Movable Type Installation Help

Working with Love-productions templates and the Movable Type journalling software


This document explains the contents for setting up the important MT templates. This document assumes that you already have set up your MT files as documented on the MT Installation Instructions page. If you need further help setting up Movable Type, check out the Blogplates resources page

The categories are broken up into the sections, and you may need to tweak with other templates to get them to your liking. If you'd like to hire me to install a copy of MT to your server and put the templates in, please drop me an email at graphics@love-productions.com. I'd be happy to work with you!

You should unzip the zip file you downloaded onto your hard drive and upload all of the graphics files into a subdirectory of your journal called images before beginning.



main menu screen
The main menu screen appears to the left. This is what you will see every time you log into Movable Type. It gives you all of the options for configuring the software, as well as the needed posting abilities. To set up your templates, click List and Edit Template.













edit templates screen There are multiple options we will be setting up on this screen. First, click on Main Index. Select all of the text within this box, and paste the following in its place:

<$MTInclude module="header"$>
<MTEntries>
<MTDateHeader>
<div class="bloghead"><$MTEntryDate format="%B %d, %Y"$></div>
</MTDateHeader> <a name="<$MTEntryID pad="1"$>"></a>
<div class="subhead"><$MTEntryTitle$></div>
<div class="blogbody"><$MTEntryBody$></div>
<MTEntryIfExtended><a href="<$MTEntryLink$>#<$MTEntryID pad="1"$>">MORE...</a><br></MTEntryIfExtended>
<div class="blogfoot">posted by <$MTEntryAuthor$> at <a href="<$MTEntryLink$>#<$MTEntryID pad="1"$>"><$MTEntryDate format="%I:%M %p"$></a>
<MTEntryIfAllowComments>| <a href="<$MTEntryLink$>#comments">Comments (<$MTEntryCommentCount$>)</a></MTEntryIfAllowComments></div>
<br><hr><br>
</MTEntries>
<$MTInclude module="footer"$>

Click save, and return to the List Templates screen by clicking the text link at the top of the page List Templates.

Now, click on the Master Archive Index. Select all of the text within this box and paste the following in its place:

<$MTInclude module="header"$>
<MTArchiveList>
<a href="<$MTArchiveLink$>">
<$MTArchiveTitle></a><br>
</MTArchiveList>
<$MTInclude module="footer"$>

Click save, and return to the List Templates screen by clicking the text link at the top of the page List Templates.




edit templates screen 2 Scroll down to the Edit buttons on the 2nd half of the List Templates screen.


These buttons will edit the archive templates and comment templates. Movable Type has allowed for use of both popup comments and inline comments. I've set up the templates for inline comments, but this can be easily changed. Check the MT manual for more information on this.

Click the Date-Based Archive Template. The following should be pasted in:
<$MTInclude module="header"$>
<ul><MTEntries>
<li><a href="<$MTEntryLink$>#<$MTEntryID pad="1"$>"><$MTEntryTitle$></a><br>
</MTEntries></ul>
<$MTInclude module="footer"$>


Paste this same code into the Category-Based Archive Template.


The Individual-based Archive Template is a bit trickier, because it uses some code so that the commenters name and info will be remembered when they visit again. Click here for the code to paste in.



Finally, we are going to set up the Template Modules for the header and footer.

module screen Click Create New Template Module.

Fill in the Name: header. Open the directory of files you downloaded and unzipped to your hard drive. Now, open the files in the mt directory called
header.txt
and
footer.txt

You will paste the contents of header.txt into this new template module. Click save and return to the List Templates screen.

Now we will create the footer module.
Click Create New Template Module.

Fill in the Name: footer.
You will paste the contents of footer.txt into this new template module. Click save and return to the List Templates screen.

And one more step - create a third module called sidebar to hold your sidebar data. Fill in the Name: sidebar.
You will paste the contents of sidebar.txt into this new template module. Click save and return to the List Templates screen.




To finish the process, rebuild the files, and your template should appear when you view your site!

And you are done! Post away, and don't forget to continue to give credit :)





Additions Added 040102 - Add on a Click calendar into your sidebar!!!!


Common Terms:

blog: shortened term for the word weblog. Check The History of Weblogs for more information on how this genre of websites came to be.
blogplate: (also plural form, blogplates) Weblog Templates. Many linkware and shareware graphic designers create templates which are expressly designed with blogs in mind. Blogplates.net is a webring of many of these designers sites.
sidebar: a common location for links and buttons to other related sites. Yours should include a linkback to love-productions.com for the template usage.
upload: using an ftp program to copy files from your hard drive onto your host's server. Recommended program for uploading - Leech FTP.
give credit: the idea of making sure to linkback on the same page to show where the items on your site came from. See Give-Credit for more information.




Movable Type images are of software © to Mena and Ben Trott. Instructions are ©2002 by Kristine Beeson of Love-productions.
No duplication is allowed without written permission.