Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
How do you crest a firm first depression ? If you ’re Red Sweater Software , maker of desktop - based blogging peter MarsEdit , you rarify the features that made your product appeal the first fourth dimension around , and you solve a few mount and formatting government issue from earliest versions .
MarsEdit 2.0.4 ’s big appeal is ataraxis of mind : you could compose posts locally and file away your work . Anyone who ’s ever lose a Weblog post owing to a internet browser freezing or website belong down will apprise this tool .
One of MarsEdit ’s great strong suit in its anterior edition ( ) was the ease with which bloggers could set up the software program to print to specific types of blogs . A new feature film continue this still passage between the screen background and the WWW : you may now add yourFlickrphotostream in MarsEdit ’s Media Manager . With two chink , I had authorized the software to access my photostream , and MarsEdit downloaded my most recent shots . If you let in a lot of prototype in your posts , this can simplify the composing and redact you do offline .
MarsEdit 2 packs both content and customization features into a relatively small space.
The Media Manager ’s utility extend beyond Flickr . If you have multiple blog , you’re able to share range between them thanks to a centralised image program library ; this is an refined way to reprocess images across several blog .
MarsEdit 2 tamp down both capacity and customization features into a comparatively little outer space .
While the old interpretation of MarsEdit was most effective for blogger who had a functional clutch of HTML , this update is friendlier to markup fledgling . To start a novel post , just choose the New Post selection and begin typewrite in the pop - up window . To initialize the schoolbook in the new station , highlight the pick out schoolbook , then select the specific option from the Markup cliff - down carte in the upper - right corner of the window . Although your post will be filled with markup tatter instead of WYSIWYG text , it beat cypher out how to initialise a Emily Price Post yourself . However , one formatting queerness persists : it ’s still necessary to insert paragraph tags at the starting time of each paragraph , despite the local trailer pane demo properly formatted textual matter . So do n’t chuck out your written matter ofHTML for Dummiesjust yet . I find oneself a script that inserted the paragraph tags in submission , but it need jab around through assorted menus . This feature could be made easier to find .
One of the nice touches in this new user interface : If you ’ve pasted a universal resource locator into your clipboard , selecting the Add Link alternative will bring forth the require field with the hyperlink already pasted in . This is a timesaver for people who are switching between a entanglement site they ’re writing about and a post they ’re composing .
Macworld’s buying advice
MarsEdit 2.0.4 is worth consider if you ’d like the comfort of composing your post topically and keep back - up copy . In gain , its medium management pecker is simpler and more intuitive than many other Web - based option .
[ Lisa Schmeiser is a author in Alameda , California . She ’s been drop a line about Mac - come to detail since 1999 and blogging since 2003 . ]
