Movable Type User Manual: ENTRIES

« Table of Contents

• ENTRIES
• Entry-Editing Shortcuts
• Customizing the Entry Editing Screen
• Power-Editing Mode

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:

• Title
  The title of your entry does not necessarily have to appear on your weblog; it is required, however, for sorting and display purposes in Movable Type itself.

• Primary Category
  You can choose a primary category for your post for categorization or archiving purposes. Movable Type supports entries assigned to multiple categories, but there must always be one category that is the primary category for each entry; this allows you to use tags like <$MTEntryCategory$> to display information about a single category.

  For more information on managing categories, see CATEGORIES.

• Entry Body
  
• Extended Entry
  Collectively these two fields make up the body of your entry. You can use the two fields however you like: you could split up your entry over the two fields, or you could completely ignore the Extended Entry text and enter only the Entry Body text. Movable Type allows you to split up your entry for more flexibility in the display of that entry; for example, if you write very long entries, you may not want your entire entry on your index pages. You can use the two fields to control what gets displayed, and where.

  Note that when the text of your entry and extended entry fields are output into your public weblog, paragraphs--blocks of text separated by two line breaks--will be automatically enclosed within <p> and </p> tags. If you do not want this transformation to occur, uncheck the Convert paragraph breaks option in the Edit weblog configuration screen.

• Excerpt
  You can enter an excerpt from your entry, or use this field to provide a summary of the content therein. If you do not provide an excerpt, it will be automatically generated (when specified in a template using the MTEntryExcerpt tag) by selecting the first twenty (20) words from your entry, followed by an ellipsis.

• Keywords
  The Keywords field can hold whatever type of data you want to put in it; it is geared for holding metadata or keywords about your entry, and is not normally displayed on your public site (though you can display it using the <$MTEntryKeywords$> tag). It is searched when a user performs a public search on your site, so you can use it to tag entries with words that may not normally appear in the entry body.

• Post Status
  Entries with Status set to Draft will not be published to your weblog.

• Allow Comments
  Specifies whether you would like users to be able to post comments on this entry. There are three options: None, Open, or Closed. If you select None, visitors will not be able to post comments, nor will they be able to view existing comments. If you select Open, visitors will be able to both post and view existing comments. If you select Closed, visitors will be able to view existing comments, but not post new comments. This is useful when you wish to turn off commenting for an old post on your site, but you wish to leave up the old comments for posterity.

• Text Formatting
  Specifies the text formatting option for this entry. For example, the Convert Line Breaks option encloses your paragraphs in <p> and </p> tags, and converts line breaks to <br> tags. You can select a different formatting option for each entry in the system. The default for this entry is set in your weblog configuration under Default Text Formatting for new entries.

• Allow Pings
  Specifies whethere you would like to enable this entry to receive TrackBack pings. This checkbox defines whether text inside of a MTEntryIfAllowPings area will be displayed (see documentation for the tag).

• URLs To Ping
  A list of TrackBack URLs that you would like to ping for this entry. This is for use when pinging a particular entry on a remote site--if you wish to ping a remote site every time you place an entry in a certain category, associate the URL(s) with that particular category. See Categories for more details.

• Previous Pings Sent
  A list of TrackBack pings previously sent for this entry. This includes both pings sent to remote entries and to remote categories (by associating a category in your weblog with one or more ping URLs).

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:

• Authored On
  Movable Type allows you to pre-date or post-date your entries by modifying the Authored on date and time for an entry. If you change this value, you must use the form YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS; otherwise you will get an error.

• Assign Multiple Categories
  The Assign Multiple Categories link opens a popup window that allows you to manage the secondary categories to which your entry is assigned.

• Delete
  You can delete an existing entry by pressing DELETE ENTRY; you will then be asked to confirm that you really wish to delete the entry. Agree, and your entry will be deleted.

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:

• Bold - Ctrl-Shift-b
  
• Italic - Ctrl-Shift-i
  
• Underline - Ctrl-Shift-u
  
• Hyperlink - Ctrl-Shift-a
  

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.

• Basic
  As the name implies, Basic is the simplest possible layout. It displays editable fields for the entry title and entry body; a pulldown menu for the Post Status; and an uneditable authored-on date.

• Advanced
  Advanced displays all of the custom fields available: entry title, entry body, extended body, excerpt, Post Status, editable authored-on date, category selection menu, Allow Comments options, and Text Formatting options.

  Advanced is the default layout.

• Custom
  The Custom layout allows you the most flexibility; it allows you to choose exactly which fields you would like to appear on the New and Edit Entry screens. You can choose from any of the available fields listed above in Advanced.

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.