cashew | Highly recommended - Beta Create Entries

You can turn on the beta Create Entries feature on the beta features page. After sticking with the beta version for about a year, I'm pretty satisfied with it and like it far more than the default.

Beta version has three update methods: Markdown, Casual HTML, and Raw HTML. Personally, I find markdown to be pretty good for regular updates. (Here is a quick run down of basic Markdown syntax.) At first, I wasn't quite used to Markdown and found myself constantly typing out HTML tags out of habit. However, as I continued to update via Markdown more and more, I find that Markdown syntax is far easier to read than HTML tags and faster to type. Unless I'm trying to format something particularly difficult (like making tables or some such), Markdown covers pretty much everything I would use in a regular post.

What's more, it's far easier to make sure I've properly enclosed Markdown compared to HTML tags. Accidentally dropping a "/" is pretty common when formatting with HTML.

However, if you prefer Casual HTML (DW's default), the beta Create Entries has that covered. And for full control, one can go into Raw HTML mode. What it doesn't have is the Rich Text format, but I personally always found that particular entry method to be really unwieldy, as it never looks how one thinks it would look. Not to mention after updating, trying to correct something in the entry becomes a PITA as editing will have to be done in Raw HTML mode — and frankly Raw HTML is hard to edit.

Anyway, my point is: I highly recommend beta Create Entry feature. Worth switching over.