8 Essential Blogging Tools for the iPad
The iPad is a great device for blogging. Lighter than a laptop, and with a battery that lasts almost an entire day, it’s an ideal tablet for writers to take with them wherever they go. Here is a list of the best tools and apps available to write your blogposts:
1. A bluetooth keyboard
It is possible to type short texts on the on-screen keyboard, but for longer writing sessions the bluetooth keyboard is an essential tool. Not only does it allow you to type faster, it also works with most of the regular keyboard shortcuts. Cutting and pasting becomes a lot easier! It’s not cheap at $69, but you can use the same keyboard for both your other Apple devices as well: it works with the iPhone, the MacBooks and the iMacs.
2. PlainText
You can use the standard ‘Notes’ app to jot down your articles, but the free app ‘PlainText’ is a lot prettier and more versatile. The app also has word count and some other handy functions. Get it here: http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/plaintext
3. Dropbox
PlainText allows you to save your files to a Dropbox account that can synchronize with your other computers or devices. A free Dropbox account offers ample space for your articles. More information here: http://www.dropbox.com
4. An iPad stand
If you do a lot of blogging, a stand that allows you to tilt the screen of the iPad can be really useful. This gives you a better viewing angle and can help you get rid of the reflections on the screen. I often use my wallet to lift up the screen a bit. There are a lot of cheap stands available, and you can even create your own iPad stand with material from the packaging itself: Build your own iPad stand using iPad packaging
5. WordPress app
If you use WordPress.com or a custom WordPress installation for your blog, make sure to download the free WordPress app. It enables you to log in to your account(s) and update your blog from within the app. There are some limitations though: text formatting is limited, and you don’t have access to all the functionality you get in the normal WordPress interface. However, the app allows you to upload pictures to your WordPress media library, something that doesn’t (yet) seem to work in the browser version of WordPress on the iPad.
6. Safari
The standard Safari browser is perhaps the most valuable tool for bloggers. Now that the iPad has multi-tasking, you can easily switch back and forth between your text processor and the browser to research your article. You can also search for illustrations and save them to your Photo library by tapping on a picture in Safari and holding your finger until a menu pops up that will allow you to save the picture. And the iPad browser will enable you to use almost any blogging content management system that you also use on your regular computer.
7. Bluetooth Photo Share
If you own an iPhone or an iPod Touch with a camera, you can use it to take pictures for your blog. But how do you get those pictures onto your iPad for cropping or further image editing? The free app ‘Bluetooth Photo Share’ allows you to connect your iPhone to your iPad and transfer any photo via Bluetooth. This is very useful in situations where you have no access to a wifi network or a computer. It’s not fast (transferring a photo takes about 30 seconds), but it works really well. Get it here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bluetooth-photo-share/id326109583?mt=8
8. Photoshop Express
Adobe offers a free iPad app called Photoshop Express (or ‘PS Express’), that allows you to crop your illustrations and to apply some basic corrections and filters to your pictures. You can use it in conjunction with a free Photoshop Express account if you want to store your pictures ‘in the cloud’, but it also works with the standard Photo library on your iPad.
This article was written on an iPad and uploaded to WordPress using the tools mentioned. Do you have any additional tips for iPad bloggers? Let us know in the comments!
One thing I can’t help noticing: your links aren’t clickable. I like blogging on the road (on my iPhone 4 though, don’t have an iPad) but sometimes it feels like developers don’t think a nice mobile blogging environment is required.
For example: the iPhone wordpress app was really really buggy until a few weeks ago. They are working on it though and the new version is better, but it still doesn’t even have buttons to do very basic formatting like bold, italics and clickable links.
I think there’s a big market here; more and more people will want to start blogging on their mobile devices. Let’s hope the developers catch up.
Great list Father!
Couple other helpful tools…
Blogpress. A few more html tagging options and a bit easier image inserts than the WP app. Cost is about $5. Works with blogger.com as well. Iphone and ipad compatible.
Woothemes express iphone app. Allows you to add some tumblogging features. $5 app.
I’d be interested in seeing a blog post as to your blogging process and how you use each one of these tools in it. How do you write a post from start to finish.