If Movable Type can do it, you can do it too

By its very nature, the Web encourages change at a frenetic pace. Movable Type helps you manage that pace, and this is your indispensable guide to installing and using the most popular server-based personal publishing tool. From exploring Movable Type’s template-driven publishing system to developing your own plug-ins, here’s what you need to know to create and maintain sites as adaptable as the Web itself.

Inside, you’ll find what you need to know about Movable Type
* Prepare your Web server and install Movable Type
* Set up and configure a weblog, using archives and categories to create a more sophisticated site
* Add visual elements with photos and graphics
* Design a weblog with templates and use template tags
* Establish communication among sites using trackback pings
* Add search capabilities and import content from other blogs
* Develop Perl-based plug-ins to enhance Movable Type
* Configure Movable Type to receive and manage comments from site visitors
* See what’s new in Movable Type 3.1 in a bonus Movable Type 3.1 appendix

If Movable Type can do it, you can do it too

By its very nature, the Web encourages change at a frenetic pace. Movable Type helps you manage that pace, and this is your indispensable guide to installing and using the most popular server-based personal publishing tool. From exploring Movable Type’s template-driven publishing system to developing your own plug-ins, here’s what you need to know to create and maintain sites as adaptable as the Web itself.

Inside, you’ll find what you need to know about Movable Type

• Prepare your Web server and install Movable Type
• Set up and configure a weblog, using archives and categories to create a more sophisticated site
• Add visual elements with photos and graphics
• Design a weblog with templates and use template tags
• Establish communication among sites using trackback pings
• Add search capabilities and import content from other blogs
• Develop Perl-based plug-ins to enhance Movable Type
• Configure Movable Type to receive and manage comments from site visitors
• See what’s new in Movable Type 3.1 in a bonus Movable Type 3.1 appendix

If Movable Type can do it, you can do it too

By its very nature, the Web encourages change at a frenetic pace. Movable Type helps you manage that pace, and this is your indispensable guide to installing and using the most popular server-based personal publishing tool. From exploring Movable Type’s template-driven publishing system to developing your own plug-ins, here’s what you need to know to create and maintain sites as adaptable as the Web itself.

Inside, you’ll find what you need to know about Movable Type

• Prepare your Web server and install Movable Type
• Set up and configure a weblog, using archives and categories to create a more sophisticated site
• Add visual elements with photos and graphics
• Design a weblog with templates and use template tags
• Establish communication among sites using trackback pings
• Add search capabilities and import content from other blogs
• Develop Perl-based plug-ins to enhance Movable Type
• Configure Movable Type to receive and manage comments from site visitors
• See what’s new in Movable Type 3.1 in a bonus Movable Type 3.1 appendix

If Movable Type can do it, you can do it too

By its very nature, the Web encourages change at a frenetic pace. Movable Type helps you manage that pace, and this is your indispensable guide to installing and using the most popular server-based personal publishing tool. From exploring Movable Type’s template-driven publishing system to developing your own plug-ins, here’s what you need to know to create and maintain sites as adaptable as the Web itself.

Inside, you’ll find what you need to know about Movable Type

• Prepare your Web server and install Movable Type
• Set up and configure a weblog, using archives and categories to create a more sophisticated site
• Add visual elements with photos and graphics
• Design a weblog with templates and use template tags
• Establish communication among sites using trackback pings
• Add search capabilities and import content from other blogs
• Develop Perl-based plug-ins to enhance Movable Type
• Configure Movable Type to receive and manage comments from site visitors
• See what’s new in Movable Type 3.1 in a bonus Movable Type 3.1 appendix

• Movable Type makes it easy for Web publishers to create sites that are constantly updated
• Shows Web developers how to update a site automatically with Movable Type¿and avoid the labor of editing individual pages
• Takes the mystery out of setting up a Movable Type system, which is a challenge¿even for experienced Web publishers¿because it requires Perl, CGI, a database, and other advanced skills
• This book carefully walks readers through all of the needed steps in a way that all users can follow
• Presents solid coverage that moves beyond the default configuration into advanced areas such as template design, plug-in use, plug-in development, and database maintenance

Useful but becoming outdated
This book is great for experienced and curious users. It’s quite technical for lay users and the way information is presented isn’t terribly user-oriented.

But the biggest problem is that Six Apart has updated Movable Type in ways that make this book obsolete in some aspects and that make it necessary to translate concepts in others. At this point, it’s probably not worth the trouble to buy the book, and also probably not worth the trouble to write this kind of book when updates are so extensive and frequent.

This book is difficult
Unless you already have solid experience writing software, you will find this book overwhelming. But it is better than the program documentation. There are few other choices. It looks like it was rushed to press and many of the examples don’t quite work on my provider’s server configuration, e.g., I don’t have access to the unix command line so isn’t always easy to envision the file structures. (If you didn’t understand the last line, you might consider paying the folks at Movable Type to build your blog.)

But in all fairness, this is a difficult subject to explain. Since personal blogging is so new on the scene, it seems like the blog jargon is still a little fuzzy. Liberal use of Google helps. Since many of the concepts in blogging software are new to me, I would have appreciated a clearer explaination in the introduction, perhaps with some graphic illustrations. Some of the topics here, "Publishing with Movable Type" for example, are filled with examples and terminology that belong in a later section of the book. It would suffice to just give the reader a broader overview of how the software works.

In-depth and practical
Anyone who uses Movable Type on a regular basis needed the book. It covers all of the basics around installation, setting up blogs and writing entries. But then it goes into more advanced topics like alternating the template and adding plugins. And even more advanced topics like RSS, Atom, and writing your own plugins. This is thorough book that is well written and will cover everything you need to know to blog with Movable Type.