Blog.Mac Version 1.3 Beta 3 - Work Progressing (April 20th, 2008)
The third beta of Blog.Mac Version 1.3 is now available. Fixed a few more Leopard issues and are implementing a bunch of user-requested features. The template editor has been added to Blog.Mac; there are still more tweaks on the way, but let us know what you think so far. Sorry about the delay, but we've been sidetracked by our new iPhones! See the link for free music for your iPhone in the post below. Back to Blog.Mac...please send us your must have updates for the next version! We're locking down features and will soon release an updated Template Editor too. More to come.
Blog.Mac 1.2.2 - Just Updated (Apr 2, 2007)
Work continues on Blog.Mac, our popular blogging application. Version 1.2.2 is available for immediate download. Version 1.2.2 brings font selection and color coding for blog article editing, category table of contents links, German localization, and other minor enhancements. Try a free version today!
Here are two preview blogs (My Music Blog, and My Mac Blog). Please feel free to click some ads to see what you can do with your own blog, and of course, help contribute to keep development going...thanks!
Blog.Mac Universal
Blog.Mac in a Review of iWeb Alternatives
A new article on the Peachpit Press website reviews several alternatives to Apple's iWeb. It's a good run-down of the limitations of iWeb and some of the features of five shareware programs. Blog.Mac is the first one reviewed, but here is an excerpt:
"Blog.Mac is an application designed for blogging and podcasting. If you are looking solely for an easy-to-use blog tool, Blog.Mac is a great choice.
Blog.Mac is actually much easier for users who have never used a blogging or web design application than iWeb." Read the article...
Why Blog.Mac instead of iWeb?
Apple's iWeb is an easy way to get started blogging, but are you looking for more? Tired of having your text converted to graphic files that can't be searched by search engines? Want to add categories, iTunes Now Playing, iSight WebCam snapshots, and share your favorite playlists? How about adding custom code, JavaScript, or advertisements? Want to link your blog to blog crawlers like Technorati? Try Blog.Mac: it's still easy to use, fully customizable, and has the power you need for full-featured blogging.
Advertising on Your Blog Made Easy by Blog.Mac
Check out this page for ideas on how to add advertising to your blog.
Sample Blogs - Created with Blog.Mac
Here are a few sample blog pages using the "Blues" template that you can select from a drop-down list of templates. Note the iTunes Now Playing and iSight Web Cam image updates...both will update live on your own blog when you leave Blog.Mac running while you work or play.
iForgot Tutorial Blog (How to Control Your Mac via E-mail)Pete's Blog (using the included "Blues" template)
Tutorial Blog (make money on your blog with advertising)
My Music Blog
My Mac Blog
And these user blogs in our Support Forum
What is Blog.Mac?
Blog.Mac is a unique blogging solution built just for your .Mac account. Unlike other blogging solutions that use complex scripts, server configuration, or flaky web-based interfaces, Blog.Mac is a small, fast application built to get your thoughts on a blog quickly and easily.
In addition to our flexible architecture and customizable templates, we've integrated your iLife into your blog. With the click of a button, you can add a live iSight webcam shot, show live updates of what you are listening to on iTunes, display your favorite playlist, and display your favorite iPhoto pictures.
Make Your Own News Feeds
Blog.Mac publishes your blog to the web and can automatically create an RSS feed. Send the feed to others so they'll know when you've published something new.
Screenshots
Published Blogs
User Blogs are posted in our Sample Blog Forum. Please note that the content in these blogs does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of Largemouth Software, LLC. Blogs that include unattributed copyrighted or objectionable material may be pulled from the forums at any time.
However, we sincerely hope that viewing these sample blogs will give you some good ideas for your own blog. All posted blogs were created using Blog.Mac.
Blog.Mac Release Notes
- Version 1.3 (Beta 3)
- Added Template Editor into main application; users can now create or edit templates with live feedback
- Added new user wizard to help users configure Blog.Mac during the first launch of the application
- Templates import feature allows users to import blog formats from other blog sites or create their own from scratch
- Blog.Mac article editor preview mode loads blog template to provide better preview detail
- Fixed Categories for Leopard
- Comment summaries now updated and available for users choosing to view shortened blog articles, even on front page blog summary
- Adjusted short article parsing for blogs using categories with limited word count display; if articles are have fewer words than the selected limit, the entire article is displayed on the summary page
- Added user preference selection to set quality of image thumbnails during import
- Added checkbox for links and archives to open in new browser windows
- Improved drag and drop performance for dragging articles between blogs
- Version 1.2.2
- Blog.Mac article editor now allows font changes and color-codes HTML tags and highlights any HTML errors
- Added a drop-down menu to enter frequently used HTML characters
- Added a "Fill from Web..." function to import your published blogs back into new Blog.Mac documents
- Added a "Backup to .Mac" option to automatically back up your blog document (.bmbg file) to your iDisk's Documents folder whenever you publish your blog
- Added an option to blind courtesy copy blog readers via email
- Added a category table of contents link to the sidebar
- German localization
- Version 1.2.1
- Blog.Mac now only turns on camera at launch if set to do so in preferences, and releases camera for other applications like iChat when turned off
- Added RSS Image class "rss_logo" to allow user template customization
- Changed article link behavior to use the page anchor for blogs without categories and to the individual article page for those publishing with categories
- Corrected bug that displayed Recent Links section on blog even if disabled
- Added option to summarize blog articles on both main page and category sub-pages
- Corrected an HTML-stripping bug that might cause display issues on blog article summaries
- Fixed various bugs from minor errors to a larger error that might cause Blog.Mac to quit after closing one blog and opening another
- Added a "cancel upload" button to the main window
- Added a "Make iTMS Link" button to allow on the fly creation of links to the iTunes Music Store
- Revised Help files and enabled a "Getting Started" link for new users
- Version 1.2
- Added ability to publish to FTP in addition to .Mac web spaces
- Updated Media Browser to fix movie browsing bug
- Added Categories; user now able to publish articles with Categories and Permalinks (permanent links that don't change)
- Fixed .Mac photo album and slideshow search routines; Blog.Mac now searches for all published iPhoto and iWeb photo albums and slide shows
- Sped up launch procedures by streamlining .Mac preparation and photo album search procedures
- Moved publishing notification to a sheet on the blog file, with a field showing the URL, and two buttons allowing author to visit the blog or keep working
- Remembers position of Blog.Mac windows for next launch
- Added LinkShare link maker; if you have a LinkShare account, you can enter your UserID in Blog.Mac preferences and Blog.Mac will attempt to create links to your iTunes Now Playing songs that might give you credit for any purchases resulting from click-throughs
- Version 1.1.3
- Universal (Intel Mac and PowerPC Mac Compatible)
- Added Media Browser - find images in your iPhoto albums, music and Podcasts from your iTunes library, movies from your iMovie folder, and URLs from your Safari bookmarks (Drag-and-drop enabled just about everywhere)
- Added Cropping Window for image import and upload; drag in images from the iLife media browser and clip and zoom for uploading smaller file sizes
- Added Code Snippet Library - store and re-use common snippets of code, text, or images anywhere in your blogs
- Added Ability to Create and Maintain Podcast Feeds - uploads audio files to your .Mac account and takes you to the iTunes Music store to initially publish your Podcast RSS feed; after that feed updates should be picked up automatically after publishing
- Added "Email After Publishing" list to draft an email to a list of readers; every time your blog is published, a new draft email will updated selected readers of your new articles
- Replaced .Mac Kit for Intel compatibility and to resolve an issue with Mac OS X 10.3.9
- The Media Browser is not yet working on Mac OS X 10.3.9; need to rewrite to be backward compatible
- Fixed image alignment issues when Left-aligned images were added to articles
- Fixed edit boxes that add <br /> tags to allow for Japanese character entry
- Revised help files
- Version 1.1.2
- Added custom code blocks to enable users to add custom code snippets
- Enabled users to re-order blocks in the sidebar
- Completely overhauled user interface (left side navigation table, re-organized tab view layout, resizable main window)
- Added option to update blog search engines with blog feed updates
- Added blog preview to template options
- Added custom date format preference to match users locale
- Added menu item to force the upload of the templates to user's .Mac site
- Revised help files
- Version 1.1.1
- Added Web Preview to article editing window
- iTunes Now Playing also uploads Song Artwork to your blog
- Revised toolbar in article editing window
- Updated HTML layout to allow block by block customization for news feeds, iTunes Now Playing, Favorite Playlist, Links and Archives blocks
- Added "Insert link to original image" to "Insert iDisk Picture" function
- Added menu items and keyboard shortcuts for Publish, Preview, and Save as HTML
- Installed AppleScript support framework
- Installed check of user images to ensure profile image was published on user's iDisk
- Added "Upload Image" button and functionality
- Revised Preferences Panel to enable changes to default section names
- Streamlined main window user interface to take up less room
- Version 1.1
- Created new Photo Browser function to automatically add a thumbnail browser of images published to .Mac using iPhoto; browser options include next and previous buttons and an optional link to the full size image
- Changed the RSS link type from "feed" to "http" to enable Firefox live bookmark feature
- Moved "Publish to .Mac Now" "Preview" and "Save As HTML" buttons to the toolbar to enable publishing from any tab
- Automated link generation for Links and manual single images
- Cleaned up HTML code to pass XHTML validation (excluding HTML inside JavaScript code, did not change page layout)
- Moved image width setting for profile and live iSight snapshot images to templates (no longer hard-coded, allows user to change width)
- Added preference setting to turn off iSight warning beeps and shutter sound
- Version 1.0.9
- Fixed an option in RSS feeds to allow Unicode text for international users
- Fixed an issue retrieving playlists for international users or users who changed the name of their iTunes "Library"
- Fixed an issue where .Mac would not recognize Blog.Mac pages as valid; .Mac is now able to read these pages and add them to the links menu at the top of every .Mac Homepage-created web page for easy navigation
- Version 1.0.8
- Changed name of the "My Favorite Playlist" section of the published blog to the actual name of the selected playlist
- Changed validation routine to allow members without .Mac to try out the application; previews and local saves work with a pre-selected template
- Added preference setting to scale the image of the iSight Image Quality setting from low (80% file compression) to high (0% compression)
- Added warning beeps two seconds before iSight snaps and uploads a webcam frame on your blog
- Added one new template (GeeFive) to default installation
- Added code in RSS feeds to show general HTML tags, to include images, breaks, links, lists and most importantly, accentuated characters
- Version 1.0.7
- Added support for blog reader comments, feedback and trackback using Haloscan
- Revised user interface and blog files to support comment and trackback features
- Updated help files to reflect new comment and trackback features
- Version 1.0.63
- Changed file type from UTF-16 to UTF-8 to better support web counter JavaScript code and the RSS feed interpreter
- Version 1.0.62
- Fixed major bug with International/UniCode Characters that previously caused a blank blog
- Fixed an XML conflict that caused some picky news readers to skip new RSS postings
- Streamlined the blog document user interface
- Added two customizable RSS feeds, giving a total of four feeds on your blog
- Put "My Favorite Playlist" in a drop-down
- Added help buttons on every window
- Corrected sort order of My Favorite Playlist
- Added drop-down list of built-in templates
- Added 4 new templates
- Fixed blog Preview to show template images
- Corrected publishing problems when some fields were blank
- Version 1.0.5
- Released only to MacAddict Magazine
- Version 1.0.4
- Fixed a bug that prevented Mac OS X 10.3.x users from publishing their blog
- Reverted to the Aqua interface for document windows in accordance with Apple Human Interface Guidelines
- Version 1.0.3
- Added a default template to enable faster publishing of first blog
- Added template information to the "Publishing Your First Blog" instructions
- Version 1.0.2
- Fixed a bug that caused a period of non-response when a user accidentally selected a very long playlist to include in their blog
- Fixed a bug where null or blank entries in Profile and Name would prevent publishing
- Version 1.0.1
- Fixed a bug where non-HTML friendly characters in iTunes songs prevented the blog from publishing
- Added more application tool tips (hover over fields and buttons for info)
- Corrected minor errors on four default templates
