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Movable Type User Manual: ENTRIES

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ENTRIES

Entries form the basis of your weblog; they are the content, whereas the templates (below) generally define how that content appears. You can create a new entry by logging in to Movable Type, selecting a weblog, then clicking Create New Entry. You can edit your existing entries by clicking List & Edit Entries, then selecting an entry from that list.

When creating a new entry, you will have the chance to set the following fields:

You can use the PREVIEW button to preview your entry before posting; CANCEL will return you to the List Entries page.

After you have saved a new entry, you will be transferred directly into editing mode for that entry. When editing an existing entry, you will have several new options:

Note that, upon saving an entry that is marked for Publish, your archives for that entry, along with all of your indexes, are automatically rebuilt. Thus you do not need to manually rebuild your files (see REBUILDING FILES, below) after posting a new entry, or after editing an existing entry.

Entry-Editing Shortcuts

If you are using Movable Type on Internet Explorer for Windows, you can make use of a couple of keyboard shortcuts while editing your entries, to automatically insert HTML formatting tags. To use these shortcuts, select the text you wish to format in your entry, then press the appropriate keyboard shortcut combination:

Customizing the Entry Editing Screen

Movable Type allows you to customize the New Entry and Edit Entry screens to fit with your usage of the system. This customization is done on a per-author, per-weblog basis. In other words, as an author, you can have different screen layouts for each weblog that you post to; and when you customize the screens, your preferences will not trample over those of any of the other authors in the system.

The system lets you choose between 2 predefined layouts (Basic and Advanced), or allows you to create a custom layout, where you choose the fields you would like displayed.

In addition to configuring the fields that you would like displayed, you can also control the position of the button bar containing the SAVE, PREVIEW, and DELETE buttons. The button bar can be displayed either at the top of the page, above the entry-editing fields, or at the bottom, below the entry-editing fields.

Power-Editing Mode

There are times when you might wish to make changes in batch to your entries; for example, if you wish to change a number of entries from Draft status to Publish, or if you wish to assign categories to entries you have imported from another weblogging tool. In that case, you can use the Movable Type's power-editing mode to edit multiple entries at once. Select the weblog containing the entries you'd like to edit; then go to List & Edit Entries; then click Open power-editing mode.

The controls on the power-editing screen works just like the standard List & Edit Entries screen. You can filter the list of entries that you are viewing by category, status, or author; and you can page through the entries using the PREVIOUS and NEXT buttons at the bottom. On this screen, you can edit the entry titles, categories, authored on dates, authors, and status fields; after making the desired changes, save your entries by clicking SAVE.


Copyright © 2001, 2002 Ben Trott and Mena Trott. All Rights Reserved.