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Archive for the ‘iPhone Blogging’ Category

This is my first test post with a free app called BlogWriter Lite. Since this is the second free blogging app I have tried, it will have to go up against the WordPress 2.0 app.

First I noticed that BlogWriter does not offer a horizontal screen when writing, so I have been fat fingering this post.

Let’s see how it handles code, this should be red, if that worked then it handles code like the WordPress app.

OK, that is too funny, I am finishing this post up by writing from the WordPress app. The reason why is that the “Lite” means you can’t edit a post your have already published and since I published to see how it handles code I got stung by a poor piece of freeware.

Here is what you have to pay $1.99 to have functional:

The only thing that makes it worth paying for is it’s multiple-platform support. So if you have a Blogspot, WordPress.com, or supported blog and want to use one app to post from your iPhone you might consider this app.

I’ll keep looking as new apps come along,
Richard

I found a very intriguing iPhone app a couple of days ago called Glue. Glue is an app designed to update all of the major social media sites from Facebook to Twitter to WordPress and a bunch more from a single post. Cool right? Well the promise was kept, glue does update my FB status and Twitter but the results do vary. My FB status is a title and a link to my glue site which I would argue is an annoying thing. I really dislike having to click a link to see a status message.

That is not the only disappointment in this app. When you do click you get a tiny message on a vast white web page. Since you can’t post anything but text, no photos, no colors just text that great big white page swallows your little status update.

It is a great concept I will stick with it over time and see how it develops.

Blog on!

Things are progressing quickly in the Apple apps world and with the new release of WordPress 2.0 iPhone blogging app that is indeed the case. As I wrote in a previous post, this is an entirely new version of the app and your 1.0 version will not prompt you to upgrade. So let’s dive right in.

First I liked the 1.0 version of this app for the ability to breakout into HTML code as you type. So if you know some basic HTML you can do things like add a span tag with a style command you can change the look of your text on the fly.

OK, that feature still works the same, now let’s see if they have fixed the one big issue I had with version 1, the adding of an image without having to publish the post.

Great, looks like the new version let’s one save a draft to the server and add the image without having to publish your post for all the world to see. I am definately liking this new version.

The first thing a user will enounter in the new version is an improve interface with better blog management features.

As you can see you now have much more front and center comment management. The photo insertion tool works much like the 1.0 version except better. You also have page management front and center in this version and it works just the same as the posts management.

Tables
Can we do tables, let’s see.

Very cool that looks like a table to me.

Here is the code:

Well that is about all I can say at this point about the new WordPress for iPhone and iPod Touch version 2. Overall a big improvement over version 1.

Well the ’09 swim season is finally wrapping up and I am hanging out at the pool for a few last practices.

I am finishing this draft post in the new WordPress iPhone app version 2.0. As a number of reviewers have pointed out, this is not a standard upgrade to the 1.0 version of the app, instead it is an entirely new app. You won’t be notified to update your 1.0 app. That said, it is indeed worth upgrading to the new version. The new vrsion solves a good number of the issues I encountered in earlier posts.The biggest for me is the ability to add multiple images to a draft without needing to publish to add the photo. In the 1.0 version you had to select the image you wanted to add, publish the post, and now everyone can see your post, then you reopen the post and continue adding text.

Needless to say that was a very unsatisfying workflow. So, with the 2.0 version you can add photos in draft mode, save the draft and continue writing.

Again, they have kept the great ability to write code inline anytime you need it makes it a great little editor. The inline coding feature is something that the WordPress folks should figure out how to add to the web editor in WordPress!

In my last post I started from square one with the WordPress for iPhone app, and even though it takes some getting used to, it seemed to do a pretty good job. The only issue I had was that I had to keep saving my progress which would publish as well. So this time I wanted to see if I can do the cooler stuff and take advantage of the local draft feature.

So the first pain was adding an image to a post, let’s see if saving as a draft helps…

OK, here is the first can’t work around it issue. Seems you can’t post an image unless you publish your post first.

The trick is that you have to publish to add a photo where you want and then publish it, come back to your post and add additional text. Now, that is not really a problem if you have a low-traffic site like mine, but if you have a good number of visitors on your site at all times you will not want to do partial posts just so you can include an image where you want.

Again, not a show stopper I usually only add photos to show screenshots and such, so an obvious workaround would be to save adding photos until the very end. If you merry that with the ability to cut and paste, you can cut the paragraph tag including everything inside the P tag and paste it where it should go. You could add inline text markers such as “image 1 here”, for example. That way when you need to paste, you will know where to paste it. Unfortunately, it still does not solve the issue of high traffic sites exposing some number of readers to incomplete posts for a few minutes. I will keep looking at possible workarounds in future posts, stay tuned.

Starting at step one, the out of the box experience. I am starting this about as green as can be. I recently converted to the iPhone so everything is new.

The first thing I notice is that the WordPress for iPhone app only allows inline images at the end of your post. OK for a quick post on a day trip but not good for a commuter blogger.

I wonder if this will work? I added a style to the HTML paragraph tag that the editor creates when you publish, and I declared a width on the p tag and a float left. Let’s see if this does what I hope it will.

Hey, it works, go figure the editor allows HTML tags so if I want to I should be able to change the color of my font for example.

So you can write HTML inline as you go and you are not forced to stay in HTML mode once you have done it. Admittedly that is a power user feature but it does take the app beyond the gimmick stage. Here is an example of the code I used in the WordPress for iPhone app that aligned my photo above to the left and wrapped the text to the right.

Pretty cool, the only drawback to all of this is the strange workflow it forces you to have and I found myself publishing over and over to get everything just right. But hey, if you are stuck on a train or in the airport, this could be a way to pass the time and keep your blog up to date.

This is the first of what I hope will turn into a series, exploring blogging via iPhone. What I hope will develop is some useful enhancements to the blog editor, not that I am skilled enough at iTyping to take advantage of any enhanced editor, but I know the editors will evolve as they did in the PC world.