I have been using WordPress for my Photoframd blog for a few months now. The built-in editor has all the right features, but it operates directly through the same WordPress installation which runs the blog. As a result, there are times it is sooooo slooooow. Plus, if you need to work remotely when you don’t have Internet access, you are stuck.

I ran a quick search and found a 2007 post which I Tweeted earlier in the week: 15+ Alternatives to Your Boring Blog Editor. I was surprised that it did not include BlogJet which was praised by a few well-known bloggers. So, I started there. In fact, yesterday’s post New DVD: Copyrights & Copywrongs 2 was written in BlogJet. See the screen below.

BlogJet 2.0.0.10

BlogJet is quick and easy to use. It works remotely, so you can use it on a laptop without Internet access or WIFI. The Excerpt button is hidden, but does work. Then, I started to notice the problems:

• Missing header tags: No H1, H2, H3 or H4 tags
• The Topic Tags are NOT your standard WordPress Tags! Instead, it creates a new footer to your post with custom tags surrounding the “tags”. If you want them to function as real WordPress Tags, you will need to Edit the post in the WordPress Editor.
• Future posting function does not work. I tried to set the Time stamp a few times with inconsistent and wrong results.
• BlogJet licensing starts at $40 and go up to $400!

So, I continued my quest with the following Editors.

Zoundry Raven 1.0.375

Zoundry Raven: I really like this editor. Not only does it have all the features of BlogJet, but it has none of BlogJet’s problems. It can even insert HTML tables! Raven builds on the success of Zoundry’s Blog Writer and will replace it once out of Beta. Raven can even be installed on a Flash Drive! There is ONE problem with it —

Affiliate Links: by default, Raven will change your links to insert Zoundry’s affiliate links. This can be easily disabled. Hidden in the Tools > Preferences > General > Affiliate Links, it states:

By default, Zoundry Raven will convert any product links in your blog post (Amazon.com links, for example) into affiliate links that could potentially earn us [Zoundry] some money. This is one of the ways we try to keep Zoundry Raven free for our users. If you do not wish to support Zoundry in this way, simply check the box above [“Don’t mess with my links”], and we’ll stop doing it.

Just check the box “Don’t mess with my links”.

One other issue, the current release does not support WordPress Excerpts but it is on Zoundry’s Feature Request list.  I also found bugs in the Image Alignment and Image Captions.  But, it is still in Beta and it’s free.

Qumana Editor 3.2.3

Qumana: this editor is a close second to Zoundry’s Raven. It also is the only editor that supports both Windows and Mac. It has all of BlogJet’s features but does not support Excerpts. It also has BlogJet’s problem with WordPress Topic Tags.  [Update: I used Qumana to create the post about Free Star Trek Fonts.  It cannot create Hyperlinks that open in a new window.  It also seemed slower than Zoundry’s Raven.]  But, it’s FREE.

w.bloggar 4.03

w.bloggar: for the hardcore coder only. It does not have a visual editor, only a Preview function. But, it does function like an HTML Editor.

General Note: each of these editors need to be manual configured to point to the WordPress page xmlrpc.php.  Other than that, they are pretty simple to install.  Try Raven & Qumana and see which one you like.