Yzabel / August 4, 2005

First in my round of testing (see Choosing a Blog Client) comes Qumana. Why this one and not another? Tough question. There probably won’t be any answer to this, except for « I found the name intriguing ».Qumana is a free desktop client that will allow you to update blogs on the most used blog tools and services (Blogger, Blogware, WordPress, Typepad, Squarespace, MovableType, Drupal, BlogHarbor)—which is probably more than enough for most people and for starters.

The pros:

• Easy to use. The traditional alignment and text icons are there, there’s no doubt about what button to click to center your text or bold it.
• Varied functions, from choosing a specific font to inserting a link or a table.
• Allows categorization, and retrieves already existing categories from your blog.
• Adds Technorati tags in one click (I tried it in this post, see at the bottom).
• Ability to configure several accounts on the client (different logins and blog platforms) in barely a few clicks and URL-typing. Can also switch quickly from one to the other without requiring you to logout first, then back in.
• A Drop Pad, in which you can quickly and easily drag and drop links from a web page, text from a document or elements from your RSS feeds.
• When blogging about a link from the Drop Pad, it opens a second window without closing the one you were already working in; you can thus write an entry for Blog A, while also composing a post for Blog B.

The cons:

• No separated Preview and Code areas; I must admit that I like having a straight HTML view of my posts as well as a WYSIWYG one.
• Inserts ugly and unneeded tags once the entry is posted. As a person who likes clean code, this irks me to no end. Nothing is more annpying than having to clean tags because they screwed with the blog’s theme.
• Some elements could have been developed more thoroughly. For instance, the dialog box to insert a link doesn’t allow you to specify a title for the link, or in which window it must open.
• The spellchecker is a tad bit light. That a blog client doesn’t know the word “blog” looks a little… weird to me.
• Previous posts can’t be edited from the client itself.UPDATE: As of 08/10, they can.
• Tends to drop the Title and Category choice during posting (or when saving and reloading the post later on).

In conclusion:A neat and tidy tool, that would however deserve to see some of its functions expanded. The ugly resulting HTML code can also be a serious problem, especially given the fact that most bloggers use already configured themes including stylesheets: no need for a heavier code in that.Y Tags: Blog | Qumana