which is a real bonus. There is a “Blog this” button for IE that ties right into BlogJet.
I have only scratched the surface of all three applications. For BlogJet I'm trying the automatic image uploading with this post. I'm also going to try posting this to two blogs.
Final thoughts:
If you have something other than MT or TypePad, try w.bloggar if you don't mind seeing the code. You might try MovablePoster if you do have MT or TypePad because it does support trackbacks and other MT features. Right now, after a few posts in BlogJet I would certainly give it a try and consider buying it.