ScribeFire is a very well designed FireFox plug-in that enables a blogger to write posts right in their browser.
The features that I enjoy most about ScribeFire include:
- Launch the editor right in the browser with an icon that rests at the bottom of the browser window.
- Continue viewing a webpage while you write in the bottom-half of the screen.
- Save your posts as notes and return to them later. This is especially handy if you are working on several at one time.
- Upload your images from within the ScribeFire FTP function and insert into your post.
- Post to multiple blogs from the same application.
- Utilize the full WYSIWYG Editor for quick formatting.
- Manage your tags from within ScribeFire.
- Publish straight to the blog when finished editing.
- Built-in spell check with just a right-click.
One of the frustrations I had with blogging directly into WordPresses blogging application was losing my information if I left that window or the connection to the server crashed for some reason. I find that I lose much less information when using ScribeFire. The content is written locally on my machine and even though it does not have an auto-save feature, the "Save as a Note" button is right below where I’m typing so I tend to save often and rarely lose text.
ScribeFire Supports the following blog applications and services:
- WordPress
- Movable Type
- Drupal
- Textpattern
- Roller
- MetaWeblog API
- Blogger
- WordPress.com
- TypePad.com
- Live Journal
- Windows Live Spaces
- Performancing
- Jeeran
If your blog is not on this list, you may want to try to manually setup through the Custom Blog settings. I have not yet been able to get Twitter, Jaiku or Pownce to work through ScribeFire.
One feature I don’t recommend: bookmarking in Del.icio.us and technorati.com. I found toggling between the functions to be a bit clunky. There are other more efficient and effective methods for interfacing with those sites than using ScribeFire. Like many programs, they added-in more features than needed. The magic of most well-developed plug-ins is their simplicity. That said, if you ignore that functionality, I think you will find this to be a very streamlined, rock solid method for updating your blog.
This is the best web editing tool I have found to date. Have you had any experience with other web editors? What features do you find most helpful?
Powered by ScribeFire.
9 Comments
Nice review Phil. When I was looking at offline apps, I gave FireScribe a shot. I liked it but I just didn’t feel comfortable with it. It wasn’t the lack of a feature or functionality so much as it just not being the right tool for me.
I ended up choosing BlogDesk (blogdesk.org) and am quite pleased with it. It sets up easily and has all the features I need. I really like the photo-sizing and image handling features. I can have a bunch of partially written entries in process at any time, and I can post to multiple blogs simultaneously.
I’ve recommended it to friends and clients and so far everyone seems to like it. It has been easy to support as well.
SB
Scott, BlogDesk does look like a decent option from what I’ve seen of it. I may give it a shot, but I really preference integrating as much into the browser as possible, but that’s just the way I work. Thanks for the recommendation.
I am going to try this and tell you if I was able to figure it out.
Random, Yes do give it a shot. I think you’ll like it. If you need any help, just let me know. I’d be glad to explain further how to set it up. It should be pretty straightforward and I’m confident you’ll be glad you made the switch.
I hadn’t heard of BlogDesk, I’ll have to check it out. ScribeFire works well, from the little that I have used it.
I use Windows Live Writer beta, I didn’t like the first Beta, but I think that had more to do with Blogger than with LiveWriter. The second beta really integrates well with WordPress.
One of my favorite features is that you can paste in a screen shot, and it will upload it as an image. If you resize the image that you instered, LiveWriter will automatically creates a thumbnail, uploads both images, and links the thumbnail to the full sized image.
Sorry Phil, it doesn’t integrate into the browser.
Mike,
I’ll look into LiveWriter, just to stay-up on the options. Sounds like one to check out. Yeah, browser integration is a major plus in my workflow book. I’m using Jing now (which is another post) for screen captures, but I still use old printscreen and pop into Photoshop when I need to, it’s my old standby. But most folks don’t have Photoshop, so that may be a plus.
Mike, ScribeFire seems to handle Image resizing pretty well. You got me curious, so I tried it.
Well I’m getting all sorts of software suggestions.
For Screen Captures I use MWSnap, which has been around forever. I think I had heard about Jing, but I don’t particularly recall it. I also use OneNote for screen captures, just because I always have it running.
Both OneNote and MWSnap let you capture various areas of the screen, rather than the whole thing. I really like MWSnap because when you do a rectangle capture, it gives you this zoom in window that lets you see what you are doing. I used to always end up with little lines around my captures because I overshot a little.
You can also add a mouse pointer after you have captured with MWSnap.
I don’t have Photoshop, but my needs are pretty basic, for now.
Jing is slick-o-rama but it has some stability issues. However, when it works for me it does a great job w/ screen capture and video capture. Still not sold on it, but it’s the best I’ve found in terms of functionality to date. I’m going to be doing some more research soon on the topic.
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