Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software
Five blogging apps I'm thankful for
We are a thankful bunch around TUAW today, in honor of Thanksgiving here in the states. Since I spend most of my waking hours blogging I thought I would give some praise to the five applications that make blogging a breeze on the Mac. This is not meant to be a 'Top Five blogging tools post,' if you're looking for something like that, check out Glenn Wolsey's post on ProBlogger (though I have some problems with his post that I won't go into at this moment).
Read on to get the skinny on the five blogging applications I am most thankful for this holiday season.
NetNewsWire: Without a doubt the application that gets the most use on my Macs is NetNewsWire. At the moment I am rocking 673 feeds and no other newsreader can handle them all in the manner that I like. I've tried NewsFire, Vienna, Safari RSS, and Bloglines. NetNewsWire takes whatever feed I throw at it and asks for me. It is organized well and thanks to the syncing via NewsGator all my feeds are the same across my multiple Macs.
Optimized FireFox: Blogging and browsing the web go hand and hand. If NetNewsWire is that most used app on my Mac then FireFox is a close second. But I don't use any old version of FireFox. No, no. I use the optimized recompile that Neil Lee puts together. Thanks, Neil!
MarsEdit: Another Ranchero app in this list?! Yep. MarsEdit is a simple, straightforward blogging client. You can upload pictures, assign categories and blog using a number of different HTML rendering options (including my favorite, Textile).
Ecto: What's this? Another blogging client? That's right, that's just how much I blog. If MarsEdit is a streamlined blogging tool than Ecto has everything and the kitchen sink (plus there is a Windows version). Ecto has a few nice touches like Amazon.com searching (so you can easily blog about anything they sell), iTunes integration, permalinks are available within the application itself (which I hope is a feature MarsEdit copies at some point).
TextMate: I don't want to continue the 'Text editor holy wars,' but TextMate works well for me. Bundles make TextMate a Swiss Army Knife of text editing. Projects let me keep a number of documents in on file, and the UI doesn't get in my way. I composed this very post in TextMate. What more do I need to say?
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
speedo said 5:22PM on 11-23-2006
you should give google reader a go for your rss feeds, I gave it a shot and quickly found myself leaving nnw in the dust. I only subscribe to 250 feeds though ;)
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ArizonaDAK said 5:25PM on 11-23-2006
Ditto to your list regarding NetNewWire/Newsgator, but I'll have to add Textedit (yes, little ol' Textedit), and Wordpress to my list along with Fetch. So, only four on my list. I guess I don't blog as much as you.
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Brett Terpstra said 5:57PM on 11-23-2006
Amen to TextMate as a blogging client! I have no interest in debates about the merits of various text editors, all I can say for sure is that TextMate has changed the way I blog! The geek in me just loves how hackable it is...
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Simon said 6:13PM on 11-23-2006
"I've tried NewsFire, Vienna, Safari RSS, and Bloglines."
So you have to try NewsMac Pro from ThinkMac Software !!
http://www.thinkmac.co.uk/newsmacpro/
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Si said 6:51PM on 11-23-2006
For those of us who don't blog professionally, and are incredibly tight, are there any equivalents to ecto or Mars edit that are free? I like the idea of a desktop based editor, and the ecto trial is useful.
I'd certainly add another vote for Google Reader though, changed the way I read feeds. And also, if you use a web based blog editor, the new FF V2 has a very usefull spell checker.
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starwxrwx said 10:23PM on 11-26-2006
Speaking of RSS - what's with the "click to read more" in the TUAW RSS feed now?
Bring back the full article in the RSS feed!
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evariste said 8:13PM on 11-23-2006
Yes please, bring back full content. I don't care if your feed has ads, just let me read whole article in one piece.
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Otterman said 11:44PM on 11-23-2006
I am thankful TUAW!
Its the one webpage I don't mind having to visit if you really decide to switch to incomplete feeds. But if its a test to see if we're awake, please bring back the feed!
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dan said 1:08AM on 11-24-2006
I composed this very post in TextMate. What more do I need to say?
Well, for one, why couldn't you have composed the same post in textmate, bbedit, omnioutliner. "What more do I need to say" is lazy writing and says absolutely nothing.
Same way with netnewswire. How does it handle everything newsfire can't? I have over 600 feeds also, and find the experience much more enjoyable than using netnewswire. Unlike you, I could give at least 10 reasons why. But then again, I didn't write this article.
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kez said 5:27AM on 11-24-2006
Slight typo with the link to NetNewsWire - it reads NetNewWire.
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Glenn said 6:02PM on 11-24-2006
As far as newsreaders on the Mac go, Shrook is well worth a look. Its free to use, or $2.50/mth to synchronize feeds across multiple Macs. Very fast & lightweight interface.
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Michael said 6:17PM on 11-24-2006
I agree - put me down as a vote against the "Click to Read More." I stop reading information sources when they do that. It's corny, and it reminds me of Gamespot or IGN or some such awful over-clicked site.
I too would much prefer ads in the feeds than to have to "click through." For what it's worth...
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willb said 10:54PM on 11-24-2006
Dan (#9): TextMate is extensible with user-created "bundles" that consist of commands, snippets (for automatic text generation), and language grammars (for syntax highlighting). TextMate includes a "blogging" bundle that will allow you to post to your blog directly from the editor. To the best of my knowledge, the other applications you list don't have this capability.
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