Posted by Fox on October 7, 2007 at 4:59 PM

Before you can take advantage of most of the TypePad hacks and tweaks, you'll need to convert your TypePad template in to an Advanced Template. It easy enough to do and you can switch back to your original template at the touch of a button or two. ONLY Pro or Premium Accounts can make use of TypePad Advanced Templates.

What happens when you convert to an Advanced Template.

Before I go through the process, let's take a minute to understand what exactly happens when you convert you standard template to an Advanced Template... Well, not a lot really. It simply creates a copy of your current design that you can tweak with various TypePad hacks that help you get more from your TypePad blog. The most baisc of which involved making you blog much, much more search engine friendly.

A couple of considerations

When you first set up your blog you chose a design that you liked the look of, and also chose the layout style.

All of the designs available to you can be converted to an Advanced Template, BUT not all layouts can be converted. Specifically you CANNOT convert any of the 'mixed media' layouts to an Advanced Template. You will need to change the curennt layout to one of the following before you can convert to an Advanced Template:

Changing from a Standard Template to an Advenced Template

Step 1. Log in to your Typepad account and select you weblog from the list (you may only only have one listed).

Step 2. Select the 'Design' tab, and then select 'Saved Designs'. Your current design is indicated by a green tick icon.

Step 3. Select the tick box next to your current design, and then hit the 'Convert to Advanced' button at the bottom of the page. This will create a copy of your current design. It doesn't change it in any way so you can switch back at any time in the future.

Step 4. You'll now have an additional design listed, clearly shown as an 'Advanced Template'

Step 5. Select the tick box for the new Advanced Template listed, and then hit the 'Apply' link.

Step 6. When the page refereshes, scroll to the bottom of the page and hit the 'Republish Weblog' button.

That's it. You are now using an advanced template. It's a bit of an anti climax to be honest. You'll not that you blog looks no different, and it won't until you apply some of the TypePad hacks and tweaks I'll be going throughover the next few weeks. The fun has just begun.