For more information, see the post, Scheduling Entries for Future Posting.

You may decide that you want to change the challenge word. This might be the case when you're getting an upswing in comment spam and suspect that someone may have "cracked" your word. Or, you may want to change your word periodically to prevent this from happening.

Changing your challenge word is easy to do.

1. Go to the Settings menu of your blog and select the Plugins tab.

Note that the Comment Challenge plugin is in your list of available plugins.

2. Select the Show Settings link for the Comment Challenge plugin.

This will open up the available settings for this plugin.

3. Change the challenge word in the two places where it appears in your settings.

In the example below, you would change the word 'challenge.'

4. Click on "Save Changes."

5. Rebuild your site.

UPDATE on 2/4/2008: the script now executes twice daily, at noon and at midnight.

To use this feature, create an entry as usual. When you are ready to save your entry, do the following:

1. Set the Post Status to "Scheduled."
2. Enter a desired future posting date and time in the Authored On box. Be sure to follow the prescribed format of the existing date. Note that any time of day is fine, since the midnight-running script will pick up anything from the last 24 hours.

The screen shot below gives an example.

Our Movable Type pilot has gone very well this year, and now there is a need for blog administrators to work on their blogs from home and elsewhere. Enjoy this expanded access!

Currently, the usage data for all our blogs are being gathered into one master report. This report is updated daily at midnight. While some test data is available from summer, 2005, more meaningful data begins in December, 2005.

The report is available on our Staff Intranet's Usage Statistics page. [This link is available from on campus only.]

Starting on February 7, the data in the reports will change slightly, as the log files on the server were configured to match the configuration on our other Windows servers. For example, referrer data will begin to be available on this date.

If you want to see page view data for any one blog in particular, use Urchin's filtering option. Under Pages & Files -> Requested Pages, type the top-level folder name of the desired blog, for example, science_resources, and click on the plus sign (+). This will generate a list of pages viewed at this folder level and beyond.

With these additional licenses, we can now offer you the option to share the administration of your blog with other staff without worrying about quickly running out of licenses. The FAQ has been updated to reflect this under the section, "Can I share the running of my blog with other staff?" This section includes information about how you can add administrators to your own blog if these individuals already have Movable Type accounts.

1. Log in to Movable Type and click on the "Upload File" menu option.

2. A pop-up page will appear to guide you through the process.

3. Click on the Browse button and navigate to the file on your computer that you want to upload.

This procedure will open another popup window, this one in Windows. It will allow you to navigate through the folders on your computer to the one where the target file is located. When you have located the file you want, click the Open button.

4. If you want, select a destination folder for your file on the Movable Type server.

Your blog is a Web site that contains a number of folders set up automatically by Movable Type. You can also create your own folders to organize the storage of your uploaded files. For example, if you intend to upload a number of images, you can create an "images" folder to store these files. This is illustrated in the screen shot below.

Tip! Make a note of the folder you have created. Then you will remember it exists when you want to upload more files there in the future.

5. Click the Upload button and proceed with the file upload.

At this point, Movable Type will ask you to make a couple of choices. You can choose to create a new entry with the uploaded file, or to display the HTML code that you can paste into an entry that you create.

Let's imagine that we're uploading an image file. In this case, we'll opt for the second choice. Movable Type is user-friendly in that it will give you the HTML code that you can paste into your blog entry. This code will point to the newly uploaded file. Nice! So, go ahead and click on the radio button next to "Show me the HTML."

Finally, Movable Type will give you the option to view the code for a pop-up image or an embedded image. Most of you will be using embedded images - images that simply appear on your page and do not open a new window. Click the "Embedded Image" button and the code will pop up.

6. Paste the code where you want it in your blog entry.

Tip! Notice how the URL in the image code is an absolute URL, one that includes http://liblogs.albany.edu/ This is not necessary. It's recommended that you use a shortened relative URL to point to the new file. After all, why send the browser request outside the Movable Type server to the campus Domain Name Server, only to come back again to our library server to retrieve the file? We can keep the browser request within the Movable Type server by deleting unnecessary parts of the URL.

Rather than this: <img alt="uploadfile.gif" src="http://liblogs.albany.edu/myblog/images/uploadfile.gif" width="412" height="405" />

Use this: <img alt="uploadfile.gif" src="/images/uploadfile.gif" width="412" height="405" />

We had to change the address because the combination of the non-standard port (12999) with the installation of a Secure Socket Layer certificate to encrypt our logins interfered with certain basic blog functionalities.

The Quick Start Guide has been updated to reflect the new address. If you have bookmarked the old address, be sure to update your bookmark.

The basic look of your blog, from the page layout to the design elements, are controlled by the particular Style applied to your Movable Type blog. By default, your Movable Type blog uses the Vicksburg Style. You have the option to change the Style applied to your blog. This document will concentrate on this option.

Keep in mind that each Style comes with its own stylesheet. This stylesheet controls the design elements of your blog such as font sizes and colors, margins, lists, tables, etc. This is a standards-compliant stylesheet also known as a Cascading Style Sheet, or CSS. If you are CSS savvy, you can alter your stylesheet to control the look of your blog.

Your stylesheet is a template located on Templates page in the Indexes window. It is listed with the item "Stylesheet," and the template name is "styles-site.css".

ALERT! Before making any change to your stylesheet, copy it to a new template file for safekeeping. This way, you can recover from any changes you have made.

To make a copy of your original stylesheet, do the following:

1. Open your default stylesheet, styles-site.css.
2. Right click on the text editing window and select the option to "Select All"
3. Right click again on the text editing window and select "Edit"
4. Click on the Templates menu on the left side of the screen.
5. Click on "Create New Index Template"
6. In the blank text editing window, right click and select "Paste." The contents of your original stylesheet will appear.
7. Save the template with a new Template Name, for example "Stylesheet Original" or "Stylesheet Copy." You can leave the Output File blank.

Changing the Style of your blog

We have installed a plugin called StyleCatcher that allows you to select from a number of design choices and change the Style of your blog with just a few clicks. Here's how.

Please note that if you use this option, you will lose the ability to edit your stylesheet. StyleCatcher will use the @import command in your stylesheet template to connect your blog with the designated stylesheet on our server. You do not have access to this stylesheet. However, you can add styles to your stylesheet template to create custom styles over and above what is contained in the imported stylesheet.

1. Access the StyleCatcher plugin.

This may be found on a variety of Movable Type administrator pages. One easy way to locate it is to select "Templates" from the menu bar. Under "Plugin Actions," you will see the option to "Select a Design using StyleCatcher." (This option is available on any of the template pages, e.g., Indexes, Archives, etc.) Click on this link.

2. Select a Style

You will see categories listed on the left.

• Current Theme is the theme currently applied to your blog
• Saved Themes are themes saved on our server by other Movable Type administrators
• Movable Type Style Library will appear if you select the option to "Find Styles" to view other Style designs

  Select a theme from the Saved Themes collection.

  If you wish to see other options, click on "Find Styles." After a few moments, available Styles will be retrieved from the MovableType Style Library. You can view the thumbnail images for each one in the right hand window. Click on the style and then click "Show Details" for a larger view of each style while you're browsing through the choices.

  

  3. Select the desired Style.

  Click on the style you want to apply to your blog.

  4. Apply the Style to your blog

  Select your blog from the "Select Weblog" dropdown menu. Then click "Choose this Design."

  StyleCatcher will apply the design to your blog and rebuld your Stylesheet template. You will get an alert when the process is complete.

  5. View your blog to see the new Style applied.

  You may need to refresh the page or clear your browser cache to see the changes.

  If you don't like the new look of your blog, you can always restore it to the default Vicksburg theme. This is available in StyleCatcher's local Saved Themes collection.

  ]]> tag:169.226.11.208,2005://1.6 2005-09-06T14:09:40Z 2007-06-11T19:54:08Z
  Movable Type gives you the option to organize your postings into categories. This can be very useful for certain types of blogs. There are a few parts to working with Movable Type Categories. The first is mandatory, while the...
  Movable Type gives you the option to organize your postings into categories. This can be very useful for certain types of blogs.

  There are a few parts to working with Movable Type Categories. The first is mandatory, while the others are optional enhancements:

  1. Creating categories and assigning them to each posting
  2. Displaying category totals in your sidebar
  3. Adding the "posted to" category label to each posting

  Creating categories and assigning them to each posting

  1. Select "Categories" from the menu bar.

  

  2. Create a category.

  Select "Create New Top Level Category" and fill out the form.

  

  Rebuild your site when you are done.

  If you wish to create a subcategory of a top level category, click on Create.

  

  3. Assign a new entry to the desired category.

  When you create a new entry, to the right of the Title window is a dropdown menu for selecting a category to assign to this entry. Select the appropriate category from the list.

  Note that you can also add a new category here.

  

  Displaying category totals in your sidebar

  Displaying a total of postings assigned to each cagetory is a nice enhancement.

  

  1. Locate the category code.

  Open your Templates window. From there, you will need to select which templates to open and modify.

  By default, your sidebar code will be in your Main Index template. This is located in the Indexes window.

  

  You may also have pasted this code into archive templates or other files that you maintain in your blog. If this is the case, you will need to add the new category code to all the files that contain your sidebar code.

  Alternatively, you may have placed your sidebar code into a separate template module, and are using the MTInclude function to insert the code from this central location into multiple templates. If this is the case, you will need to add the new category code only in this one template module. For more information, see Making Your Sidebar an MTInclude.

  This is the first part of the categories code.

  <MTIfArchiveTypeEnabled archive_type="Category"><div class="module-categories module">
  <h2 class="module-header">Categories</h2>
  <div class="module-content">
  <MTTopLevelCategories>
  <MTSubCatIsFirst><ul class="module-list"></MTSubCatIsFirst>
  <MTIfNonZero tag="MTCategoryCount">
  <li class="module-list-item"><a href="<$MTCategoryArchiveLink$>" title="<$MTCategoryDescription$>"><MTCategoryLabel></a>
  <MTElse>
  <li class="module-list-item"><MTCategoryLabel>
  </MTElse>
  </MTIfNonZero>

  2. Add the cagetory count code.

  <MTIfArchiveTypeEnabled archive_type="Category"><div class="module-categories module">
  <h2 class="module-header">Categories</h2>
  <div class="module-content">
  <MTTopLevelCategories>
  <MTSubCatIsFirst><ul class="module-list"></MTSubCatIsFirst>
  <MTIfNonZero tag="MTCategoryCount">
  <li class="module-list-item"><a href="<$MTCategoryArchiveLink$>" title="<$MTCategoryDescription$>"><MTCategoryLabel></a>
  (<$MTCategoryCount$>)
  <MTElse>
  <li class="module-list-item"><MTCategoryLabel>
  </MTElse>
  </MTIfNonZero>

  Alternatively, you can also place (<$MTCategoryCount$>) before the </a> if you want the number to be a part of your hyperlink.

  3. Save and Rebuild your template.

  Adding the "posted to" category label to each posting

  It can be helpful to show the "posted to" category accompanying each posting along with the other data such as the time of posting, comments, etc. This text will link to the archive page that displays all the postings assigned to that category. Here's how.

  

  1. Find the code location for inserting the category label.

  Open your Templates window. From there, open your Main Index template. Locate the closing tag </MTIfPingsActive>.

  <MTIfPingsActive>| <a href="<$MTEntryPermalink$>#trackback">TrackBacks (<$MTEntryTrackbackCount$>)</a></MTIfPingsActive>
  </p>

  2. Paste the new code just before the </p>.

  <MTIfPingsActive>| <a href="<$MTEntryPermalink$>#trackback">TrackBacks (<$MTEntryTrackbackCount$>)</a></MTIfPingsActive>
  

  <br />Posted to <MTEntryCategories glue=" | ">
  <a href="<$MTCategoryArchiveLink$>"><$MTCategoryLabel$> </a></MTEntryCategories>

  </p>

  You may or may not wish to precede the new text with the <br /> tag. You will have to experiment with your layout to see what works best.

  3. Save and rebuild your Main Index template

  4. Make this modification to any archive templates you have activated on your blog.

  ]]> tag:169.226.11.208,2005://1.5 2005-09-06T14:07:13Z 2007-06-11T19:51:40Z
  The sidebar code is extensive. If you want to place your sidebar on multiple archive templates or other files in your blog, this is a lot of code to manage in all those separate files. Also, perhaps you will...
  The sidebar code is extensive. If you want to place your sidebar on multiple archive templates or other files in your blog, this is a lot of code to manage in all those separate files. Also, perhaps you will want to add custom content to your sidebar at a later date. This means you would have to add this content to each individual template in which you have included your sidebar.

  The solution to this challenge is something called an include. Includes allow an application to insert code from one file, called an include, into another using a single command. This is often used on Web servers to insert repeated code, such as a header or footer, into multiple pages.

  Movable Type offers its own type of include function, inserted with the MTInclude tag. The MTInclude tag allows you to manage the repeated content in your blog in a modular way.

  If you plan to place your sidebar into more than one template, it is recommended that you use the MTInclude feature to accomplish this. Here's how to do it in your Main Index template.

  1. Locate your sidebar code.

  Open the Templates page and view the Indexes window. From there, open your Main Index template.

  

  The sidebar code consists of all the code between the <div id="beta"> <div id="beta-inner" class="pkg"> tags and their respective closing div tags. The closing two div tags appear just after the this code: Powered by<br /><a href="http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/">Movable Type <$MTVersion$></a>

  <div id="beta">
  <div id="beta-inner" class="pkg">

  Your sidebar code, containing the search box, archives, recent posts, etc.

  </div>
  </div>

  2. Copy the sidebar code.

  <div id="beta">
  <div id="beta-inner" class="pkg">
  

  Your sidebar code

  </div>
  </div>

  3. Create a template module for your sidebar code.

  Go to the Templates Modules page and click on the "Modules" tab. Click on "Create New Template Module."

  

  Create a new Template Module and paste in the sidebar code. Name your Module something obvious like "Sidebar".

  Save the module.

  4. Place the MTInclude code into your Main Index template.

  Return to your Main Index template. Delete all of the sidebar code that you had previously copied and pasted into the new module. In its place insert the following code:

  <$MTInclude module="Sidebar"$>

  This is what it looks like in context.

  <div id="beta">
  <div id="beta-inner" class="pkg">
  

  <$MTInclude module="Sidebar"$>

  </div>
  </div>

  Notice that the file name within quotations must exactly match the name of the new module you created, in this case, Sidebar.

  5. Save and Rebuild your Main Index template.

  6. Repeat these steps in any template in which you wish to include your sidebar.

  ]]>