Mac Blog Software Update – “And the Winner Is!

I’ve finally settled on blogging software for the Mac (drumroll please)… It’s ecto 3 – beta software by the way. For only $20, I get the best blogging software for the Mac along with lifetime free support and lifetime free upgrades. Here’s the “register ecto” excerpt from the developers: 

Here’s why ecto is perfect for me:

1. It integrates perfectly with my WordPress blog. I host TechNest on some servers I rent. Besides carrying over all of the formatting of text in my posts (something MacJournal didn’t do as you can see a few posts down), it handles images perfectly. As I add an image to a post I’m writing, ecto pops up a dialog box with settings for the image – how and where I want it uploaded on my site as well as any allignement settings I want to apply to it. I then just hit “Upload to TechNest” and ecto does the rest. Did I already mention that it carries formatting over precisely?
2. It has very easy and intuitive editing features. This is what separates ecto from MarsEdit, which got the formatting part correct, but wasn’t as user-friendly when it came to simple editing: bolding, making new paragraphs, or inserting numbers. I’m not saying these editing features weren’t present in MarsEdit, it’s just that they were presented in a less user-friendly way. For example, when I wanted to bold a piece of highlighted text, it sprung up editing code (the strong + brackets approach: <strong></strong>). I don’t like to see that as part of my post when I’m proof-reading it. There might have been a way to turn it off, but I don’t want to work for my software – I want my software to work for me.
3. Finally, the entire user-interface of ecto flows very intuitively from other Apple apps. Here’s a screenshot of the editing as I’m writing this post:
4. Another great “feature” of ecto is that it also runs on Windows. There isn’t yet version 3 for Windows yet, however. It will be an interesting shootout between ecto 3 for Windows and the newly-announced Microsoft Live Writer (seeing that it’s free). For $19.95 it’s less expensive then other Mac blogging software too! The Windows version, if you buy the Mac version, is $8.98 (regular price: $17.95). Other software by infiniti-sushi is also discounted if you purchase one of their products.

Let me know how it goes, Alex.