BlogDesk: A Desktop App for Writing and Publishing to WordPress
A while back I found that there were application for the IPhone / IPod and Android phones that allow you to update your WordPress blog(s). A few days ago, I wondered if there was such a application for a regular desktop computer. I did some searching, and in fact there is. I found a free program called BlogDesk. It is a small free program that you load and run from your windows computer. You can see a screen shot of what it looks like below. It allows you to access the majority of the functions that you would have access to if you were using the WordPress web based interface, but it is offline. With so many things being web based these days, I am really happy when I can take something like this and run it in a separate application, I already have too many things to deal with that have to run in web browsers.
The interface on BlogDesk allows me to very rapidly insert photos, a process that was quite slow when using the direct WordPress interface. Now I can either insert photos by clicking on the photo button and selecting the photo from the hard drive, or I can copy and paste a photo directly into BlogDesk. When you insert or paste in a photo, it gives you the option to size it right away, something that was always an extra step on WordPress. I also like that it has the option to create a thumbnail view for photos if they are too large. The photo interface is the #1 time saving feature of this program in my opinion.
BlogDesk also has a number of other great features that I am still discovering. It allows you to edit and of the old posts on your blog with ease. It also allows you to manage multiple Blogs, and upload to any of those Blogs. One thing I found very convenient, is that I can easily access a post from one blog and with a couple clicks upload it to a different blog. This is very helpful for people that maintain multiple Blogs.
Once your done composing your post and you have your images inserted, all you have to do is click one button to upload and publish the entire post. Seconds later the post is on your blog.
The only feature that appears to be missing is more advanced text formatting. I have it setup in the web based WordPress interface so I can change the text size for sub titles and such, I see no way to do that in BlogDesk. Other than that, it is quite full featured.
Not only is this a great time saving too for anyone who Blogs, once setup, the interface is likely easier for beginners to use than the web based interface of WordPress.
Give it a try if you have a Windows based computer, it is a completely free program, no trial, no ads, just a free application. the BlogDesk website (no longer online: the software has been discontinued).
