With both blogging and Macs reaching new levels of popularity never seen before, it’s only logical to see more and more Mac bloggers rise each day (In fact some of the top bloggers are Mac users). If you want to know which are the top five apps a Mac blogger shouldn’t be without, keep on reading.
ecto
Still one of the best — if not the best — desktop blogging clients available for the Mac at the moment. With a complete list of features and compatibility with most blogging environments, this one is a no-brainer.
Picturesque
An image “beautifier” with a simple enough interface that will have your pics ready in no time for your readers to enjoy. If you’re asking, it does make a big difference to have pretty images on a blog.
NewsFire
The most appealing and completely functional RSS reader I’ve found to date. With it, the task of keeping up with industry news, other blogs, and everything else found in RSS feeds will be a much more effective.
Apple Mail + Letterbox
Apple’s Mail client is still the best for bloggers to use in order to manage that messy inbox — but gets even better when Letterbox is installed, basically turning Mail into a triple column window. Especially appealing for those with widescreen displays.
Podcast Maker
For all the bloggers who also have a podcast, this app will make a more-than-perfect addition to your work tools. In fact, it’s more than likely that this will be the only podcast editor you will ever need.
Bonus widget! Screenshot Plus
This fantastic Dashboard widget will fulfill whatever image capturing needs you have: full screen grab, window capture, selection — it will save it!
This post is part of ProBlogger’s latest Group Writing Project.
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[tags]Apple,Mac,Software,Blog,Blogging[/tags]
Jennie Rosenbaum on May 8th, 2007 at 2:04 am says:
Great list! there are some very helpful apps here.
Mirko on May 8th, 2007 at 3:24 am says:
Oh man I hate those “best Mac app” lists, they keep on reminding me that I am just a poor dumb PC user…
Michael on May 8th, 2007 at 7:35 am says:
I never even knew these existed. Awesome list. I knew my macbook was missing something!
Frank on May 8th, 2007 at 10:31 am says:
Glad you like them!
Except for Podcast Maker and ecto (I prefer TextMate, although it’s not for blogging), all of these are now part of the tools that bring this website to life.
J-Ro on May 9th, 2007 at 12:11 am says:
Is there a Mac desktop blogging client that can post Wordpress drafts? That is the one function I really need! Also, I love ImageWell for light image editing, but I’ll have to check out Picturesque.
Frank on May 9th, 2007 at 5:57 am says:
I can’t recall any client that can publish WordPress drafts, for the moment. But if I do, I’ll let you know later on.
And just remember that Picturesque is more of an image beautifier than editor — I still use ImageWell for a lot of stuff.
ellen weber on May 9th, 2007 at 8:29 pm says:
Wish these programs would interface better:-) Thanks for the heads up on some fun new directions!
blogjunkie on May 10th, 2007 at 9:27 pm says:
Hi, I’m the blogjunkie from myMacBUZZ. Good list! I’ve been using ImageWell, but I’m going to check out Picturesque now.
Check out my entry for Darren’s group writing project too.
EDIT-XTREEM on May 15th, 2007 at 9:14 am says:
I prefer MarsEdit to Ecto… I enjoy using Picturesque, but I find that with photoshop I have way more control, and its easier for me. Other than that… I like your list. Check out my site at http://iappblog.com!
harold on May 17th, 2007 at 8:21 am says:
I always like to read the recommendations from others, it takes some of the burden from reviewing everything that is out there. I liked ecto but for some reason it kept posting with a future date and when I asked for help, the developers didn’t respond. I switched to Mars Edit which seems to work well but requires a bit more html. I haven’t tried Picturesque yet, it keeps popping up on peoples lists so may have to check it out. So far I haven’t found the perfect little app for images. I really what I see at macrecon.com
Frank on May 17th, 2007 at 8:43 am says:
Thanks for the kind comments!
Personally, TextMate is my all-in-one solution for text editing — including blogging. I didn’t mention it in the post because many people might not think of it as a blogging solution.
Katie on May 21st, 2007 at 4:54 pm says:
How does using Podcast maker compare with using garage band for podcasting? By the way, I found your site during the recent ProBlogger Group Writing Project. I like your nice use of icons on this blog.
Frank on May 21st, 2007 at 6:10 pm says:
Apple made sure that GarageBand could become handy as part of their increasing Podcast expansion, but there are some things that only pros could be missing — such as managing the feeds and uploading the files. Other than that, I still think GarageBand is a very capable Podcast tool. Be sure to check out Podcast Maker’s website for the full details.
Scott on January 12th, 2008 at 4:23 am says:
Skitch is high on my list of essential apps for blogging.
Frank on January 12th, 2008 at 6:02 pm says:
Skitch is an excellent app for bloggers. Unfortunately, it still is in invite-only beta. I have hopes that maybe we’ll see it finally launch its 1.0 version this year.