SOHO Solo West Cork

ScribeFire is probably my favorite blog post editor. I am not alone judging by the figures above from the Firefox download page this week. It functions as my everyday workplace, I open it up to do some note taking when I’m online.

I do have a few issues. Let me explain. (Close your eyes now if you are not into writing blogs or at all technically inclined. This may get a litte messy).

First, ScribeFire it is pretty all encompassing. It can deal with several blog accounts and allows you to post to many different types of blog. You can add tags and so on. You can even get it to post to Joomla.

Because it sits withing the Firefox web browser it borrows some features from FireFox like the spell checking. Because of this, you can grab pieces of text and images and drag them into the editor for re posting to your blog (You do have permission don’t you?).

You can save posts as note or online as drafts in your blog if you blogging platform supports that.

But here’s the rub; party because it is so good and versatile, it soon become irreplaceable. it is the place where I store all my writing now. Nothing wrong with that but it can cause a couple of problems…

If my computer goes down in flames, all my passwords and stored up posts go down the chute as well. I have got the passwords stored else here (I think) .

If I want to start writing blog stuff on another computer that’s fine if I have Firefox, I can quickly install ScribeFire too and I’m away. But I’m not quite because I have to reconnect with my blog/s  and this may include ftp settings if I have set it up to use FTP to upload my images. Dang.

What I would like (please Mr ScribeFire [Chris], hear my prayers), is for ScribeFire to wrap up all my settings and enable me to move them to any other computer i am using (Not much to ask is it?).

I have just worked out that the latest incarnation of FoxMarks will save you passwords and sync then with another machine that you have set up Foxmarks on. This may be a step forward because in theory I just have to show ScribeFire, on my new machine, to my blog and Firefox (via FoxMarks) will have all the passwords stored. I should be able to log in. (Mozilla Weave maybe able to do this as well and Google does some fancy password syncing but I don’t have the time or energy to check them all.

What I can do is save posts as drafts and then edit them from else where or even shunt them up to several different blogs (if they are relevant). The settings panel will allow adding tags and categories as allowed by the blogging platform and post or even pre-dated entries  (Alibi anyone? “No officer, I was home publishing me blog, honest!”).

While you are at it Chris, can you sort out the minor annoyance that the FTP settings can’t be allocated to more than one blog at a time. Oh, and can we have search and replace please (My capital ‘i’ never seems to work properly:-)).

In summary

All in all my complaints are a little tongue in cheek. ScribeFire has transformer the way I blog. I have tried many different blog editors than enable you to write off line and then upload. they are vital if you have dial up or restricted access but the interaction of ScribeFire within Firefox wins the day!

Other I have editors I have tested range from Blog-X (Joomla/Mambo only) through to Windows Live Writer (Eeewah) and the directly writing into various blog platforms online. ScribeFire wins hands down.

Technorati Tags: blogging, firefox, scribefire, review

• Dave Spathaky lives in splendid rural isolation in West West Cork and blogs about it.
• This article was previously published on Dave’s Personal Blog.
• Chris Finke is the genius developer who made ScribeFire. I have no connection with him.