The next version of ScribeFire for Google Chrome and Safari has been released; the equivalent version of ScribeFire Next is also available.

What’s new in this build?

• “Blog This” option in the context menu (Firefox and Safari only) transfers the currently selected text, link, or image into the editor for easy blogging.
• Tag autocompletion. Any tags you’ve used in your last 20-30 posts will be used for autocomplete.

  

• Custom Fields (Wordpress only).  Custom fields have been fully implemented, complete with autocomplete for field keys.

  

• Better Drupal and Movable Type support. Category selection works now, and publishing to a Movable Type blog has been cleaned up and more fully tested.
• A bug causing linebreaks to be lost has been fixed.
• If you’re running a Firefox 4.0 beta and you open ScribeFire in a tab, that tab will be an App tab.

What’s missing in this build?

• Dynamic layout in Firefox. There were some major bugs in it, and I didn’t want to delay this release just for that one feature.  It will be back (and in all browsers) as soon as it’s working properly.

Google Chrome users, download ScribeFire 1.2.0.0 for Google Chrome here.

Safari users, download ScribeFire 1.2.0.0 for Safari here.

Firefox users, you can download ScribeFire Next 1.2.0.0 for Firefox here.

The last few months have seen great strides in ScribeFire for Chrome and ScribeFire for Safari, both of which are based upon a single codebase that came from rewriting the main portion of ScribeFire for Firefox. However, ScribeFire for Firefox (a.k.a. ScribeFire Classic^®) is still using the old code, making it difficult to fix bugs and get updates out quickly and easily.

In order to allow Firefox users to benefit from the rewritten code being used in Chrome and Safari, I’m introducing a new version of ScribeFire for Firefox, and I’m calling it ScribeFire Next. (As in, “This is where ScribeFire is going Next.”) ScribeFire Next uses the same codebase as ScribeFire for Chrome and Safari, but it’s integrated into Firefox in the same way as ScribeFire Classic^®.

There are a few differences between ScribeFire for Chrome and ScribeFire Next:

• ScribeFire Next supports image uploads.

  Neither Chrome nor Safari have the necessary features that allow developers to integrate file uploads into extensions, but Firefox has had those features for ages.

  

• ScribeFire Next has a dynamic layout.

  Because ScribeFire Next can be used in split-screen mode, some changes were made to better accommodate a wide but short display. If your available space for ScribeFire exceeds a certain width and is wider than it is tall, ScribeFire Next will transfer everything but the title and content fields into a sidebar, giving you more space to write:

  Normal (tall) layout:

  

  Dynamic (wide) layout:

  

ScribeFire Next will eventually replace ScribeFire Classic^® and ScribeFire Mobile (but not until it makes sense for it to do so), meaning that the same code will be used for all versions of ScribeFire, allowing updates to be made available for users of all browsers at a faster pace and with higher quality.

You can install ScribeFire Next right now. It will automatically import any blogs you have set up in ScribeFire Classic^® and give you instant access to the new UI and features that ScribeFire for Chrome and Safari already have. (ScribeFire Next won’t interfere with your existing ScribeFire install, but if you have both installed, you will have two ScribeFire buttons in your toolbar and status bar.)

I’ve just uploaded version 1.1.0.0 of ScribeFire for Chrome and Safari, the first major update to this distribution of ScribeFire since the initial release two months ago.

What’s new?

• The editor is resizable.
• You can customize your post slugs (on supported blogs).
• You can set posts as private (on supported blogs).
• The editor is now powered by TinyMCE, the most usable visual editor out there. (Wordpress also uses TinyMCE.)

• You can add multiple authors for a single blog.
• You can add post breaks in Wordpress.
• You can make the editor full-screen.

Lots of bugs have been fixed as well. If you’re already using ScribeFire in Chrome or Safari, it should theoretically update automatically, but if it doesn’t or if you just can’t wait, you can install ScribeFire 1.1.0.0 for Google Chrome here or install ScribeFire 1.1.0.0 for Safari here.

Today, Apple released Safari 5, the first version of their Web browser to really support browser extensions.

Tonight, we’re releasing ScribeFire for Safari. It’s based on the same code as ScribeFire for Chrome, and it uses the same simple interface. (Thank you Apple for building an extension-building environment simple enough that ScribeFire could be ported in under 90 minutes.)

If you’ve installed Safari 5 and enabled extensions, click here to download ScribeFire for Safari, and then open the file on your computer once it has finished downloading.

ScribeFire is now officially available for Google Chrome. Click here to visit the Google Chrome extensions gallery and install it.

The first beta version of ScribeFire for Chrome is now available for testing. If you are running Google Chrome, you can install it by clicking on the scribefire-0.1.2.0.crx link here. (If you already installed the second alpha, it will auto-update to this release. If you installed the first alpha, you will still have to install this version manually.)

Changes in this update include:

• Insert Image button in the editor
• Cleaned up code that is generated by inserting images or linsk
• Allowing manual blog configurations if ScribeFire can’t auto-configure your blog.
• Quote button
• Xanga support
• Support for scheduling posts

If you have any problems with this version, report a bug by filling out this form at the ScribeFire for Google Chrome project website. To request a feature for a future version, fill out this feature request form.

The second alpha version of ScribeFire for Chrome is now available for testing. If you are running Google Chrome, you can install it by clicking on the scribefire-0.1.1.0.crx link here. (If you already installed the first alpha, it won’t auto-update to this version because I forgot to make it do that. Sorry. This version will auto-update to all future updates.)

Changes in this update include:

• Automatic updates
• New WYSIWYG editor
• Support for Posterous
• Support for LiveJournal
• The editor’s state is now persisted even if you close ScribeFire and reopen it
• Added a button to reset the entire editor to a blank state
• Fixed bug that would reset Wordpress slugs when editing a post
• Fixed bug that caused linebreaks to be ignored when posting to Wordpress

If you have any problems with this version, report a bug by filling out this form at the ScribeFire for Google Chrome project website. To request a feature for a future version, fill out this feature request form.

The very first alpha version of ScribeFire for Google Chrome is now available for testing.  If you are running Google Chrome and would like to test this bleeding-edge version of ScribeFire, you can install it by clicking on the scribefire-0.1.0.0.crx link here.

After you install ScribeFire for Chrome, you'll see a ScribeFire icon in your toolbar. When clicked, that icon will open a new tab that contains the ScribeFire editor.  That editor will look like this:

I've tried to keep the interface so simple that even a caveman could use it.  If you can't use it without me explaining it in detail, then I haven't done my job properly.

Here is a list of features that are expected to work in this first alpha:

• Adding blogs from Wordpress, Blogger, TypePad, Windows Live Spaces, Tumblr, or any blog that explicitly supports the MetaWeblog or MovableType APIs. You should be able to remove these blogs as well, once they have been added.
• Creating new posts for any of the above.
• Editing existing posts for any of the above.
• Saving a post as a draft.
• Tagging and categorizing posts.
• Deleting posts.
• WYSIWYG editor
• HTML Editor (click the "Source" button in the editor's toolbar)

If you have problems in any of these areas, report a bug by filling out this form at the ScribeFire for Google Chrome project website.  To request a feature for a future version, fill out this feature request form.

Last week, I mentioned that development had begun on ScribeFire for Google Chrome. Here’s an update on the progress that has been made:

• Support for adding/editing/removing Wordpress, Blogger, and Tumblr blogs.
• Support for publishing new posts, editing existing posts, and deleting existing posts.
• Support for adding categories and tags.
• Support for saving entries as drafts.

In fact, this entire post was written and published from the testing version of ScribeFire for Chrome, so you can see that it is very much functional.

The coming week will bring more of the major features from ScribeFire for Firefox into ScribeFire for Chrome. Watch this space for links to alpha and beta versions as soon as they are available.

Development has begun on ScribeFire for Google Chrome. Watch this space for updates and links for alpha and beta testers.