After an extensive research on various blogging softwares and going through various blog posts, I picked up few of the blogging softwares and then decided to write a review about some of them. Third in this series is Zoundry’s Blog Writer. It is used by some of the popular bloggers and so I was already convinced that it will be one of the good softwares and thus thought that I will be little harsh on this software’s review (So, keep it in mind that the cons may not be cons for you). Now, lets see how I found this software as compared to Windows Live Writer and W.Bloggar.
PROS of Zoundry Blog Writer :
1. Support for blogging platforms : It has done equally well as compared to Windows live writer and W.Bloggar and needless to say that it has a good list of supported blogging platforms and most of you won’t find any difficulty in finding your own blogging platform in it’s reach.
2. Stable blogging software : The software seems to have good stability. I believe that almost all of the softwares are stable. The only reason, I tend to mention in most of the software reviews is because Windows live writer was one software which actually crashed and thus, I thought of including this parameter in the review.
3. FTP Support : It has got the FTP support for the media files and thus the uploading of the images is not so difficult and painful. Should, I review FTP softwares in the next round of softwares?
4. XHTML Support : I’d read in many blog posts that this software didn’t support XHTML editing but I was happy to find the support of XHTML as well. It lets you edit the XHTML and thus gives it plus points as it shows that it is constantly updated and that it follows the new trends.
5. WYSIWYG Editor : Just like Windows Live Writer, it has also got the WYSIWYG editor and thus makes it super simple for the non-techie bloggers. Even if you are familiar with HTML, XHTML etc. I’m sure that you’ll want yourself to be pouring your 100% in the blog post rather than making sure that you are writing the write code of the post (Although, most of the bloggers are familiar with simple HTML or XHTML codes.).
6. TAG support : Another good thing is that it supports TAGS as well. It lets you define tags and which get automatically inserted, once you make the blog post. It supports many services like Technorati, Flickr, Del.icio.us, Riya, 43Things etc.
7. Various small but useful features : It has got spell checker, auto save, multiple blog posting, weblog pings, automatic insertion of copied links etc. These features are small as compared to various others but collectively help in making a complete blogging software solution. One of the good features is that it is letting bloggers to earn money by including the advertising and that too monitored by Zoundry only. Although, the service is currently in beta but still many blogger will find it useful.
CONS of Zoundry Blog Writer :
1. Image editor : The software seems to support easy insertion of images but unfortunately it doesn’t have any image editor. It only seem to have the insertion feature but doesn’t have any facility of inserting any image effects. It will be nice to see some features which will put small image effects, like drop shadow…etc.
2. Backup of posts : Although, it saves the posts but doesn’t let you choose that where exactly you want to save the posts. It will be nice if this software will let you choose the path or directory to save your blog posts as a backup.
3. Tedious Setup : The setup of the software is fine but it is strange that why exactly they’ve not included the dictionary in the actual download itself. They want you to download the dictionary after you install and run the software. The software gives you the notification on the left hand side panel and thus the chances are that you will not at all miss feature but still it will be nice to see the settings of FTP in the setup of blog itself. [Remember...harsh statement :)]
Overall Rating & Views :
Zoudry blog writer is one of the complete blogging software and the most impressive of the Windows live writer & W.bloggar. It has got nice and good feature set and simplicity and stability gives it additional points. I tried to be harsh on this software’s review but believe me that it left almost no scope for me to be harsh. It is by far one of the best blogging software solution, I’ve come across. And no wonder that it has become my blogging software choice as well (I’m right now using Zoundry blog writer). It is updated regularly and also giving you the chance of making money, so I’m sure that in future it will pick up many more bloggers using this excellent software.
Links : [Zoundry Blog Writer] [Download Zoundry Blog Writer]
