Whilst technically all you need is a blog and a browser to start blogging, there are some other bits of software you can use that make your life a little easier.
Here’s a list of options for Mac users:
1. Skitch
Easily my number one choice, this is a phenomenally useful tool, which I don’t think is available on any other platform.
Skitch is simply a tool that lets you take snapshots of what is on your screen. Sounds pretty unremarkable, but Skitch does some cool stuff:
- It lets you copy just a small portion of the screen by selecting with a cross-hair
- It lets you do some simple editing within the application, so you don’t have to load up a ‘proper’ graphics package
- You can save your image by just dragging it onto the desktop
- You can post it straight to your Flickr account, a skitch hosted page or your own web host via FTP with a click of a button
For getting image snapshots quickly onto the web, it’s brilliant. And free.
2. Transmit
Transmit is a solid, well performing Mac FTP client. Why use one? Well, if you have a self-hosted WordPress blog, say, you need to upload plugins, themes and that kind of thing to your web host. And when it comes to upgrade time, having a solid FTP client is good for the blood pressure!
Transmit costs a few pennies, but is jolly reliable and so worth the investment.
3. NetNewsWire
NetNewsWire is a desktop based RSS aggregator. I used this for a long while before being won over by the advantages of Google Reader. Others still swear by this though, especially now it has its own iPhone app.
4. MarsEdit
I rather bemoaned the state of the Mac desktop blogging client in a recent post, but since then I have been giving MarsEdit another go. The main issue for me is the lack of a rich text editor, which is good for speed but not awfully user friendly.
Again, it costs a couple of quid but is worth giving a go, especially if you use NetNewsWire with which it integrates rather well.
5. TextWrangler
Sometimes you just need to edit text, and don’t want to mess about. TextWrangler comes from the same people that make the legendary Mac text editor BBedit, which is rather pricey but feature rich. TextWrangler is BBedit’s freebie little brother, and let’s you load up text, html, php or css files and edit them to your heart’s content.
What are your favourite blogging tools? Would anyone like to see a Windows version of this list?
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I won’t hear a word said against NetNewsWire, particularly since it has three modes:
On Mac: NetNewsWire
On PC at work: newsgator.com
On iPhone: NetNewsWire for iPhone
That work seamlessly together. I switched from Reader to NNW because of the iPhone app and haven’t regretted it at all.
My preferred editor is TextMate, good and quick with plenty of HTML and PHP (and other) options if I need them.
I’m trying Scribefire again for quick, simple blog posts. Flock has its own editor but I can’t get it to configure with Wordpress self-hosted.
Hey Dave
Something like this for windows would be helpful
Thanks
Hilary
Hi Hilary – try this blog post which is about a year old, but still stands up, I think: http://davepress.net/2008/01/13/a-social-media-so...