Using Marsedit 3
I’ve been dabbling around with different blog editors for Mac now for a while, trying to find one that suits my needs. I usually try to do most of my blogging on my iPad, but when writing on my Mac I’ve used Byword in combination with Marked2 to do the initial texts written in Markdown.
I write the text in Byword and do the preview in Marked2. When the article is ready for export, I use the Markdown to HTML converter in Marked2 and paste in the text into WordPress. There I can fill out all the fields for the SEO plugs and add pictures. But now it looks like I can write new articles in my usual way with Byword and then publish them with Marsedit 3 because it can convert Markdown before uploading the post to WordPress. I’ve added custom fields for the excellent plugin Yoast WordPress SEO directly in Marsedit. That was yet another reason for having to go to the WordPress web interface just to enter those fields. Although, I have to admit, I do generally still check the SEO settings page just to make sure I don’t get any glaring errors and preferably see all green lights in the SEO plugin before publishing. Still, it makes it easier to have access to the SEO fields directly in Marsedit 3.
Design
The design of Marsedit haven’t changed in a long time. It’s a great application, yet it feels a bit old. It could do with a facelift. It’s a powerful blog editor and everything you need is there. But after trying out Blogo the Marsedit interface feels dated. But on the other hand it’s way more capable than Blogo.
Image uploads
I’m using the plugin WP Retina 2x for displaying images in Retina. When using the Upload Utility in Marsedit 3 the image (the screen dump above) isn’t uploaded in full resolution, so I need to re-upload it in the WordPress web interface. That’s annoying and yet another step I don’t want to worry about. Hopefully this will be fixed in later updates of Marsedit.
jjarava says
December 28, 2014 at 20:53 CESTQuick question – why don’t you use Markdown directly into WP?
I admit I’m just getting started in WP/blogging, but I know from experience that WordPress.com works fine in markdown and that there are plugins for self-hosted WP such as yours…
Jack Zimmermann says
December 30, 2014 at 00:35 CESTYou’re right. I used to use a Markdown plugin on my site. But I decided that I would be better to have the text in HTML so I could use all the different editors available. I still write all my articles in Markdown using Editorial App on my iPad. Then convert it to HTML.