Yzabel / July 27, 2005

In a few words, here’s what Wikipedia has to say about the matter:

“Blog client (weblog client) is software to manage (post, edit) blogs from operating system with no need to launch a web browser. A typical blog client has an editor, a spell-checker and a few more options that simplify content creation and editing.”

Truth be told, my first introduction to such tools was done through the excellent Semagic for LiveJournal. Semagic just has one huge flaw: it’s meant to update your a LiveJournal blog, and no other, which was leaving me somewhat in the cold regarding all my nice WordPress-powered blogs (and others, in case I’d like to try different ones). This is the reason why I went looking for a a blog client, and evidently a good one.What would be the interest for these, might one ask? Depending on the people, the answer will range from “none” to “plenty”. All blog systems available out there come with a posting interface that will basically let you write and save your entries before publishing, thus seemingly making such editors a moot point. The thing is, it’s really about comfort, and this can be quite important in the process of writing (after all, I blog for my own pleasure, not to see it turn into a chore with a depressing interface on top of it).What I personally find useful about them can be summarized in a few points:

• WordPress is the system that I use the most currently, and the admin (and posting) interface is, frankly, really ugly and uninspiring.
• One word: WYSIWYG.
• In case of a power outage, computer crash, alien attack or other disturbing event, better prepare my posts on another support than the web. I know I can do that in Notepad or OpenOffice, but why do things the complex way if I can have access to a nice editor that will from the start insert HTML tags in place of my lazy hands?
• Not exactly my case here, as I’m constantly on either a DSL line, but if staying connected for long to update one’s blog is a problem, then an offline editor is a good solution.
• Editors are more flexible and offer more functions than the basic editing interface on many blog systems.

In my quest, I decided that I’d test several blog clients for Windows (I don’t own a Mac, and no Linux here for the moment). Understand by this: free clients, or that at least offer a free trial period, since there are limits to what I’m willing to pay for, and such a tool remains, for the moment, in the domain of “add-ons”, not “necessities”. The ones I’m keeping under the elbow at the moment are namely w.bloggar, Qumana and BlogJet.I simply can’t forget how I’ve loved (and still do) using Semagic, and how different I was feeling about simply writing, when I knew I’d have access to a good client instead of logging into LiveJournal’s web interface. Indeed, this can make a difference. There’s a good deal of advantages to finding an appropriate blog client, in my opinion. This is what I’m thus going to try to do, and every tool I can find on the road will be a nice asset to my “experimentation”. Expect more about this as soon as I’ve performed my testing.[UPDATE]See my review of:Qumanaw.bloggar