UK Bloggers Guide

17 New TypePad Templates and some New Features

TypePad have been busy again. They've launched 4 new template designs in a variety of colours, making for a total of 17 new templates. New features include 'Pagination of your Category Archives' and the ability to 'Automatically Close Comments' on older posts.

Links to live demos of each of the new designs, in the colours available, can be found below. Details of the new features can be found at http://everything.typepad.com/blog/2007/10/new-features-an.html

The "Camo" Template.

The Camo (Blue) Typepad Template
The Camo (Green) Typepad Template
The Camo (Grey) Typepad Template
The Camo (Khaki) Typepad Template
The Camo (Pink) Typepad Template

The "Ragged" Template:

The Ragged (Darkwater) TypePad Template
The Ragged (Marine) TypePad Template
The Ragged (Torch) TypePad Template
The Ragged (Watercolor) TypePad Template

The "Sorbet" Template:

The Sorbet (Aqua) Typepad Template
The Sorbet (Lavender) Typepad Template
The Sorbet (Orange) Typepad Template
The Sorbet (Pink) Typepad Template

The "Stripes" Template:

The Stripes (Black & Blue) TypePad Template
The Stripes (Blue) TypePad Template
The Stripes (Khaki) TypePad Template
The Stripes (Red) TypePad Template

See Also : How to change your TypePad Template

How to convert your TypePad Template into an Advanced Template

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.

Moving from TypePad to Moveable Type, not an easy switch

Seems switching blog platforms is never easy, even when switching between two platforms run by the same company. Ian Betteridge recently tried switching from TypePad to Moveable Type, both owned by Six Apart. Ian wrote...

Well, it was worth it for the fun, I guess. I moved this blog to a new Movable Type install over on my web space elsewhere, and unfortunately it didn't go all that well.

There were a number of problems from the start. First, there was getting Movable Type to actually import all the entries from here - which, given that both are SixApart products, you'd think would be easy. But instead it was a chore: it choked after every 400 entries or so, which meant I had to do it bit by painful bit.

Then there were the database errors. Rebuilding the site sometimes - but not always - resulted in database errors which I could never quite sort out.

Source : And back to TypePad, again