Using Blog Editor to Overcome Posting Constraints

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For the last 2 weeks, i start to use another Blog Editor. I use it because i need to overcome these constraints on running and authoring self-hosted WordPress blogs:

  1. I’m authoring multi blogs.
  2. I use hosting plans with its limited shared resources. At slow loading times, i can spend mostly an hour only to publish a single post!
  3. I need to always logged in to WordPress Dashboard only to publish a post (then usually look around see if i can tweak something :-D).
  4. Add Media feature in WordPress 2.5.1. suck. Find it freeze all the time and mostly ends with Firefox crashes.
  5. I have many drafts in my blog admin and if any MF find security leaks in WP, maybe they can explore it like in the past version. I don’t want to give them that job.

In the past, i’ve been using several blogging editors but i stop using it:

  1. Flock default Blog Editor. I use Firefox as my default browser.
  2. ScribeFire. I don’t like the interface and since i have to limit my add ons since Firefox crash at many critical (important) times.
  3. Windows Live Writer. I’m looking forward to Microsoft products free computer.

After a fair research on search, i found Qumana, another free blog editor software. So i install and try it out. So far i’m impressed with its feature which also has its limit. But things going better as i can spend most of my times doing more reading which i can opt to add more to the writings.

Advantage

  1. I don’t have to log in to WordPress Dashboard all the time.
  2. I can insert and upload picture directly from the blog editor and escaping buggy Add Media feature.
  3. Can insert HTML tags directly in WYSIWYG editor.
  4. Can edit old posts directly from Blog Manager.
  5. Other standard Blog Editor Formatting Features.
  6. Can send pings to several services at once.
  7. Promted to save post if closing a new post window without saving.

Disadvantage

  1. Can’t use Custom Field so i still can’t use Qumana in a couple of blogs of mine since i use Custom Field a lot.
  2. Can’t use post excerpt but i overcome this by installing a post excerpt plug in.
  3. Can’t integrate with Zemanta, so i need to find tags manually (Zemanta saves lazy tagger like me :-D).
  4. Can’t manage or add new categories.

Some Notes:

  1. After using it, you will close the program through File > Quit or simply push Ctrl + Q. Check your system tray see if it still runs, eat your memory and slow down your computer.
  2. Sometimes uploading and inserting images don’t work, but usually it’s succesfully added. Repeat by clicking insert image button, and insert it by linking to it’s uploaded directory (for example http://www.yourdomain/wp-content/uploads/year/month/imagefile.jpg).

Conclusion:

  1. Before decide to use blog editor, the main thing to do is to make the blog fix. It means, everything at the blog must set up right so you don’t need to do tweaks just to make the blog ‘look better’ in supposedly posting session.
  2. By not logging in to dashboard everytime, as i’m also designing websites, i can resist the temptation to tweak my blog settings all the time :-D.
  3. The happiest result i can get by using Qumana is that i can escape slow loading times so i can spend most of my time reading, writing and do more research before posting articles.

You can download Qumana here.