iBlog. Do you?

Lots of people think I’m really technical. Just because I write books about software applications and Mac OS, people think I’m some kind of computer guru who knows the ins and outs of everything in my computer. Not so. I’m just a user — like you and maybe even your mom — who has a knack for learning software quickly and explaining, in plain English, how to use it.

I also like to write. Not about how to use Mac OS X and Word and Quicken, either — that’s the writing that pays the bills. I like to write about other stuff. Things going on in my life. Opinions (which I’m full of and which often get me into trouble — more about that in another blog). Even fiction.

So imagine my delight when I logged onto .Mac one day and found that Apple had gotten .Mac users a free copy of iBlog, a shareware software package by Lifli Software that makes blogging painfully simple. I wasted no time downloading and installing it and was soon writing blog entries and publishing them to my .Mac storage space.

iBlog has a very simple interface that’s a lot like other Apple-made iApps.The Blogs and Categories column lists all blogs and categories within them. Click triangles to hide or display items. When you select a blog or category, a list of entries within it appears in a list window. Click an entry to view the blog content. Buttons along the bottom of the screen make it easy to create, edit, preview, and publish blogs you write.

The New Entry window includes a toolbar that you can use to format text and insert content into your blog entry. The insertion buttons work seamlessly with Apple’s iApps. For example, click the Music button to insert a tune from your iTunes library or click the Photo button to insert a photo from your iPhoto library. You’ll even see your own playlists and albums, so if your libraries are full, you can easily track down the content you need. The abstract feature, which is relatively new in iBlog, is supposed to automatically create summaries for an abstract field, but I’m not very impressed with it so I don’t use it.

iBlog is easy to configure to work with a .Mac account (which, frankly, no serious Mac user should be without — more on that in another blog, too). Once configured, all you need to do is click a few buttons to upload your entries to your .Mac space. Then create links on your home page or send links in e-mail so your audience can find and read your blogs (which, for some people, may not be a very good thing).

iBlog also includes a Reader mode that enables you to subscribe to blogs and newsfeeds. You might find this feature useful. Since I’m not much of a Web surfer and get enough input without having to subscribe to more, I don’t use it.

So if you’re yearning to start your own blog, check out iBlog. You can learn more about it at the Lifli Software Web site, www.lifli.com.

And remember, if you use shareware, pay the shareware fee.

One more thing…if you’d like to visit my iBlog blogs, stop by http://homepage.mac.com/mlanger/iblog/.