It’s been a while since I posted in [ecto](http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/), generally known as one of the best blog editors for Mac OS X. I’ve gotten very comfortable editing with [Markdown](http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/) so it was easy enough to post through a browser. Any browser. But it only takes once or twice accidentally hitting the “close” button to miss a stand-alone editor with an “auto save” feature.
I had gotten a little frustrated in earlier versions of ecto 2 because Rich Text formatting murdered the HTML and at least for me, made editing more difficult. But now there’s a new editing window that so far, makes much more sense. I still don’t like and can’t get used to the rich text editor, so I’ve managed to set ecto to always work in HTML mode by default and the “Preview” window is customized to look like my blog for very fast and easy editing. I don’t know why, but it’s easier for me to “see” what’s not right about an entry when it’s in the right typeface even if the HTML/Markdown is minimal.
Big changes to the way images are added, but the most recent post on the [ecto blog](http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/archives/001282.php) does a good job of explaining how it works.
Now I may take a moment to see if the [Windows version](http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/archives/001033.php) has closed any ground with the Mac OS X version.
**Update:** I’m editing this with the Windows version, now at 1.0.8.4. Verdict? Eh. No chance that I’ll pay for it. It’s better than I remember when it first came out, but it pales to the OS X version. In particular, the preview does not parse Markdown formatting. Yes, I can see the preview in my font and with my spacing as it appears on my blog, but what good is it if the HTML-like syntax is not converted? It’s a deal-breaker.
**Update Update:** [Erik](http://www.nslog.com) IM’ed me to let me know that ecto for Windows was beta testing version 1.5. So I’m trying it. Multiple windows now like the Mac OS X version, but still no integration with Markdown. I may use this for a quick post if I need to copy/paste something from Windows, but not likely once the trial expires.
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