November 01, 2004
If you blog on a mac this Ecto will change the way you post.
http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/
After looking around the web all weekend for a better way to manage my blogs,
I came across Ecto. I first thought it would be good for posting photos and
little things like that, but from the moment I opened the app, I could tell
it was made to do much more.
Getting Started:
When I first opened up the app, the set up assistant helped me get the app talking
with my blog. This only took about 30 sec, a lot faster than I had thought.
Once it made a connection to my blog's database, it displayed all the posts
I had with all the categories.
Time to do a Test:
It works straight out of the box? No... !!! So I thought I would do
a test. Let's edit one of the entries. I opened one up by clicking on it and
added "...." to the last line of my first entry and clicked "post".
It gave me a little popup window telling me it was uploading.
After I finished, I went to the site and looked to see if it worked and it
did. Now I was impressed. (It does not take much to impress me) .
Photo Test:
It can't make everything about blogging that simple, can it??? Let's
try a photo.... No! Let's try four photos, and I want it to pull them from iPhoto.
( This should kill it. *evil laugh*)
So I started with a new entry. After looking around, I did find an "Import
from iPhoto". This popped up a new window with all my iPhoto images and
the albums.
I clicked on four and clicked "import". This added them to the entry
as thumbnails.
B y clicking on the image, it gave me a little box (located on the bottom right)
for scaling the image, and by double-clicking on the image, a new box popped
up, giving me more options than I imagined.
- Thumbnail size
- Embedded
- Convert image to jpg: (good if you are taking screenshots that are .pdf)
- Image resize: good if your jpg are large
- I was also able to save my setting so I would be able to use them again
later.
- and much more..
   
Sample of photos
All the other stuff it will do:
This app has so much other stuff I could go into, but I do not think you want
to read about it all, and I didn't have that kind of time. So this is the list
from their website.
- support for multiple weblogs and servers (with easy-to-use Account Manager)
- full local control of recently posted entries and drafts (with search function)
- intuitive interface for creating and editing weblog entries
- a Rich Text and an HTML editor with spellcheck and search/replace
- syntax-coloring in the HTML editor
- quick access menu with HTML tag templates and keyboard shortcuts for the
HTML editor (fully customizable)
- support of all available remote control options of MovableType API (posting
entries with continuation, summary, keywords, multiple categories, trackback,
text-formatting, comment options)
- advanced create-a-link dialog
- easily change the posting date of entries
- full-featured HTML-rendered preview of entries using Safari's WebKit
- powerful file and media upload with iPhoto import via attachments
- convert, scale images and create thumbnailsv create poster movies or create
thumbnails from movie frames
- save settings on a per-blog basis
- send notifications by email (with Address Book support)
- insert details of the currently playing iTunes song in your entry
- embedded debug console to troubleshoot server connections
- extensive help documentation accessible from within ecto
- hate the metal and icons? Set the window texture via the Preferences window
and change icons with the supplied switcher!
- works with NetNewsWire, PulpFiction, and Shrook
- localized in Dutch, French, German, and Japanese
- support for del.icio.us, the social bookmarks manager
- Services menu items to blog selected text (with extra features for Safari)
- and much much more!
What I really think:
If you work with blogs and you are looking for a app to ease some headache,
check this app out. It is so simple to use but has all the stuff a pro would
want in it.
The only bad thing I can say is that the html editor is a little buggy and
sometimes will crash, but even with crashes, it will still save your work.
FYI:
If you have not figured it out by now, I used Ecto to enter this post and will
probably use it for future posting.
Posted by macomadmin at 01:30 AM
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Ok, the Mac will probably watch YOU cook instead, but at least it will help you from burning any more toast thanks to Macgourmet.com's new app.
This little app looks like it will help all you Netflix users out there.
