Blogging: MacJournal & Windows Live Writer
- by Jeff Julian
One thing I have learned about using a Mac is that Apple does not produce very many free applications. The ones they do are typically not full featured and to get the full feature you need to buy their upgraded version. For example, when it comes to Photo editing and cataloging, iPhoto is not a solution for large files or RAW processing, you need Aperture which is a couple hundred dollars. I am not complaining because I like it when an application has a product team who generates revenue with it, because the chance of them being around longer seems to be higher. What is my point in all of this? Apple does not produce a product for blogging/journaling like Microsoft does with Windows Live Writer. I love Windows Live Writer. If you are on a Windows box, it is a required tool in your toolbox if you publish to a blog. The cleanness of the interface, integration with most blog APIs and ability to Save Local or Publish as a Draft make capturing your thoughts for publishing now or later a very easy task. My hope is that Microsoft will port it to the Mac, but I don’t believe that will ever happen as it is not a revenue generating product and Microsoft doesn’t often port to a Mac besides Remote Desktop Connection and MSN Messenger. For my configuration I used to use only Boot Camp on my two MacBook Pros I have owned in the past three years because I’m a PC, but after four different rebuilds (not typically due to Windows, but Boot Camp or Parallels) I decided to move off the Boot Camp platform and to VMWare Fusion. This is a complete separate blog post that I should spec out in MacJournal, but I now always boot into the Mac OS and use Fusion for my AJI Software VM or my client’s VMs. It just seems to work better for me and I have a very nice way to backup my Windows environments with VMWare.Needless to say, there was need in my new laptop configuration for a blogging tool that worked natively on a Mac. I don’t like to power up my machine for writing a document or working on an image and need to boot up a VM just so I can use Windows. Some would say why not just use a Windows laptop and put the MBP on eBay? It is just a preference and right now, I like the Mac OS for day to day work. So in comes MacJournal, part of the current MacHeist package for $19.95 (MacJournal is normally $39.95). This product is definitely not WLW, but WLW is missing some features I like in MacJournal. I hope the price point comes down on MacJournal cause I could see paying $19.95 for it, but it is always hard for me to buy a piece of software for $39.95 when I can use something else. But I am a cheapskate when it comes to software packages. I suggest if you are using a Mac to drop what you are doing pick up the MacHeist bundle today before it is over, but if you are reading this later, than download the trial and see if MacJournal is a solution for you. If you have any other suggestions that are as nice or cheaper, please comment.Product LinksMacJournal by Mariners Software $39.95 (part of MacHeist bundle for $19.95 with only one day left)Windows Live Writer by MicrosoftThis post was created using MacJournal.[Update: The joys of formatting. Make sure if you are a Geekswithblogs.net member that you use this configuration to setup the Metablog formatting of paragraphs correctly]
