Not everyone feels comfortable typing into their browser and some software makers have already anticipated this, so they brought us desktop blogging applications.

A desktop blogging application allows you to type out a blog entry from the comfort of your desktop and publish it at your leisure, you can even save it locally for publication at a later time. Some desktop blogging software allows you to ping update servers, add excerpts, or modify the time stamp of an entry.

Before choosing a desktop blogging application, it’s important to decide what you need it to do, because, as you may quickly find out, not all desktop blogging applications are created equal.

QumanaLE is a free desktop blogging application that is still in its infancy and is actively being developed.

After using this desktop blogging application for a few days in order to get a feel for it, I realized that it would be great for blogging quick notes, but for in depth blogging which requires a lot of flexibility, another application would be suitable.

Some of the advertised features of QumanaLE are:

  • Drag ‘n Drop content into a WYSIWYG editor
  • One click Technorati Tag insertion

BlogJet is a commercial desktop blogging application (retails for $39 with 30 day free trial) that is still actively being developed, however, it has already seen a few stable release versions.

It has an FTP program and a basic WYSIWYG editor. This blogging application would be ideal for those who post a lot of images and need flexibility over those images and their positioning. It would also be great for podcasters who don’t like to edit their podcasts in an external application before publication.

Some of the advertised features of BlogJet are:

  • Drag ‘n Drop content into a WYSIWYG editor
  • Voice recorder
  • FTP Uploader

w.bloggar is a free desktop blogging application that has probably been around for quite a while and has seen more than a few stable release versions.

Their website was hacked not too long ago, so it’s still unclear whether development will continue in the near future. Regardless, w.bloggar is still a feature rich blogging application that allows lots of formatting, including custom formatting.

It does not have a WYSIWYG editor and doesn’t position images, so this editor would be best for those who already have a strong understanding of HTML and want the most flexibility over the content they publish.

Some of the advertised features of w.bloggar are:

  • Custom tag creation
  • FTP Uploader
  • XHTML compliant option

There are some other desktop blogging applications, however, the ones mentioned are probably the most mainstream.

The desktop blogging applications already mentioned allow you to post excerpts/extended entries, edit old posts, edit the time stamp, ping update servers on publication, and can be used with just about any popular blogging software and/or service.

Each desktop blogging application has its strengths and weaknesses. Ultimately, the choice is up to you when it comes to your desktop blogging needs, but it’s always a good idea to try each of them out and decide what works best.