iPad Blogging Experimentation – Blogsy

Today’s post is being written on my iPad with the help of a blogging app I found called Blogsy. (Between learning how to navigate a brand new app and still getting used to my bluetooth keyboard, this may take awhile… but practice makes perfect, right?!)

So far Blogsy seems like an incredibly flexible, feature-rich app, and addresses many of my frustrations with the clunkiness and limitations of the WordPress app. (For those of you iPad users who might be interested in checking it out, but don’t blog on WordPress, it is built to work with most, if not all, of the other blogging platforms in use such as Blogger, Tumblr, Posterous, and so on.)

I’ve only just begun to experiment with it, but so far I’ve discovered that you can do a number of tasks from within the app itself (so no more switching back and forth between apps), which is one of the major features I was looking for. You can do online searches, then drag and drop either links or images right into your blog post. Formatting links (e.g., title, opening in a new window) and images (e.g., size, position) is accomplished via selecting the appropriate options in a pop-up window. You can also set up access to your accounts on Flickr, Picasa, YouTube, etc., then drag and drop images from within your account into your blog post, all without leaving the app. Unfortunately WordPress doesn’t allow the app to have access to your media library; however, I’ve found a workaround that still allows you to access the images without leaving the app (if you’re interested, just ask!) (hmmm, even though one of the tutorials said you couldn’t, I later discovered that the media library does seem to be accessible!) – and then, once you’ve stored the image in Blogsy, it’ll be available for you to use in future posts.

The one thing I haven’t yet figured out how to do (or whether it’s even possible) is to preview the post on your blog before publishing (I’m a real perfectionist, so I tend to do a lot of that!). For example, I usually add a “more” break after a few lines of text; however, unless I’m able to preview my post, I’m not quite sure where the “more” break should be placed. I’ll have to do a bit more digging to see if this is an option.

As with anything new, the app has a bit of a learning curve; however, several very helpful tutorial videos are available (again, right within the app), and between them and the FAQ, most of the questions I have about using it have been answered. Already after writing this post I’m getting a little speedier at using the app (and my keyboard!), but I definitely need a lot more practice before I leave for the BlogHer ’12 Conference in August!

Let me know if you end up giving Blogsy a try – I’d love to hear what you think of it, and if you have any tips or tricks to share!