It’s been a LONG time since I’ve played with Ecto. I used the previous incarnation (KungLog) before it changed to become Ecto, and lost touch with it since then. I’ve been using the browser-based WordPress posting interface almost exclusively, with occasional dabbles into the worlds of Firefox+Performancing and Flock.
Gotta say, I’m less impressed with Ecto’s write-and-preview flow (and by default, it’s not even a live preview, and the “automatic” preview isn’t quite “live”). If an app is going to provide an interface like this, it really should go the extra mile and use a full-out WYSIWYG interface (with the option to revert to source editing mode). And the controls for entering/editing hyperlinks are, well, bizarre and non-intuitive. A mini-toolbar at the bottom of the editing window is pretty un-Maclike, and odd when considering all other controls are in an almost-conventional toolbar above the editing pane…
I do like the management features, but they’re not radically different/better than Performancing’s offering. Actually, what would really rock would be a version of Performancing for Safari. I know it’s probably just a XUL app, so this could be a non-trivial task, but most Mac users are using Safari, and it would be nice to have this stuff brought to it…
Oh, and Performancing should sort Categories. Ecto does this (well, any sane app should) and it really helps if you have, say 285 categories…
When all’s said and done, I don’t see myself ponying up for an Ecto license. It’s a cool app, but other apps are coming along and nicely eating its breakfast.
Update: Ecto published this post after the < ! --more--> block, which tells WordPress to show the post content only on the single post display page. The text entry fields weren’t labeled, so I thought I was doing it the other way around… It also threw an error dialog up saying the post couldn’t be published, when it was published just fine. This is app is supposed to increase blog posting productivity hownow?
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m pro edto, but cannot really counter yopur remarks– I’ve pretty much gotten accustomed to the interface and found some things that get around these issues. I never use the bottom HTML menu, and pretty much go by the customized shortcuts, plus a few I’ve added on my own. I love the drag and rop interface for popping images in, and again have made my own image display templates for centered display, or right alinged thumbnails with links to full size.
There is some bug with ecto, image uploading, and WP 2.0…. still digging through this one.
Yeah the preview is not the full preview of what you get, and I use it more just as a quick check to see I’ve not mangled a tag or an embedded image. I usually mod the preview template to access the style sheet from the server.
There is a time saving of any desktop composer in not having to got through several screens in the web editor, and I often compose some drafts offline. I also like having a central writing place to publish to my corral of WordPress, MovableType, and Blogger sites.
But hey, there are always better things out there, so thanks for fleashing out and reporting!
First of all, don’t use the <!–more–> blocks, just set ecto to use the MovableType API for your WordPress blog. Then you just type the “more” stuff in the bottom pane of the edit window.
It would have helped if you wrote what error was popped up by error after publishing. It’s always an error from the server and may indicate there’s something wrong with your install.
As for WP2.0, it has bugs. See:
http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/archives/001602.php
and
http://bb.infinite-sushi.com/viewtopic.php?t=1308
First off all, I didn’t manually add the < ! -- more -- > block – Ecto did that automagically, and I guessed wrong about which text area would go where. I guessed that the first text block would be excerpt, and the second the body. But the first text area appears to be inserted before a more block, the second after it.
I didn’t think to write down the error, but it was something like “communication error while connecting to server” or something. I’ll try again and see what it says.
I wasn’t knocking Ecto – it’s a cool app – but it just doesn’t jive with how I interact with my blog.