After growing tired of the often very slow WordPress 2.7 Admin Interface, I went in search of a desktop blog publishing application. I remember hearing recommendations of MarsEdit by Red Sweater Software so I downloaded the 30-day trial of version 2.

Once downloaded you will be asked to input your Weblog Name and URL, then your admin username and password. It will then fetch your last 10 posts. If you don’t already have a weblog but want to create one then you can also do that through MarsEdit by clicking I want to create a free weblog and this will give you the option to start a weblog at WordPress.com or Blogger.com.

Aside from working beautifully with WordPress, MarsEdit is also fully compatible with Blogger, TypePad, Movable Type, LiveJournal, Drupal, Vox and more. It will also integrate cleanly with your favourite editor such as BBEdit, SubEthaEdit, TextMate and TextWrangler.

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I was impressed by the interface which is very clean and uncluttered – a bit like an e-mail client. The Markup Macros list makes inserting repetitive snippets a breeze and aswell as a list of macros already there by default, you can also add your own in.

The Media Manager for uploading images is a most welcome feature. I have never been able to successfully upload an image within a blog post when doing so through my Safari browser. I’d get some sort of HTTP error come back, whereas it would upload fine using Camino. But, switching between browsers to simply upload media was becoming quite tiresome. The Media Manager also allows me to browse the catalog of images already uploaded to my blog, aswell as my images on Flickr which I can easily insert into my blog post.

Another nice feature in MarsEdit 2 is the Preview window which I can keep open while writing a blog post and it will constantly and instantly update, showing me how the post layout will look. This is particularly useful for when placing in images. No more having to click ‘Save’ then ‘Preview’ as one does in the Wordpress Admin interface. The Preview window can also be hidden.

Once I’ve written my post I can add in my tags and select the categories I want the post to appear under. Once published I can also edit or delete any post directly within the MarsEdit application.

As my evaluation period was drawing to a close, I did a last minute look around to see if there were any other blog publishing applications that I should consider before settling on one and making a purchase. I downloaded Blogo but didn’t get on with that at all. So, with just another day or two on my trial copy I decided to purchase MarsEdit 2 for $29.95. I know some people will ask why pay for a desktop blog client when the WP Admin is free, as I have myself in the past. Well, aside from all the great features I mentioned above, one of the things MarsEdit has done for me is encourage more frequent writing. If proof were needed of that, just look at the amount of posts I’ve written in the past 30 days. Software that changes my daily behaviour is well worth paying for.

Do you use a desktop blog publishing client?