Although many users have gotten used to updating their blogs directly on the web, desktop blog editors have certain advantages, and it would be a shame not to try them out. We’ve gathered 10 free desktop blog editors for Windows; some are plugins, while others are full-featured standalone applications.
Windows Live Writer
Windows Live Writer comes from Microsoft and you will have that familiar feeling of working with an Office application while using this desktop blog editor.
When it comes to features, Live Writer is the most complete desktop blog editor of the lot. It has everything that you would like to see in a blog editor – multiple blog accounts, compatibility with multiple blog platforms, rich text formatting, draft saving, post categorization, picture and tag insertion, spell checking, pinging search engines automatically, and synchronizing draft changes on the editor with the blog.
What takes Windows Live Writer a step ahead are features such as inserting maps and videos. Its web preview page scores ahead of the rest since you can see your draft just like the way it will appear in your blog online, complete with design, color, and format.
After its last upgrade, you can now use Windows Live Writer to upload images straight to Picasa for your Blogger blog. Furthermore, Writer is now available in 28 additional languages besides English, which is likely to increase the number of its international language users. One small irritation about Windows Live Writer is that it could be still a little buggy, even after the upgrade.
ScribeFire
ScribeFire is a popular Firefox addon and a blog editor that you can use to post to your blog directly from your Firefox browser. After installing ScribeFire, you will see a tiny notepad like icon on your Firefox Status Bar. Clicking on it will open the ScribeFire blog editor on the browser’s active page. This editor will take up half of the screen space. If you right-click the ScribeFire icon, you can choose to open the editor in a new tab or in a separate window.ScribeFire is pretty convenient in a way that you don’t need to install a heavy program and you can open the editor on your browser in a jiffy. It has a rich text formatting feature, HTML page editing, and a live preview option for your posts before publishing them. Image uploads are possible on FTP accounts. You can categorize your posts, insert Technorati tags, and access your del.icio.us page from the ScribeFire page. You can access your last 10 posts and save unpublished drafts as notes, but you cannot insert tables like in Live Writer.
You can have multiple blog accounts with ScribeFire. It is compatible with multiple blog programs like WordPress, Blogger, Typepad, Drupal, Textpattern, MetaWeblog, etc. Finally, there is a support forum in case you want to ask any of the other ScribeFire users for advice.
Qumana
Qumana has one feature that other blog editors don’t have – it has its advertising network, Q ads, integrated into the blog editor. So when you write a post on the editor, you can insert an ad on the blog editor itself. You can define the type of ad that will show up by specifying ad keywords. However, the irony is that Q ads don’t seem to have many ads to display. One ad that was coming up on every post, irrespective of any keyword I type, was about Qumana itself.
This aside, Qumana has all the requirements of a good blog editor – rick text formatting, multiple blog accounts, insert tags and categories, download recent posts, video insert, etc. The editor is light and I didn’t experience any hang-ups.
Another things that sets Qumana apart is the DropPad – a small clipboard-like utility where you can drag and drop text, links, and images. You can double click on the DropPad to open the blog editor with all your items inserted already.
w.Bloggar
w.Bloggar comes in English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish versions. It supports a number of blog platforms including Blogger, Movable Type,Typepad, Drupal, WordPress, Live Journal, and others. It can ping your posts to Weblogs, blo.gs, Technorati, and Ping-o-matic.
Configuring w.Bloggar for your blog, particularly Blogger blogs, can be a bit of a pain, especially if you are not very tech savvy. However you can get certain workarounds written by w.Bloggar users on the w.Bloggar homepage.
w.Bloggar comes with a number of formatting options, supports multiple blog accounts, has spell check and categories features, and many more. You can set up your FTP to upload files and pictures. The editor comes in the HTML mode and you get to see all the code in your post itself. This might be a bit confusing for new bloggers, but there is a preview mode that should help.
The best part of w.Bloggar is the speed with which it publishes posts – it’s lightning fast.
Zoundry
Zoundry provides an easy set up for your blog accounts. You need to provide your blog url and let Zoundry’s auto-discovery feature find your blog platform and API settings. You can download up to 500 of your blog’s previous entries onto your computer and this can serve as your local blog backup.
The editor has a WYSIWYG and a HTML interface. You will find plenty of options in the formatting toolbar. Setting post categories and tags for Technorati are supported. There is a also a spell checker and a language translator as well.
You can use Zoundry to add affiliate links on your posts and earn commissions whenever someone buys through your links.
Zoundy has a browser toolbar for Firefox and IE that has a ‘Blog This’ feature, and links through which you can share product recommendations on your email or social networking pages. You can also earn shopping rebates using the toolbar.
Thingamablog
Thingamablog is an open source blog editor and a feed reader combined into one cool desktop application. It runs independently of any blog host and you can use it for posting to your FTP or SFTP blogs. Thingamablog also provides a set of some blog templates as well if you want to create a new blog.
Configuring your Thingamablog for the first time might be a bit taxing if you are a newbie. However if you head off to the Thingamablog site, then there is a good tutorial available.
Thingamablog’s post editor has all the basic formatting options complete with a spell checker. You can see your posts in WYSIWYG or HTML source view. Images can be uploaded from the computer or you can link to an image online. You can set up multiple blog accounts, import entries from RSS feeds, and organize your entries by category.
Thingamablog requires Java Virtual Machine to be installed on your computer.
Flock
Flock has an easy to use blog editor that works with blogging platforms like Blogger, Blogsome, Livejournal, Typepad, WordPress, Xanga, and other self hosted platforms. You can configure multiple blog accounts on it.
You can use Flock’s web clipboard to collect snippets while surfing the web, add pictures from your Flickr or Photobucket accounts or upload a picture from the computer. Flock also has a Quick Uploader that you can use to upload files on the web.
Flock’s editor however has a few formatting feature and you are limited to a few font families and font sizes. There are no ‘Insert table’ or ‘Strikethrough’ buttons. Although you can tag your posts, you cannot categorize them.
Final verdict: you might want to use Flock for quick posts, but the advanced blogger who needs a feature-rich editor might find Flock a bit lacking.
Blog Desk
Blog Desk comes in English, German, and Spanish versions and supports multiple blog platforms. However it seems strange that they do not have Blogger on its list of supported blog platforms, which means that those using Blogger have to configure their blogs manually. Blog Desk has some pretty cool features such as the Image Wizard that lets you insert pictures on your blog and edit them as well, dictionaries in 14 languages, frequently used phrases, and a notebook. There is support for Technorati tags, a pinger, and a spell checker too.
If you are using Blog Desk on Vista, you might have to download the dhtmled.ocx file from the Microsoft download page. Details are given at the Blog Desk FAQ page.
Post2Blog
Post2Blog is very light and there are some good features on offer as well. The formatting bar is rich with options and you can insert smileys, strike texts, and add music. There are options to add ads from Amazon in your posts. Other features like Technorati tags or pinging are there as well. Post2Blog also provides good integration with RSS readers like RSS Bandit and Sharp Reader. You can upload images along with your posts on Flicker, Imageshack, or a chosen FTP site. You can download your recent posts and create PDFs of them if you wish.
Post2blog has Firefox and IE addons and a MS Word toolbar as well so that you can post directly from these places. You can export Post2blog files and settings to any portable device as well. One feature I couldn’t find was inserting post categories.
Post2Blog is compatible with multiple blog platforms including Blogger, WordPress, Typepad, MovableType, LiveJournal, and Blogware.
Bleezer
Bleezer supports multiple blog platforms like Blogger, Movable Type, WordPress, Drupal, etc. and works on Widnows, Mac, and Linux systems. This WYSIWYG tool has the basic formatting options, spell checker, support for Technorati and Del.icio.us tags, post categories, and ping service. You can upload pictures using its ‘Upload File’ feature and by setting up your FTP site.
Bleezer is a no-frills blog editor whose biggest upside is its lightness; you won’t even feel it’s running, which makes it ideal for users with older computers. (via)