This week I wanted to change things up a little bit. The week consisted of maybe one or two forum replies, one post read on code, and some Lego City on the Switch.

Part of that reason is because I wanted to try using an editor. An app editor. First one on the list was QTM. The second one being BlogJet. Followed by Open Live Writer. Then BlogDesk. Finally, using the WordPress.com app. These are options currently available. They may not be available in all platforms though. Will get into more detail later on.

QTM

qtm-windows-beta

The cool thing I liked about QTM was that it is open source. I’m trying QTM on my Windows machine. At the time I’m writing this the application is in beta so they may add things, remove things, or even fix other things.

Another thing I really enjoyed was that it does support some of the APIs WordPress offers. Now, I only say that because I’m trying it out on my personal, self-hosted site, and for posts only. I’m not going to try on pages or other post types. There is a reason I wanted to only try posts. This application does seem to be more on the higher end of power user because it sort of removes a lot of things and only seems to have support for publishing posts. I haven’t yet found how to retrieve posts so I can edit prior posts just in case.

I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it yet, but I have a feeling I may not use it for long and I think a lot of that comes from the lack of being able to edit previous posts. This is a feature that I know a lot people need to have. It’s a basic necessity for blogging and maintaining your blog.

BlogJet

blogjet

BlogJet does seem to be a little more polished in that it offers almost the same interface WordPress has. The categories, tags, status, comments, trackbacks, and even timestamps are editable. It also provides the ability to edit other posts from the site. The image on the right sort of shows what that interface looks like. I can really see myself using this. I think the only downside is that it is not free. For me, that is a down only because let’s face it, I don’t like to pay for some things. The perk on this is that it also has support for other platforms as well even, if you don’t have a WordPress site.

Open Live Writer

open-live-writer

Another that I am trying out is Open Live Writer. It works very much like the editor I’m used to on my personal site. I may try this on my other random site that I haven’t blogged on in a long time. It does feel good to write. The interface is very Windows. It really does remind me a little bit of Word. That’s a good thing. I think it makes it a little easier for people who may be making the transition over. I may end up using this one more often only because it does feel more familiar. I think the only downside might be that it is only for Windows; that is because it is a fork of Windows Live Writer.

BlogDesk

There are two more I will be trying out as well. BlogDesk and the WordPress.com desktop app. BlogDesk does appear to be somewhat outdated. When I took a look at the changelog, the last entry was nearly 10 years ago. I’m not sure what, if any, support it will have down the line but it still works. I’m not sure I will be able to find support for headings, only if I manually add them. This isn’t a good option since many may not know how to do that.

It works great if you are doing simple posts and by simple I mean just writing. You’re not creating an outline, or syllabus, but just writing. There are options for simple formatting like underline, italics, strikethrough, and bold. You can insert, edit, and remove links with a few button clicks; same applies to images. The nice part is that all of these applications handle the uploading for you.

WordPress.com app

The WordPress.com app I’ll have to dedicate a post for and hopefully will get that for next week or maybe I’ll dedicate a post for each one. I may just do that. Dedicate one week for each one and share my experiences on here. The good, the bad, and the amazingly ugly things I encounter.

Final thoughts

I swear there really is a reason why I did this too. I know there will be benefit down the road not just for me but for other people as well.