Caveat Lector

Some of Movable Type’s template placeholders have their values set in the Weblog Config pages. I thought I’d run those down for you, because the connections are nowhere explicitly made (though they are alluded to) in the Movable Type help files, so if you run into a placeholder problem it’s hard to know what to do about it.

You can follow along by clicking on the Weblog Config button in the left-hand menu bar.

Starting with the Core Configuration page:

• <MTBlogName> is set in the “Weblog name…” box at the top.

• <MTBlogURL> is set in the “Site URL” box.

  (This box also controls <MTBlogRelativeURL>, but the chances that you will ever use that are minimal so I don’t intend to explain it. By the same token, the “Local site path” box governs <MTBlogSitePath>, but who cares? Not you.)

• <MTArchiveURL> is set in the “Archive URL” box.

  This is the page which the “Master Archive Index” template creates, incidentally. If you mean to have your archives in a separate directory or subdirectory from your main page (I do this, for neatness, but it isn’t necessary), this is the one case when you must mess with the “Output file” box on the template page. Change the default (which I believe is “archive.html”) to the name of the directory plus a slash and “index.html.”

  If, for example, you create a directory called “archive” inside your main blog directory (as CavLec has done), you need to put archive/index.html inside the “Output file” box on the “Master Archive Index” template page. (Whew!)

On the Preferences page:

• <MTBlogDescription> is set in the “Description” box.

That’s about it. If I’ve missed any, let me know.

Next up: Building a template from scratch for a skeleton blog. Or something like that.