ecto Main Window
This section is provided to give a quick overview of the features of ecto
The main window is divided into three areas, the profile and blogs window on the left, the post list on the top right and the quick post preview on the bottom right.
Profile and Blogs Window
This is where your blogging profile and its associated blogs is are displayed. Recent posts and drafts are displayed on the right hand side when a blog is selected here.
You can refresh the list of recent posts from the blog server through the context/right-click menu option "Refresh All Posts in Weblog". This can be useful if you've added a post through the blog system's web interface and now want to edit it in ecto.
The other option in the context/right-click menu, "Refresh Profile", allows you to refresh the list of blogs in your profile. For example, if you've just added a new blog to your system you will need to choose this option in order for ecto to retrieve the new blog.
Tips: if you only have one blog in your profile or if you want more space to see the post list and quick preview areas, you can hide the profile and blogs window by selecting from the menu option View->Show Weblogs. The selected blog name is displayed in the top of ecto's window so you will always know which blog you are looking at. Select it again when you wish to see the profile and blog window.
Post List
A list of the recent posts and drafts titles are shown in this area, along with their categories, creation time, and their status.
This content of this list can be filtered in two ways using the drop down lists just above the post list area in the toolbar.
The drop down on the left allows you to filter the post list by their status, Published or Draft. To return to the full post list, select the 'All' option.
The dropdown on the right allows search text to be used to filter the post list. For example if you want to see all posts that has the word "monday' in them, just typing the text 'monday' into the drop down list and hit the Enter keys will shows you all the relevant posts in the post list. ecto searches through all the stored posts title, main body, and if supported by the blogging system, extended body, summary, as well as keywords fields for matched. Five previous search text are saved for your convenient and they can be accessed easily through the down arrow in the drop down list.
To return to the full post list, delete all the text in the drop down list and hit 'Enter'.
Quick Preview
The Quick Preview window underneath the Post List provides a quick look of how the selected post will appear on the weblog. You can alter the look and feel of the quick preview window by changing HTML and CSS codes in the Preview Template inside the Options window.
The Tool Bar
Create a new entry in a new window by clicking on the "New Entry" button.
Go to your weblog by clicking on the "Weblog in Browser" button.
Refresh the post list of a webblog by selecting the weblog in the list and then clicking the blue 'Refresh' button on the very left of the menu bar or choosing 'Refresh' from the File menu.
Delete a post by choosing a post in the Post List and clicking on the red 'Delete' button.
Show the profiles by clicking on the "Show sidebar" button.
Filter posts by published status or category by selecting the option in the "View" dropdown list.
Search for post by entering the search text in the "Search" dropdown list.