Blog Jet - Blogging software

[iGotNoTime]

For those of you who do blogging on this website, I foremost would like to thank you for your wonderful and inspirational writings. Many of you could have easily been writers by trade. I admire it so much.

If you do have a blog here or anywhere else really. There is a very nice blogging tool available. I have tried a few different blog software applicatiosn and though i would share my favorite one with you. It is called BlogJet.

Rather than wasting your time with images here, I will just give the link to the screenshots here.

It is a very powerful tool, and it makes blogging actually easier than writing a forum post. Excellent support for images too, and wrapping text around the images.

It is software that you must buy. However there are many places to get a key generator for it. Not that I am endorsing pirated software, but I know sometimes it simply can not be afforded and a key generator will usually buy you the extra month or so until you do have the money to buy the program. I can not honestly say that I do not use keygens, but I can honestly say that if the software is worth the money I will purchase the asking price. I have bought this, it is that good.

This software is so self contained that you can type your blog right from your desktop with no browser and publish whenever you are ready, great for those who write only a little a day, or want extra time to edit without using their browser and being connected to the internet.

I really hope you at least give it a shot, if you don't care for it, I will still be happy you tried it out. I happen to prefer this software over traditional blogging and postings and I am sure most of you will too.

You can read more about it here.
You can get your trial version here.
You can purchase it for only $39 here.
And you can thank me by replying below.

[Richard Barrow]

Thanks for posting the links. Seems to work well. Makes it easier to write blogs in advance and also format them. I will git it a try for our www.thai-blogs.com web site. Though at the moment we are having trouble with Thai. The blog itself comes out OK but not the title.

[SiamJai]

Thanks for telling us about it, seems to be a useful blogging tool, with its greatest asset being that it's user-friendly. I spent quite some time playing around with XHTML codes before, figuring out what each does, and how. This software makes it easier for the average user to make pro-looking blogs without the pro knowledge.

However, there are a few caveats. I wonder whether some of the features are compatible with our current blog engine, b2evolution. I guess simple things like font formatting and pic insertion are OK, but what about that "insert sound" option, for instance? Also, I had problems in the past, when I tried some HTML commands in our blog, and it doesn't recognize them - the engine accepts XHTML only. What code set does BlogJet use? I couldn't find it out from their site. Furthermore, as Richard pointed it out, the program doesn't seem to support Thai characters in the blog title.

Also, how does the "insert smilies" command work there? When we insert pics and icons to our blogs, its preferable to upload them to the Thaiblogs server first. Otherwise, if the images are just linked from another server, than the blog is effectively dependent on that outside server. If they change the image's location, or the server is down, all we see is a bunch of "broken pic" icons littering the blog. Same thing if the smilies are from an outside database.

I checked out their forums to see how's tech support. I wasn't impressed. See this topic for an example. It seems that the software messes up formatting when previously posted blogs are edited with it. At least two people reported the same problem, they posted more than two weeks ago, and still no tech support.

Besides the above technical issues, there is one more thing to consider. You know what happens when people start using consummate fancy-shmancy stuff - many tend to overdo it, simply because it's so easy now. Just take a look at the average Thai website to see what I mean.

One of my favorite professors used to say that flashy look often serves nothing more than to disguise shallow content. Although she was talking about Powerpoint presentations, the same can be said about blogging as well.

It seems to be a promising software with many useful features for beginners and for folks who write their blogs offline, but some of these questions need to be looked into.

[Richard Barrow]

Originally Posted by

(SiamJai @ Sep. 22 2005,10:45)I had problems in the past, when I tried some HTML commands in our blog, and it doesn't recognize them - the engine accepts XHTML only.

It is actually possible to post HTML on our blogs, but we were warned that it is best to turn that feature off for security reasons.

I agree with you that the support on their sites doesn't seem to be very supportive. However, I have downloaded the thirty day trial version and will give it a go. In fact I have started using it already. I will let you know how I get on.

[iGotNoTime]

I have never made an attempt in Thai with it. I have used it on a news website I have. I don't even use it for blogging, I use it to post select news stories on my main pages. The main thing I like it so much for is the auto-formatting for the images (and auto-uploading), so I can wrap the words around the image, with no need for HTML tables to be created manually. It saves so much time this way.

I wish I could give you guys some sort of support on the Thai, but I honestly have never used Thai in that program. Though SiamJai I doubt you ever go back and edit previously posted blogs, kinda throws off the whole point of a blog doesn't it? Unless you meant that as an example of the lack of support?

Originally Posted by

(SiamJai @ Sep. 22 2005,10:45)This software makes it easier for the average user to make pro-looking blogs without the pro knowledge.

Yes, this was my main point. Anyone's blog can look like a newspaper editorial, complete with a speeeelling checker in a matter of a few clicks. I know you are a detailed oriented person and when you wanna learn something you want to learn it all as a whole (where are you living again ), most people though really really do not want to study DHTML or XHTM to be able to have a nice looking blog article.

Originally Posted by

(SiamJai @ Sep. 22 2005,10:45)You know what happens when people start using consummate fancy-shmancy stuff - many tend to overdo it, simply because it's so easy now. Just take a look at the average Thai website to see what I mean.

I know right!!!
Why doesn't someone tell them that we no longer use the 25 year old clip art that we used back in the days of Print Shop Deluxe? LOL

I am proud of the effort though.

b2 is one of the biggest and most heavily supported blog options out there for webmasters, and personally I think was a fine choice for them to make here, it is definitely supported. Most major blog source codes are, I think they list about 10 with a quick setup menu, and you could add any if you have the technical info for manual setup readily available. For b2 you should simply need your username and password though.

[SiamJai]

Okay, sounds good then. Let's give it a try and see how it fares. Richard, I'd gladly help out with the trial, but I just got a treasurebox-load of exciting new software that I need to play around with. Fun, but time-consuming.

So, I'm looking forward to your review on this program. If you'll find it useful, I will give it a go too.


iGotNoTime, I didn't consider BlogJet in non-blog applications yet, but the way you use it sounds cool. The idea of less fiddling with HTML tables is tempting.

Originally Posted by

I doubt you ever go back and edit previously posted blogs, kinda throws off the whole point of a blog doesn't it?

You're right, in a sense. I don't ever go back to older blogs to re-edit them. However, many freshly posted blogs need some quick revision; usually font formatting, a better pic, or breaking the blog to pages... stuff like that. If this program has the tendency of messing up all the formatting upon editing, we better have backups of the original, lol. But let's wait for Richard's opinion.

[iGotNoTime]

Do you use HTML tables when posting? I love HTML tables, they make things look so, so... so New York times. ESPECIALLY for wrapping images, you can't do any better. What I can't stand about them though is everytime I use them the appearance is totally different browser platform to browser platform.

One would think that by now they could all at least have a similar compliance! LOL

I owuld like nothing more than to say that this resolved the issue, but it hasn't. It has however helped it alot. Now I only have problems with images being <10 pixels off what I would like them to be set at, but it all depends on the browser.

I am curious about the editing after the post though. I have edited after the post and had a problem but that was with eblogger. I never had a problem with any other CMS. I am curious to see if it holds up to b2.

I hope so after all the hype I created.

[SiamJai]

HTML tables... making them is easy, but making them look good is the tricky part for me. My frustration is similar to yours: what looks good on the design table may look awful in real, and then there is browser compatibility, not to mention complying with different monitor resolutions... argh! Although I just found a Fireworks/Dreamweaver trick that makes auto-fit tables. Seems too good to be true, and I've yet to try it out myself, but there is hope...

Anyway, back to the original topic: in the above-mentioned "treasure-chest", I just found another blogging software that I will test out soon. I'll post a review with pics once I'm done.

See ya's

[JasonGawker]

Hello,

Very good input, I will definitely use this software as I'm a long time blogger, and any assistance and organization help is absolutely necessary.

Jason