OK, so by now you've chosen a platform and template that's right for you, and hopefully written a few posts.
If you're using hosted blogging platform like Blogger or Wordpress.com, you'll have found that they of course have their own post-editing tools that give you the basic functions you need to produce your posts, and you may be happy with this, but bear in mind that there are many blog editors on the market - freeware, shareware and purchased software.
Among the advantages to using these dedicated post editors are:
Standard word processor editing, just like using MS Word; no need to learn HTML tags
Easily include photos and videos from your own PC, and easily resize them to shape them around your text
Keep track of your own blog's stats, with word counts, average post length etc
Group posting functions - if you have several blogs and want to upload the same post to them all, most of these editors can do this even if your blogs are on different platforms
Easy integration with browsers and feed readers, so you can see how your posts will look before they're published
It's well worth taking a look at the following links, so you can see some of the editors available and the options they offer you.
Note to more experienced bloggers - if you're favourite editor isn't listed, feel free to link to it in a comment.
Ecto
Qumana
Blogjet
Mars edit (Mac only)
Post2blog
Blog desk
Zoundry
Wblogger
Happy Editing!
