Software Review - Zoundry Raven
First, the set up was a snap. And when it’s finished, the installer offers to launch the program for you; when it does, a wizard walks you through the configuration of a blog. But in my case, the software detected my Windows Live Writer installation and imported the settings. I was greatly impressed, then panicked; what if “import” meant “take so that they’re not available in WLW anymore”? I flew back over to WLW only to discover it was just fine. And I didn’t have to do any setup of my blog in Zoundry Raven (ZR).
Next, it has a very, very clean interface. The main program screen includes a Windows Explorer-style list on the left side of the pane, allowing you to look over various areas of the blog.
With that window open, you can see whatever is going on in Zoundry relative to your blog. I was able to close Raven and save my post, then re-open the program and find the post to continue editing. It’s pretty slick that way, but some of it is less than smooth.
It’s got the standard link-handling method, which allows you to have any links you insert open in either a new window or the current window, and lets you select the display text for the link, like most blog clients do. It’s a nice little interface and fairly complete.
The interface also avoids some of the redundancy of WLW’s interface, which may be less intimidating for users new to blogging clients. No one’s complained about WLW’s interface yet that I know of, but this one is much more streamlined.
The image handling is very nice. It works much the same way as WLW image insertion. Just get an image (which is easier said than done; I have a screen shot program that puts the shot on the clipboard but ZR couldn’t see it there, so I wasn’t able to paste it in), paste it or navigate to it and select it by clicking on the “Insert Image” button on the editor’s toolbar. Once it’s in, set the alignment and margins and anything else you want just like you would in WLW. Very slick, very easy.
The editor itself has a lot of nice features too. It can download a template to show the look of your blog, the way WLW does (but that doesn’t transport out to the editor), and has several tabs along the bottom of the editor window to make life easier, including an XHTML tab, a PREVIEW tab and the main editor window tab labeled “DESIGN”. It allows you to put in the tags (for WordPress anyway), a title … all the things you need to do it. There’s a nifty little drop-down box marked “Configure” that allows you to set things like the categories for your blog, the time of publication for the post (so you can future post, just like with WLW), and lets you set your ping sites (I just left them at the default, which I think is every site listed). Nicely done! And, it recognizes the “More” tag in WordPress too, and lets you insert it graphically or in the XHTML editor. This is really powerful, and I found the code editor a bit easier to read and manage than WLW’s (did I really just say that?? something’s BETTER than WLW’s equivalent??).
There is a nifty spell check feature, but you have to allow ZR to go out and download the appropriate dictionary — or tell it which one is the appropriate dictionary — to use it. Not a big deal, but something to be aware of.
Over all, Zoundry’s not going to overtake WLW any soon with Raven, but it’s a really nice alternative for those that are either dead-set against Microsoft and her products, or just want to have something that’s a little leaner and cleaner to work with.
You try it for yourself; Zoundry Raven is, as mentioned before, free. If you’re a blogger and not using a tool like this, you’re cheating yourself. You have so much more control over the posting you do when you allow a tool to help you manage it. I highly suggest you try it and see.
-JDT-
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I don’t know why, but my last two comments didn’t show up! Darn you, WP!!!
I’m still liking the Scribe Fire, but it couldn’t hurt to give zoundry a shot.
Sherri - ScribeFire’s really cool, but you really should give Zoundry a try. I know you were going to try WLW too, way back when, but if you didn’t, Zoundry’s a good alternative and maybe a little less intimidating/complicated. The best advantage Zoundry and WLW — or any desktop client for that matter — has over ScribeFire is that you don’t need to work online. I don’t know if SF will allow you to compose if you’re not online, but with Zoundry and WLW you can write your post and save it as a draft for posting later. You can also save more than one draft, so you can have a series of things in the draft status and post them all later.
One advantage I noticed in working with things like Zoundry and WLW is the image-handling capabilities are far superior to SF. You can place the image, size it easily, tell it whether you want the image on the left, right or centered, whether to wrap text around it or to have it be inline (no wrapping), etc. That may be more than you need or want, but for folks that do a lot of image inserting, it’s really important (and the coolness factor’s high too). Also, both Zoundry and WLW will automatically upload your images for you; there’s not a separate step for that like with SF.
But I’m glad you like SF, and it’s cross-platform capabilities make it a great tool. WLW has added an extension for on-the-fly blogging, so V has gotten away from SF altogether (she actually uninstalled it, and so did I). I think, ultimately, it’s what your all comfy and cozy with: if you like SF, use it. Whatever helps make you a more efficient and happier blogger is the best tool for you.
Thanks for coming by, sweetie. I really appreciate the comments, and hope you’re doing all right.
*hugs and love*
I don’t mind having to be online while composing, since I’m always connected, and usually have a browser open. I don’t really use SF for the entire post, more as a way to organize the links and ideas while I’m browsing. Then I upload the info as a draft to WP and if I need graphics, I add it into the WP editor since I already know how.
I did use WLW for a couple of posts, but since I’m always online it wasn’t worth the memory spent. I’d just find myself going through the WP editor.
You should email me or catch me online and tell me how Friday went! Hugs back
Sherri — I’ll be looking for ya today, but have another thingy at 3:00 p.m. Keep your fingers crossed … and any other body parts that will without breaking.
Also, what you say about being online is all true, but … doesn’t doing it partially in one tool and finishing in WP’s editor sort of defeat the purpose, when you can just do it all in SF? It will upload for you, and I think WP tells you where it goes when it does, right? Maybe? I don’t know, I’ve never done it that way. I think I was using WLW before I joined WP, so I know more about Blogger’s editor than WP’s. It just seems like you’re making it harder on yourself that way when a single tool will do it for you.
Oh, and I lied about the image handling capabilities of Zoundry Raven. They’re almost as good as WLW’s, but not quite. I wasn’t able to save a screen shot from FireShot to the clipboard and paste it into ZR. I had to save it to a file and then go get it. Once it’s in, it’s just as easy to move around and stuff, but not as easy to get it in there, so sorry about that bit of misinformation. The rest of it’s true, though.
Anyway, whatever works best for you is perfect for you, hon. Since everyone loves your blog posts, I’d say — don’t worry about how they get there!
Love ya.
[...] it’s a very nifty, pretty full-featured desktop blogging client. I did a review of it here. I like it, but nothing is going to take the place of my beloved Windows Live Writer unless I [...]
Other notable blogging clients include blogdesk and blogjet (not free
)
However, other than WLW and Raven, no other client can edit wordpress pages. This is a real limitation when you use wordpress as a CMS.