Review of w.bloggar

Warning: This post is over 17 years old and may no longer be accurate, especially in regards to more updated technology currently available. Additionally, links in this post may be broken. Please keep this in mind while reading.

w.bloggar is a desktop blogging tool. Since I am looking for ways to make blogging easier and more fun, this is a test post & review.

Account Setup

This is one of the very few blogging tools which specifically has support for BlogEngine.Net blogs, which can be chosen as the blog service when setting up the account. It worked flawlessly.

Post Editor

The main workspace is a HTML editor. The toolbar has the standard HTML markers (Bold, Italic, Underline, Strike-through), though unlike a WYSIWYG editor, it doesn't show the formatting, it adds in the HTML code, which won't be a big deal to HTML proficient people, but will throw off those who aren't. Of course, you can switch over to the Preview tab at any time.
w.bloggar - Editor

w.bloggar - Preview

Images

Unlike WLW, you can't just copy & paste a picture into a post. You need to save it with a filename, and upload it (though the upload box has the option to automatically insert either an IMG tag or a download (A HREF tag) link for the file you are uploading. However, since you are working in an HTML editor, you cannot drag to resize images, and instead need to manually calculate the correct width/height ratio and input it into the IMG tag. Also, if you want a smaller image in your post which links to the full-sized version, you need to manually add the link for that.

Spell Checking

The Spell checking feature is adequate, though it picks up some HTML tags and special characters:

and doesn't always suggest the best default change option:

Posting

Post & Publish worked quickly and smoothly, though I personally would rather that w.bloggar would leave the post open (since I might want to make changes again). Instead it automatically clears it out of the workspace and opens a new blank post. You can get it back by choosing "Last Post" from the Posts drop-down:

If you choose one of the other options (Last 5, Last 10, etc.) a box listing the posts pops up so you can select the post you want to edit:

Although listing the posts by ID rather than title or even date is not the most usable. (There is also an option to get a post by typing in its ID, which, for Blog systems using a GUID (such as BlogEngine.Net), isn't as useable either.

Working Offline

w.bloggar doesn't automatically save posts on your harddrive (which can be a good thing if you don't want to clutter up your computer). If you want to keep an offline copy of your post, you can save it to a .post file, which can then be opened in w.bloggar later. Generally this functionality will meet your offline working needs.

Blog Options

w.bloggar handles Categories beautifully, even providing a "Reload" option to refresh the categories list if you added additional categories from inside your web-based blog interface while the program is open. It supports assigning multiple Categories to posts.

Tags (in w.bloggar the field is called "Keywords") are also handled nicely. There is a textbox for them on the "More" tab of the workspace. Just type them in separated by commas.

Interesting Features

Ability to create custom tags (which is a way to add in styles (div or span with class info) or html tags that aren't included (like PRE, CODE, H4, etc), though some might argue that all the basic HTML tags should already be available in the editor.

Ability to set properties (on a per-blog basis) for the Preview tab. You can make the preview more accurately match how your posts will look on your blog by setting refrences to your CSS or by adding style information directly.

Automatically add the music you are listening to. You can choose whether to add it automatically to all posts, or manually by clicking a button.

Here is an example:

[Listening to: Playing to the Firmament - Dar Williams - The Green World (03:53)]

Final Opinion

This could be a fantastic tool if it had a proper WYSIWYG editor. Unless you are an HTML purist, it seems to me that it's easier to use the web-based BlogEngine.Net WYSIWYG posting tool. However, it would be a decent tool to use in an offline-pinch.