And i thought that w.bloggar was the best. Just goes to show that technology is rarely static, and a single version upgrade can make the world of a difference. There is a new leader in the arena client-side publishing tools for Movable type - its called Zempt.
Just last month, i wrote that i was using w.bloggar to update my blog. I really liked it because it allowed me to blog anywhere (no Internet connection required), and it allowed me to save my work in a local dB. Back then, Zempt 0.2 allowed for that too, but it wasn't as polished as w.bloggar - perhaps because w.bloggar is much further ahead in its development cycle while Zempt is relatively new.
But with the release of Zempt 0.3, i reckon Zeller and Kalsey have got a winner. The main draw of Zempt is the fact that its specifically designed to work with Movable Type, while most other client-side publishing tools try to accommodate as many applications as possible (e.g w.bloggar supports Nucleus, b2 and Blogger among others). With so much focus to making Zempt work well with MT, its not surprising that the latest version of Zempt does it quite well indeed.
Main strengths:
* Built for use with MT
* Can handle a majority of MT functions locally
* Pings PPS very well. For some reason, faster than the server-side auto-pinger that comes with the standard MT installation.
* Spell checker
* Can save drafts on local for future publishing
* Handles MT formatting plug-ins natively! I'm using the must-have Textile and it works great with Zempt, no problems
Weaknesses:
* Cannot handle image/file uploads or insertions. This will be addressed in version 0.4
* No keyboard shortcuts for some key functions (e.g. inserting a hyperlink)
Worth a try - if you liked w.bloggar, you'll love this (assuming you're using MT). If you haven't tried a client-side publishing tool before and want to, start with this. It won't disappoint.
Leave a comment