Missing in MarsEdit
While I’m trying out MarsEdit, I noticed a few things missing that I’m used to with Ecto.
Quicker way of adding links. In Ecto, to embed URL links to posts, I got used to:
- copying the link
- highlighting text in Ecto
- right click text and choose “URL with clipboard”
In MarsEdit, I have to do the first two steps, but then right click text, select “Text Markup” and select “Paste Link” – an extra step/click.
Hey, how do you do lists (ol and ul) in MarsEdit? Make my own Text Markup? Edit by hand like I did for the above ol list?
Editing Post Timestamp. Can’t seem to find how to change the date and timestamp of posts in MarsEdit so I can reorder posts. Have to now change date and time in Blogger.
Instant Markup. I know I can use command key combos to instantly markup text like making text bold using command-b. But is there a similar button to do this? If I’m clicking around with my mouse, it’s sometimes easier to click on a Bold button rather than move my mouse hand back to the keyboard.
Edit Technorati HTML. It must be here somewhere, but I can’t find where to edit the HTML section for the Technorati tags. Adding Technorati tags is easy with MarsEdit, but I wanted to change the auto-inserted HTML to style the tags. Or am I supposed to strictly style the tags via Blogger’s CSS?
Multiple Blog Account Grouping. As far as handling multiple blogs on various blogging platforms, I think I prefer Ecto’s way of grouping all blogs by the blogging platform. For example, when connecting to Blogger with Ecto, Ecto shows me all the blogs associated with my Blogger account. With MarsEdit, I have to add each one individually.
“Group tags.” Neither product supports a common group of tags as far as I know. What do I mean? I regularly select common tags when writing about my favorite subjects. For shoes, I’ll add the tags of “shoes,” “kicks,” “sneakers,” and often times “nike.” But that means I have to select four tags. How about defining a group tag that when selected, will select these four tags for me? This way too, I’ll be more consistent using the same tags on the same subjects.
Hmmm, I know MarsEdit is NOT Ecto, but for me, there are some key features missing so far.
Technorati Tags:
blogging, ecto, marsedit
March 6, 2008 @ 5:45 am
Hi Greg – to respond to some of your points:
Quick links – you might also get used to clicking the markup menu in the toolbar, or using Cmd-Shift-A to quickly paste the link in over the selection.
Lists are not handled by MarsEdit – it’s on the TODO list.
To edit the date, select Post -> Edit Date from the post editor window.
There is no “button bar” for these things. But you can select the markup menu from the toolbar. I envision a button bar someday.
Customizing Technorati HTML is not currently a feature. But I’ll certainly consider adding that.
Blog Grouping – I can see the logic of grouping blogs, but just to group them by platform seems more restrictive than necessarily helpful. Probably some kind of grouping is in the future for MarsEdit, though.
Group tags – interesting idea. I would want to be careful not to clutter up the UI too much but I like the notion of multi-tag/category macros. A techy workaround in the short term would be to write an AppleScript that sets a group of tags on the post at once.
Thanks for giving MarsEdit a try, and for taking the time to write out your feedback.
March 6, 2008 @ 3:45 pm
Hi Greg – to respond to some of your points:Quick links – you might also get used to clicking the markup menu in the toolbar, or using Cmd-Shift-A to quickly paste the link in over the selection.Lists are not handled by MarsEdit – it’s on the TODO list.To edit the date, select Post -> Edit Date from the post editor window.There is no “button bar” for these things. But you can select the markup menu from the toolbar. I envision a button bar someday.Customizing Technorati HTML is not currently a feature. But I’ll certainly consider adding that.Blog Grouping – I can see the logic of grouping blogs, but just to group them by platform seems more restrictive than necessarily helpful. Probably some kind of grouping is in the future for MarsEdit, though.Group tags – interesting idea. I would want to be careful not to clutter up the UI too much but I like the notion of multi-tag/category macros. A techy workaround in the short term would be to write an AppleScript that sets a group of tags on the post at once.Thanks for giving MarsEdit a try, and for taking the time to write out your feedback.
March 8, 2008 @ 4:11 am
Daniel, thanks for the response. I look forward to continued great development of MarsEdit. 🙂
March 8, 2008 @ 2:11 pm
Daniel, thanks for the response. I look forward to continued great development of MarsEdit. 🙂