In our ongoing series of blogging client reviews for Windows and Movable Type, we turn to the Qumana Blog Editor from Qumana Software. This review is based on the trial version downloadable from the vendor’s site as of 2/3/2009.
Upon initial launch, the Qumana Blog Editor (QBE hereafter) installer indicated that Java 1.4 or later was necessary for the product to work properly. I took a trip over to Sun’s site and downloaded the latest java runtime and installed that. Installation of QBE required about 5 clicks, after which the configuration process began.
First, it asked for the blog’s URL:
Then, it wanted to know the type of blog it was (though it had pre-selected the correct one), and what its “endpoint” was. I’ve never heard that term used before, and it took a couple of tries to give it the correct URL (which was the path to mt-xmlrpc.cgi on the server). Then, I was asked to supply login info:
It then connected to my server and downloaded information about my blogs. (The two blurred-out ones are defunct and I didn’t want to accidentally generate traffic to them by making them visible here.)
I selected the blogs I wanted to work with and clicked Finish. It downloaded information about them automatically.
One QBE is installed and configured, it brings you to the main screen, where you can select a blog, view the existing posts, see a preview of them, add new posts, and new blogs:
When you click the “New Post” button, you’re brought to the editor window. Here you can enter an article’s title, type its main text, select the categories it belongs to, insert tags, HTML, advertising, change the creation date, modify text formatting, insert images and links, and of course publish your posts. All the formatting tools I need and use were there.
The editor window and main window both fit comfortably on an 800×600 screen, making the product suitable for use with netbook PCs.
In the Source View you can work directly with the HTML code of the post. The HTML displayed by the software is in “plain text” format. There is no syntax highlighting, no automatic indentation, or any other advanced editing features. This is acceptable for an old HTML coder like me, but may not be robust enough for others.
After you’ve finished your article, clicking “Publish Post” transmits it to the server. While it’s being published, a graphic appears on-screen:
In the case of my first test post, I received an error:
However, when I looked on the site itself, I could see that the post had been submitted and scheduled for a future date as intended. This meant I’d be able to use QBE to post articles I didn’t want to see in my blog until much later. A second attempted post didn’t fare as well. I received the same error and the post did not make it to the server that time. A third attempt had the same fate.
I also noticed that my post date reading “Now” was actually several hours off. Turns out that QBE defaults to Greenwich Mean Time rather than Eastern Standard Time. Changing that corrected the problem.
To add an image to a blog post, you first click the “Insert Image” button on the editor window. You will be prompted by QBE to select a wrapping style for the text near the image, with the option of choosing advanced settings.
Advanced settings include alternate text, an image title, specific height and width, border, spacing, class, and style.
When you’ve finished specifying how the image should look, clicking “Upload & Insert” will upload the image to your Movable Type site and insert it into the post you’re working on.
The software’s spell checker seems to work fine. It quickly pounced on the intentional typos I placed in my test post and suggested correct words for the misspelled ones.
How did Qumana Blog Editor 3.0.1 stand up against my list of desired features? Let’s see…
- Both WYSIWYG and raw HTML editing of entries: QBE allows for both WYSIWYG and raw HTML editing of entries. All the basic formatting features I tend to use are there in the WYSIWYG mode. The raw HTML editor is nothing more than a plain text editor featuring the HTML code. There is no syntax highlighting or any other features that simplify this type of work. Still it’s good enough for me.
- Ability to create and store blog entries when offline: The software has this capability, which is a good thing since I was only able to get one of three test posts to make it to the server.
- Spell Checking: This feature worked well for me in my testing and had all the options I think I would need from it.
- Post-dating of blog entries: I was able to create and submit posts with QBE to be seen online at a later date and time, as I wanted to be able to do.
- Access to multiple blogs: QBE handled my multiple blogs just fine.
- Access to all my article categories: QBE was able to automatically bring down all the categories from my various blogs and make them available to me within the editor.
- Support for keywords, excerpts, and tags fields: QBE supports tags, but not the Movable Type excerpts and keywords fields. This was disappointing but not a deal-breaker.
- Automated image and file uploads: This feature appeared to work flawlessy, submitting my pictures to the server and inserting them into the post as I requested.
- Netbook screen support: QBE handled an 800×600 resolution well, with no loss of functionality.
- Microsoft Windows support: QBE installed relatively quickly and did not crash during the testing.
- Portability: This option wasn’t tested. Since it’s a Java based application, it’s probably more portable than most.
This was definitely one of the better blog clients I’ve tested so far. It met nearly all of my desired criteria and seemed to run just fine. Unfortunately, it did lose two posts and generated errors on all three test posts I created. This didn’t inspire me with a lot of confidence. I may come back and look at it again later.
