If you’re going to try to ditch the laptop and attempt to take a laptop to the local coffee shop to blog, you’re going to need to make sure the blogging platform you use is compatible with the iPad and then think seriously about the app you’ll use as your blogging client.
Direct vs Remote blogging on the iPad
Many bloggers post directly to their website through the blogs backend. The problem is, even some of the most popular blogging platforms like WordPress are a pain to use on the iPad when you go through the traditional admin panel.
The best way, I’ve found is to post remotely. This means you’ll get a blogging client in which you will compose your post, add images, etc. and then that app will post to your blog for you. It only takes a few simple tweaks in your blogs preferences (look for XML-RPC and make sure it is enabled) to set this up.
Say “Hello” to Blogsy
Now, once you’ve got all that ready, I’d like to introduce you to my blogging client of choice: Blogsy (see app profile at the end of this article). Blogsy works with a variety of blogging platforms including WordPress (both self-hosted and WordPress.com), Blogger, Posterous, TypePad, Movable Type, Joomla, Drupal and Squarespace.
I love how Blogsy allows me to easily upload images and embed YouTube and Vimeo videos right from the app. The app has it’s own web browser, so finding the sites and web pages to which you want to link does not require leaving the app and the drag-and-drop method of actually adding this links is a breeze.
Richly Foramtted Emails
Blogsy also has a curious richly formatted email function that allows you to create beautiful emails with photos and nicely formatted text. Why would you want that? The obvious answer is to send really awesome looking emails, but it also allows you (assuming your blogging platform supports it) to blog via email. That’s right, you create your blog post and upload it by emailing it to an ultra-secret email address. I’d much rather use Blogsy’s robust post uploading functions, but the fact that the developer has added this feature tells me that they listen to their users and are always working on improving Blogsy with each update.
…they also have entensive tutorial videos like the one below to show you how various features work.
For someone like me who has adopted his iPad as a notebook replacement, being able to blog as easily on the touch screen as I used to on my MacBook Pro is such a happy, happy thing.
Get Under the Hood and Automate
With all the bells and whistles Blogsy offers, don’t think for a minute that it won’t let you get your hands dirty and write some good old fashioned raw HTML, because you can. In fact, that’s where I get to hint at another “Blogging on the iPad” app of choice: TextExpander. Blogsy supports this app and allows you to use its text shortcutting features as you hardcode your articles. I’ve set up special TextExpander snippets to help me easily enter often repeated bits of code. It’s a blogging app one-two-punch!
Just the start
There are several other apps I use to make using my iPad as my main computer easier and more enjoyable, but I wanted to start with the one that helps me bring you content on this site the most. I hope you’ll check it out and let me know your thoughts in the comments and perhaps you’ll suggest your own favorite apps.
*** App of the Day on Gizmodo.com – http://gizmo.do/lmpDwi
- “Basically, it’s the best blogging tool you’ll find on the iPad.”
Check out the Blogsy demo video on our website: http://blogsyapp.com/how-to
Blogsy is a tool designed specifically to take full advantage of the iPad’s unique touch functionality. Adding your photos and videos is as easy as dragging them from the media sidebar and dropping them into your blog post. This makes writing blog posts as easy as it should be, saving you from the hassle of jumping from app to app to manually copy/paste embed codes or links. Simply put, we think that Blogsy makes writing so easy that you will use it instead of your computer.
Reviews:
- “Basically, it’s the best blogging tool you’ll find on the iPad.” Gizmodo
- “If you blog with any regularity, I recommend spending $5 for Blogsy…” CNET
- “If you’re a blogger with an iPad, then I would highly recommend picking up Blogsy. It finally makes your iPad a worthy blogging tool.” AppAdvice
- “Blogsy finally brings quality blogging to the iPad — a device that was desperately waiting for an app like this to change the way bloggers can get things done without giving up on rich content editing, and media.” Macstories
- “Blogsy has lots of features and to be honest, I can say that it is the best wordpress and blogger app you will find in the App Store.” MWD
Main Features:
- Easily drag and drop images from Flickr, Picasa, Facebook, Instagram and Google Image Search, or using the built-in Web browser (yes, easily drag and drop images from most websites!) Drag and drop videos from YouTube and Vimeo. (Either using the new iFrame or the old flash embed method with colors, borders and related videos.)
- Found a good article? Drag and drop it’s URL to instantly create a hyperlink in your blog post.. No coding required!
- Style your blog posts with the tap of a button – bold, italics, text alignment and more.
- Full support for multiple blogs and multiple photo and video accounts.
- Easily change image and video properties and alignment through menus.
- Write and edit HTML. Though using Blogsy’s ‘Rich Side’, you’ll probably never want to; everything from bolding text to creating links to image alignment can be done with the tap of a finger.
- Set or create lables/tags and categories, toggle comments on and off, and set visibility.
- Create scheduled posts, online drafts, and pending-review posts.
- Support for local drafts.
- Edit or delete online posts or pages.
- Upload images from your iPad photo library to any blog media library, Picasa, Flickr or Facebook.
- Markdown Support
*** Check out our how-to videos here – www.blogsyapp.com/how-to
Platform Support: Details about each platform can be found at www.blogsyapp.com/platforms
WordPress – WordPress.com as-well as self-hosted WordPress accounts
Blogger
TypePad
MovableType
Drupal
Joomla (1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 2.5)
IBM Connections
Tumblr
Squarespace (Version 5 only)
MetaWeblog (Generic Setup)
Service Support:
- Flickr
- Picassa
- YouTube
- Vimeo
- Instagram
- Facebook
Email – Create Rich emails with images, videos, links and WYSIWYG text formatting.
Textexpander support. (HTML side only)
Blogsy Bookmarketlet
*** You must have, or create, your blog on the internet prior to using Blogsy.
- Version: 4.2.2
- Created & Sold by: Fomola
- Categories: Social Networking, Utilities
iPad Screenshots:
Supported Devices
