inessential by Brent Simmons

MarsEdit 1.1b5: public beta!

MarsEdit IconToday we posted MarsEdit 1.1b5, a public beta of the next version of MarsEdit.

Here’s the beta page (where you can download it) and here’s what’s new in MarsEdit 1.1.

Silly but fun (for me)

Okay, so the main point behind MarsEdit 1.1 is to handle the most common bug reports and feature requests. And so it does—it now supports titles for Blogger sites, it makes it easy to choose a text formatting filter, it includes date and enclosure editing, and so on.

But... for me personally the fun part is something nobody asked for.

The story of MarsEdit 1.1

In case you don’t already know the story...

I did a bunch of work on MarsEdit 1.1 during the summer, fixing bugs and getting a start on a bunch of new features.

Then we started talking to NewsGator, and then we were working on the acquisition, and then the fate of MarsEdit was undecided. Once the acquisition was announced, we were very surprised to find so many people passionate about MarsEdit.

In October we announced that we would continue development, and a little while later we announced that Gus Mueller would be working on it (as a contractor).

So this release owes an awful lot to the people who spoke up about how much they love MarsEdit—and it owes an awful lot to Gus, who’s been doing a great job not just with the code but also with leading the private beta program.

Thanks to all!

Anyway... if you’re comfortable with beta software, please check it out and report bugs and provide feedback. But do remember that it is indeed a beta: it’s not finished, and it has bugs. No joke.