What to do
  1. Create folders and set permissions
  2. Create Blog with Moveable Type
  3. Setting Preferences
  4. Changing your Blog's looks
  5. 'Post' an 'entry' to your Blog
1. Create folders & set permissions We need to create a folder called "blog" and a folder called "archives" inside it to contain our new and older blog entries. These folders need to be inside the www folder so that the blog software (Moveable Type) will work.
Here's how:
  1. Start up Internet Explorer.
  2. In the address box type in ftp://ftp.earlham.edu

  3. Type your username and password into the appropriate boxes.
  4. Open the www folder and click inside it.
  5. Select File —> New —> Folder.
  6. Name the new folder - blog
  7. Right-click on the folder and choose Properties.
  8. The folder needs to be write accessible, so check all the boxes:
    FTP properties
    click OK
  9. Open this folder what you have just made.
  10. Select File —> New —> Folder. Name it "archives".
  11. Now right-click on the folder and choose Properties.
  12. Check all the properties boxes and click OK.
  13. Close Internet Explorer and fire up Windows Explorer - navigate to your Home or H: drive and open the www folder.
    You should now see a folder called blog and within this a folder called archives. Check that they are both there.

2. Create Blog with Moveable Type
  1. Fire up Internet Exploder
  2. In the address box type in http://www.earlham.edu/moveabletype/mt.cgi (or click on this link).
  3. Enter your username and password (the ones you use with webmail).
  4. Now we want to create a new blog, so click on the "Create New Blog" button.
    Fill in the boxes as follows:
    1. Blog name :   LLC
    2. Local Site path :  /home/students/<your username>/www/blog
      For example, LaRon Henry's blog would have a local site path: /home/students/henryla/www/blog
    3. Site URL :  http://www.earlham.edu/~<your username>/blog
      This is what you type in to your Netscape browser to get to your blog. The ~ is the tilde character located above the Tab key on your keyboard (you'll to hold the Shift key down also).
    4. Local Archive Path :  /home/students/<your username>/www/blog/archives
      Note that the archives folder is inside the blog folder.
    5. Archive URL :  http://www.earlham.edu/~<your username>/blog/archives
    6. Timezone : select UTC-5 (Eastern Time)

    Click the Save button to get this message:


    Now, guess what you should do next.

  5. that's right, Rebuild your blog.
    Whenever you make changes (either posting a message or changing preferences) you'll need to Save and then Rebuild before Viewing.

3 Setting Preferences Note the management strip down the side of the browser window. This is always available.
Click on the Preferences link at the top of the screen:


  1. General Settings:
    • Type in a description of your Blog - "Mark's Information Technology & Society blog" will be fine, but put your own name in. This will appear on the main Blog banner.

      The next four (4) options can be left on their defaults.

    • default status when creating new entry: pull down to "publish" (otherwise it's a two stage "draft" then "publish" process, and you can always go back and delete an entry).
  2. Archiving:
    leave all the defaults
  3. Publicity .....
    leave all these at their default settings too.
  4. Comment Configuration:
    • Do not allow anonymous comments (leave this unchecked).
      Skip next one.
    • If you want to be notified by email when someone makes a comment, check this box.
      leave next two at their default settings.
    • Check "auto-link URLs". This means that whenever you type in or paste in a web address (URL) it automatically becomes linked.
    • make sure that "allow comments on by default" is checked.
  5. Click Save button
  6. you've made some changes, so Rebuild. Click on View Site to see what it looks like.

4. Changing your Blog's looks You'll want to change how your Blog looks, now won't you? here's how:
  1. Click on the Manage:Templates button.
  2. Now choose the "Stylesheet" Template Name:

  3. Click on the Moveabletype logo at the top on the screen. This will go to the Moveabletype site in a new browser window.
  4. Click Resources : Default Styles. There are seven syles here to choose from; "Clean" to "Stormy". Click the Screenshots to see what each looks like.
  5. When you've decided, click inside the box and highlight the whole of the text there.
    Press Ctrl-C to copy to the clipboard.
  6. Now go back to the previous browser window and click inside the box labelled "Template body:"
  7. Select all this text by dragging down.
  8. Press Ctrl-V to paste the new style in.
  9. If you make a mistake, just go back to the MT site and try again.
  10. When you are satisfied you have done it right, click Save and then Rebuild.
  11. Now View
  12. That's it. All your configuration has been done. You can always go back and change things around

5. 'Post' an 'entry' to your Blog
  1. Click the Post : New Entry button in the management strip.

  2. Type in a title for your comment in the appropriate box.
    Type some text into the Entry box. Experiment with the B and i buttons. Notice the HTML codes around the text.

  3. Type some text into the "Entry Body" box.
    Now type some more text into the "Extended Entry" box. What's the difference in the blog display between text entered into the Entry Body and into Extended Entry?

  4. What does the URL button do?
    This allows you to make a link to a web site.
    1. Fire up a separate browser window (File —> New —> Window)
    2. Browse to the web site that you want to link to.
    3. Highlight the address in the Address Bar and select Edit —> Copy (or press Ctrl-C) to copy it to the clipboard.
    4. Flip back to the Blog window.
    5. Type in the text that you want users to click on. Highlight it.
    6. Click the URL button. Click inside the box and paste in the address that you have just copied (Edit —> Paste or Ctrl-V)

      click OK.
      Notice the HTML code pasted in. You can of course modify this is you know what you are doing.

  5. To Preview what the text looks like before posting, click the Preview button.
    The Re-Edit button takes you back to the previous screen.

  6. Click the Save button. This will rebuild the site.
    Click View to see what you have posted.

  7. Woops. I made a mistake.
    Click on Post : Edit Entries in the management strip.
    Here, you can either delete the entry or click on the entry link in the list of Entry Names to change the contents.
    Save and View as before.