April 26, 2006
Using GreatNews and Zoundry together
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In a blinding example of RTFM, I have configured my GreatNews rss aggregator/news reader and Zoundry offline blog editor to work together. [Update: read this 'how to']
I downloaded and installed the latest version of GreatNews and tried the ‘blog it’ text link, still to no avail. But then I tried again, selecting ‘configure…’ instead of my saved configuration for Zoundry.
Selecting ‘generic external blog tool‘ instead of the first option ‘generic’ made the world of difference
Voila — works like a treat!
The more I use Zoundry the more I am impressed.
Sure, as Dave Briggs and others have pointed out, the GUI needs a bit of a workup, especially as the buttons are tiny for these old and tired eyes, but Pidge from Zoundry has taken great pains on comments to my and others’ posts to elicit feedback, both good and bad, as well as ideas for improvement.
It does a lot of the things I want in a blog editor, and Pidge explained that some of my wishlist was in the realm of the blog platform developers, not blog editor developers (such as integration with comments, plug-ins, etc.,).
I still have reservations about the longer-term security of the product; that is, how will it continue to be funded for future development, once the ‘lovefest’ and ‘hobby’ nature of the developers gives way to exhaustion and a real-world need to pay bills. Perhaps a larger dev house like Macromedia or Microsoft will buy them and incorporate their tool into their offering (surely Adobe/Macromedia must be considering some sort of editor tool??), but for now I am very happy.
Also, I just noticed that it somehow seamlessly updated any posts I had updated online. Let me explain…
Zoundry downloads your existing posts when it installs a blog, but what happens if you use your blog’s online interface to edit an existing post? How does Zoundry’s database on your hard drive cope with that?
Seamlessly, it seems. I just went to check Zoundry’s version of a post I had edited online and the additions I had made to my post were there. Nice touch! Not sure how they did it, but nice touch…
So my beloved RocketPost, laid to rest as it has been, has been replaced in my affections by Zoundry (at least temporarily, but I am aware that I was a massive evangelist for RocketPost and that came around and bit me sharply on the derriere).
Well done, Pidge and your team. And well done for your outreach efforts to enter into conversation with bloggers.
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8 Responses to “Using GreatNews and Zoundry together”
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April 26th, 2006 at 9:50 pm
Well, now that you can leave these woes behind, tell us about the bookshelf and what else is going on? What’s up with the podcast mate?
April 27th, 2006 at 12:59 am
Ahh, the podcast, Sab… Tis a sad and sorry tale of late nights, demanding clients, a family to entertain and only 24 hours in a day.
But it’s a monthly gig now (yes, I wish it could be more frequent, too, but paying work and my family must come first), the last edition arriving in a podcatcher near you on the 8th April.
Yes, it means another is due shortly — keep those earbuds warm, my friend!
April 27th, 2006 at 4:26 am
I think I caught that, but it was over so quickly. Hope you were pleased with the bookshelf link. Any progress there? Are you tracking the numbers or rather not look?
April 28th, 2006 at 7:24 am
After much deliberation, I’m back with Zoundry for amny of the same reasons you are.
I was using Qumana but didn’t like links not being finished, and not being able to escape the blockquote without going into the source. Same problem with performancing for Firefox. Qumana has version bough for distro with Lycos, and do ads similar to Zoundry, could they make enough money with these features?
April 28th, 2006 at 10:47 am
G’day Mike,
Well, they reckon they can, and good luck to them. The more I use Zoundry, the more I am enamoured — tiny buttons not withstanding. But there are enough keyboard shortcuts there that I could completely circumvent them if I could be bothered to learn them
No doubt over time I will pick them up.
April 28th, 2006 at 10:52 am
Hi Sab,
The bookshelf is progressing a little slower than I’d like, but that’s just client nervousness and a busy period for them (they are moving to new premises shortly and there’s lots of technology buying decisions to make).
But have you seen the figures for my psychology clients? WOW!! Very impressed - as I write they have 101 rss subscribers and 93 feedblitz subscribers. I’m impressed!
November 26th, 2006 at 2:39 am
[...] Following % breakdown of RSS Reader by use. Zoundry to post I learnt that GreatNews and Zoundry can be configured to work together. Finally I found Lee Hopkin’s advice on using-greatnews-and-zoundry-together which slows you down to actually read the Options | Configure Blog Tool | Tool Details, selecting “Generic External Blog Tool” instead of “Generic” or a website based application. [...]
November 28th, 2006 at 12:45 am
[...] A quick bit of editing of the html code to get rid of a stack of stuff in my right-hand nav bar and my ‘Preview’ view works a treat. Add to that Zoundry’s integration with my beloved ‘GreatNews‘ feed reader (so that I can blog about a post I read in ‘GreatNews’ straight away) and I’m as happy as a happy person. [...]