10 Excellent and Free Blog Editors for the Desktop
It’s often convenient to have an offline blog editor if you often work in places without ready access to the internet. Even if you do have an internet connection, desktop blogging apps can give you a host of features that the normal UI of your blogging platform simply can’t offer.
In this article, we briefly review some top-notch free desktop blog editors for you to consider.
1. Thingamablog
Thingamablog is an open source blogging application that has a wide array of features such as an RSS feed import function that allows you to import blog entries into the application. It has the capability to post to blogs via email and tools to set-up and install a weblogging platform onto your server in minutes. In addition, it has built-in wizards to aid you in accomplishing your blogging tasks.
Screenshots of Thingamablog | Download Thingamablog
2. Windows Live Writer
Surprisingly (to many), Microsoft has a very good offline desktop blogging application called Windows Liver Writer that’s regarded by seasoned bloggers as the best one out there (for Windows users). It has a characteristic MS Office look and feel that will be familiar to most Windows users. A key feature of this blog editor is its ability to post maps, videos and other types of media easily.
3. BlogDesk
Among the many things that makes BlogDesk a favorite amongst bloggers is the handy ability to publish posts to multiple blogs at once. BlogDesk comes with an ImageWizard feature that allows you to prepare your images for the web. Its spellchecker has a built-in dictionary that supports 14 languages. It even has a notebook that serves as a scratch pad that you can use to keep track of your post ideas. It also has a feature called Tag-generator that remembers previously used keywords to help you tag your posts quicker.
Screenshots of BlogDesk | Download BlogDesk
4. Bleezer
The main advantage that Bleezer has is its cross-platform support for Linux, Windows and the Mac OS. It’s compatible with most blogging and content management platforms such as Drupal, WordPress and Blogger. Features that will appeal to you in Bleezer include image uploads to a server of your choice, a good spellchecker to avoid typos, the ability to add keyword tags to your posts, and a WYSIWIG interface. Bleezer can also work while you are logged into your account for real-time posting.
5. Post2Blog
Post2Blog is a freeware desktop blogging application that is portable, giving you the opportunity to carry it around on a USB stick for use in any computer. It also has a robust image uploader that supports services such as Flickr and imageshack.us. It has a "Live" spellchecking feature that evaluates your spelling and grammar on the fly.
6. w.Bloggar
w.Bloggar is quite a nice blogging application that’s portable onto a USB drive. It has a file upload function that is able to interface with most of the popular blog platforms such as Typepad, Drupal and WordPress. Its hot-key combination feature can be set up for keyboard shortcuts to make blogging quicker.
7. Flock
This is actually a web browser that has a built-in weblog editor. Flock allows you to work online or offline. The browser comes with other features such as a web clipboard, image uploader, tight social media integration, and a nifty feed reader that can help you get some blog post ideas.
8. ScribeFire
This Mozilla add-on takes the form of an icon on your Firefox browser. It’s uniquely convenient as you can post to your blog directly from your browser instead of having to start an editor while your idea is still hot in your mind. It also comes with the usual features such as HTML tags, image uploadm and multiple posting to several weblogs. ScribeFire has a vibrant support forum where you can with get help and chat fellow ScribeFire users.
9. Qumana
This excellent desktop weblog editor has an interesting and useful feature called DropPad, an area where you can drag and drop items such as photos for instant posting to your blog.
10. Zoundry
Zoundry is a terrific blogging application that has a feature to help you recommend products and services to your readers (and get paid for it). In addition to this feature, it also has the usual blog editor features like spellchecking and a WYSIWYG interface.
What’s your blogging editor of choice (and why)? Share your thoughts and opinion on this topic in the comments.
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About the Author
John Urban is a student at UCLA majoring in computer science. He is a writer for an online magazine StyleCeo, which deals with fashion. In his spare time, he enjoys sports, being with his girl, or just doing some freelance work. If you like his work on here and you’d like for him to work as a freelancer for you, you can contact him on Twitter.
40 Comments
Andy Feliciotti
September 27th, 2009
Just sticking to the default editor that came with your blog makes the most sense because the layout will be correct when you post it
Richard
September 27th, 2009
This is a very useful post. I was unaware of most of these.
I use Windows Live Writer. There are things about it that make want to look for something better. I have tried ScribeFire but the rest are new me. Thanks.
choen
September 27th, 2009
thanks, i wanna try, btw this editor can Encode / Decode HTML ?
Mars
September 27th, 2009
that was cool, i am currently using live writer
TraXim
September 27th, 2009
i need a Blog Editor that can use Custom Fields. Only Blogdesk can do it or?
smallway
September 27th, 2009
I will try all…then select my favorite…
Connor
September 27th, 2009
I use Windows Live Writer and Scribefire and these are far and away the best blogging tools that I have ever used. Both have Live Preview, and I would never use another tool that doesn’t have that, it is just so useful when planning your post and adding pictures.
I hate to say it though, but Windows Live Writer easily the best blogging software available, if you use that, don’t bother looking for something else, you’re just wasting your time.
Rahul Chowdhury
September 27th, 2009
Great post, I like, and I use Flock sometimes.
cssah
September 27th, 2009
Nice collection
Windows Live Writer really useful for me
ruthless bookie
September 27th, 2009
these tools seem redundant to me
erkasoft web tasarim
September 27th, 2009
I use liver writer. some plugins usefull.
Rick
September 27th, 2009
Andy, not necessarily. Example: Although WordPress is an outstanding blogging platform, it’s native editor is still clunky. Blogger’s is even worse. Plus, you may need to work on a post some time when you don’t have internet access, hence the need for stand-alone blog editors.
I have personally used WLW and ScribeFire, and recommend them both. Since I’m using Windows less and less these days, however, I don’t use WLW as much as I used to. ScribeFire has made some great improvements over the last few years, and their community support is growing by leaps and bounds.
I’ve used the Flock editor in the past, but was unimpressed with the browser as a whole, so I just don’t use it much. Still, it’s an ok option if you’re using that browser.
You didn’t mention which OS formats these editors are available for (except WLW, of course).
Christian
September 27th, 2009
Good post!!! Thanks, I will recommend this article
Jim
September 27th, 2009
I’m surprised to see MarsEdit for the Mac left off the list. It’s by far the best editor for OS X.
That being said, I agree with Andy, using the built-in input method from WordPress or Drupal is the best. It offers the best end-to-end experience, and you get exactly what you see/expect.
Paul L'Acosta
September 27th, 2009
This is a great list John. Wish I’d have found it before as it’s a horrible journey trying to find a one-in-all blog editor. Too bad the ones for Mac don’t support custom fields like @TraXim pointed out. Guess I’d have to stick with ecto’s ugly UI for now.
Valdecir Carvalho
September 27th, 2009
I’ve used Blogdesk for a long time, and then Windows Live Writer. Now, I’ve stop to use such applications, because “to me” they have such a bug with WordPress that make my post look strange.
Valdecir
Reza
September 28th, 2009
Also
1.http://choqok.gnufolks.org/ is a Free/Open Source micro blogging desktop client
2.http://bilbo.gnufolks.org/ Blogilo is a Free/Open Source Blogging client, focused on simplicity and usability.
arfandia
September 28th, 2009
thanks i will try this some, nice info..
Ivan
September 28th, 2009
Nice collection
Web 2.0
September 28th, 2009
This article was very useful for me, I had no idea that there are blog editors for the desktop, thanks…
Harsh Agrawal
September 28th, 2009
@Andy
You should try windows live writer,, it will also download your theme, so when you will write a post on desktop ..you will feel like, as if you are writing inside your blog…
Barbara Ling, Virtual Coach
September 28th, 2009
Never knew these existed – will see about including them in my work online. Thanks for the share!
Jean-Christophe
September 28th, 2009
Excellent post covering a wide range of tools, I learned about some of them. Offline mode is a real advantage of these tools. Has anybody an answer about using custom fileds in your template in order to add an image for instance ? Using these tools, are you able to upload an image file to your server and add the URL to the file as a custom field value ? Some designs -like Mimbo with WordPress) require these feature ?
Kylie
September 28th, 2009
What a great article, very useful resources that I intend to use immediately! I’ve learned more from this article than all the books on blogging I’ve read to date.
Thank you!
Haroun
September 28th, 2009
I’ve used ScribeFire successfully but happy to see other options, I’ll try some of them out :-)
Erin
September 28th, 2009
I have used ScribeFire. I find that it slows the launch of Firefox significantly. In the last several years, I’ve installed it twice and wound up uninstalling it because any benefits to using it were outweighed by how it weighed down the browser.
Erin
Nick Cammarata
September 28th, 2009
Personally, I think the best blog editor is notepad++, maybe it’s just me, but I think wysiwyg is the worst thing since mayonnaise*
footnotes:
* I hate mayonnaise
Keith Dsouza
September 28th, 2009
Windows Live Writer all the way it is simply one of the most useful Microsoft software I have ever used
Akhil Sasidharan
September 28th, 2009
To me, nothing is as good as the Windows Live Writer! The best!! :)
Karen
September 28th, 2009
Interesting – nice post. I normally compose in Google documents and then just finalize in WordPress. I’ll have to give one of these a try. It’s not normally an issue for me of writing where I have no internet access.
Shane
September 28th, 2009
Great post!
I have just started using Windows Live Writer but I wasn’t aware of the others.
seezer
October 1st, 2009
Semagic, which was originally for LiveJournal, but can work with WordPress w/no problems isn’t mentioned.
le0pard13
October 1st, 2009
Good overview of the tools at hand. You can do some combinations, too. Since Flock is based on Mozilla, you can make use of the Firefox extensions for ScribeFire and Zemanta along with its built-in social networking tools. I’m going to play around more with Live Writer soon on my Mac now that I have VM Fusion installed. Thanks for the post.
MR
October 5th, 2009
To me, nothing is as good as the Windows Live Writer! The best!! :)
Brad Davis
October 13th, 2009
Live Writer has been the best application for sometime, but I will test out a few of the others that I didn’t know about to see how they go. Thanks for the info!
josh91
October 29th, 2009
Windows-97 has a write, edit and post to blog feature. which is good, considering writing is a natural phenomenon as we’re used to word since we know Microsoft windows !
barunang
May 15th, 2010
I love live writer. but I’ll try other
Techfudge
September 22nd, 2010
Do all of these work with wordpress 3.0…I hope they do.
Would love to get my hands on them.
Fayaz
May 28th, 2011
Great list, very helpful software…
Nand
August 24th, 2011
I am using live writer. It was user friendly tool.
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