ecto-plasm

Sat Jan 10 2004

ecto-screenshot-smallKung-Log, the superlative desktop blogging client by Adriaan Tjisseling, has been reborn as ecto, rewritten from the ground up, and sadly is no longer free. But there are enough improvements to warrant paying for the software, and no bugs so horrible that they make the former Kung-Log anything but a joy to use.

The new version uses a Safari-style brushed metal user interface, with tabs and extra drawers to move some of K-L's harder-to-use features (categorization, for one) into the spotlight. One thing I love that you can see on my screenshot is that ecto now can be told not to let you post if you haven't assigned a category, or written a summary for this post.

It also has an account setup wizard that helps you quickly and easily set up ecto to access your blog, and now supports Six Apart's TypePad blogging service.

For a quick summary of cool new features and minor quibbles, click over to the errata page.

Best new features:

  • Can tell ecto to require categories/summary via the preference panel
  • Allows editing of the date field, and even has a reset button so the date on an older entry can be reset to right now
  • Can customize the number of older entries you can load and edit, allowing ecto to access more than just the ten entries K-Log supported
  • WebKit-based preview, which doesn't do much for me given that I use the Textile plugin for my formatting, but is a nice extra touch

My few pet peeves:

  • Extended entry and summary are now in a separate tab, and keywords are now in yet another tab. For most users, this will be a welcome change. For me, it adds some slightly unnecessary clicking. But I agree with this change on principle, and I'm sure I'll get used to it.
  • Keyboard shortcuts have been changed and many preference settings have been moved -- all the Kung-Log functionality is here, but I have to go looking for it, and I can no longer hit Command-Shift-U to upload an image.
  • I've previously expressed my dislike of the brushed metal, which I feel should be restricted to browser-style apps, and not used for text editors. That said, brushed metal doesn't feel so out of place in Panther, and Adriaan uses it to very nice effect. I'll live.