I recently found myself in a heated dispute with some of my buddies over which is better: the built-in web-based dashboard that comes stock with all blogging platforms, or an app built for “offline” blogging? I’m an advocate for all things web based. I mean, look, we’ve got internet connections that go the “speed of light” now, so why not use them. But some people just can’t get past sticking with a program for everything, so I figured I may as well check out a few of the offline options.

I’m currently working on several different blogs, with the possibility of more on the way. All use WordPress, which is a big plus, but the built in interfaces leave something to be desired. Mostly because I can’t post to all of my blogs from a single site. Big points off there. It takes about a minute to move back and forth between my blogs’ admin sites, so not much time is lost, but way more than if I were using blogging software instead.

However, there are a number of great points in favor of the online interface. Biggest amongst them is that I can actively check that my posts are actually getting posted. I’m here, at the site, making sure everything is working correctly. I also have access to all of my plugins and other backend features from the WordPress dashboard–something that most (if not all) offline blogging software lacks. Editing custom fields in most blogging programs is also impossible.

One point I hadn’t thought of which one of my friends brought up was that I could draft posts offline thanks to blogging programs. Well that’s all well and good, but why couldn’t I just draft a post in TextEdit or Notepad or another simple word processor? I have to be online to actually submit the post, so what good is offline composition doing for me?

Despite being adverse to blogging software from the get-go, I decided to give a few programs a try. I’m primarily a Mac user, so I checked out Blogo, Ecto, and MarsEdit to see what all of the fuss was about.

Without going into a detailed review of each program here (I’ll save that for later posts), I can safely say that I now know for sure that blogging software is not for me. I’m not a luddite by any means, but I just prefer the tried and true interface of a WordPress dashboard. Furthermore, I just can’t get past the price tag of each program. WordPress is free. These programs all run about $20 or more. And yes, I know there are free alternatives out there, but that’s another topic.

But enough about me, what about you, my readers? Are you using blogging software? Free or of the shareware variety? Any luck with them? Let me know in the comments.