Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with typepad

Typepad blog question

londongeezer — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:08:29 -0800

I have a Typepad blog. I would like to make all my posts that are more than a certain period old - say, a week, but that might change - inaccessible except to people who have registered with me by providing their name and email address. Can I do this using Typepad? There don't seem to be any 'widgets' that provide this functionality. I'm not at all sure that Typepad is capable of being 'programmed' in this way, but I hope that I am wrong. Any suggestions gratefully received.

need quick-and-dirty html help :o)

leticia — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 03:32:55 -0800

I have only the most basic HTML skills and I am posting a form on my Typepad blog, with some HTML provided by Yahoo groups. It all works great, except I would like to center the form on the page. I am hoping that someone here in the "hive mind" would be kind enough to tell me what code to put where in the following html so that the form will center? Many thanks!!! (code below) Here is the code (with all identifying information removed and every <>-style bracket replaced with square brackets so it would display here).

[form method="get"
action="http://groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/xyxyxyx"
style="background-color: #ffc; width: 254px; padding: 2px 4px"]
[h6 style="font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 5px; text-align: center"]
Subscribe to xyxyxyx/h6]
[input style="vertical-align: top"
type="text"
name="user"
value="enter email address"
size="20" /]
[input type="image" alt="Click to join xyxyxyx"
name="Click to join xyxyxyx"
src="http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/yg/img/i/us/ui/join.gif" /]
<p style="text-align: center;"]
Powered by [a href="http://us.groups.yahoo.com/"]us.groups.yahoo.com[/a]</p]
[/form]

A million thanks!!

Any inkling about the TypePad Journalist Bailout Program?

veggieboy — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 10:14:54 -0800

Has anyone heard back from Six Apart about their TypePad Journalist Bailout Program? I followed the guidelines and emailed them on Thanksgiving but didn't hear back. So I followed up last week and haven't heard back.

I imagine they've been inundated. I know it's the holidays. I know I'm throwing myself at their mercy. So I'm not indignant or demanding in the least, but I would like to know what's up if possible.

Is there a blog host that won't bogart my Amazon links?

RogerB — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:21:24 -0800

Book-blog hosting: Is there a free and easy blog host that allows me to use my own Amazon affiliate links? I am thinking of starting a personal book and movie blog. It should make it easy to add books (ideally with a cover image and an Amazon link) to my posts – I'm quite enamored of Vox's super-easy interface for this, but they use their own Amazon affiliate links and forbid you to substitute your own. It seems like all the big free blog hosts do this, in fact (or at least Blogger, Wordpress, and Vox), unless I'm missing something.

I would really rather not have to host my own blog, or use a paid blog host like Typepad, just to avoid giving away the three to five bucks a year my blog will probably make off Amazon referrals. Is there a free blog host or social networking site, or whatever else, out there that will do this?

TypePad Post Titles by Categories?

webhund — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:34:15 -0800

TypePad Filter: Is it possible to create an "index" page on my TypePad blog that generates a list of all blog post titles under each category or tag, with the post titles being linked to the particular post? I do not want any content other than the post titles and tag/category name on this index page. The goal is for readers to quickly find a specific post of interest without having to scan a whole page of posts under that category that also includes the opening text of each and every post (the TypePad default). For example:

Category or Tag Name
- Post #1 Title
- Post #2 Title
- Post #3 Title

Next Category or Tag Name
- Post #1 Title
- Post #2 Title
- Post #3 Title

Real World Example:

Pork Recipes(Category/Tag Name)
- Kung Pao Pork
- Schnitzel
- BBQ Shoulder
- Grandma's Baked Pork Chops

IANAC (I am not a coder), so this may be a really simple thing to do, but it's currently beyond my abilities - but I'm willing to learn! If the answer is "not in TypePad," then what are some alternatives? But I'd really like to stay with Typepad if possible. FWIW, I have a Pro level TypePad account.

Typepad to Wordpress conversion problems...

Glendale — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:13:45 -0800

Just converted a Typepad blog to Wordpress 2.5, now users get a 404 when they try to view single posts (or categories) if they're not logged on as admin... The posts on the homepage show up, but no where else... What's the deal? I've tried deactivating all plugins... I'm using the abstrakt3 theme that came with 2.5 (I've modified it quite a bit...) My google-fu is failing me. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

the site

Questions on design in Typepad...for which Typepad help is no help.

pearl228 — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 13:29:31 -0800

Aesthete in need of assistance with tweaking the design of Typepad blog. Subtle drop shadows with CSS and more... A little background:

I have retooled the design of a blog I currently have on Typepad (3 columns, total width 800 pixels) using iWeb to play around with subtle shadows, fonts, and spacing for visualization purposes.

I currently have a Plus account on Typepad. With this reworking of the design, all I want to do is:

a. edit the colors of the columns
b. improve the banner image
c. add very subtle drop shadows to the columns (think MocoLoco)
d. experiment with 1.3x line spacing for the text of posts

I know how to translate a. and b. to my blog on Typepad, but c. and d. are causing some confusion.

I'm pretty sure I'll have to upgrade to a Pro account to be able to use CSS for the drop shadows, if that's indeed how I will have to do them. (I've heard that the simplest way to do this is by using shadow "images" and placing them with CSS, but does this work when a shadow goes over top of an edge of a column?)

As for the line spacing in posts, is this something I can do, and how?

Thanks SO much!

Best blogging program for my own URL?

lawstudent09 — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 20:37:49 -0800

Best blogging program for a blog with my own URL, using a MAC, with multiple officers, and the ability to track the IP addresses of visitors. I am looking at using TypePag, Blogger, or WordPress. I have a specialized URL to post to. I also need the ability to have multiple authors post at the same time. I also need to track the IP addresses of visitors, although if I need to use a third-party application or software I can. Finally, we will be using mostly Macs and want the most-Mac friendly interface possible.

How do you prevent people from hotlinking photos from your typepad blog?

PenguinBukkake — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 10:26:15 -0800

How do you prevent people from hotlinking photos from your typepad blog? I have original content (photos) on my typepad blog (the intermediate account, not the most expensive one: should I upgrade?): they are getting hotlinked up to the wazoo by a bunch for forums. How do I avoid that? I've tried to rename some files in the "edit post" HTML window but I just deleted the images and I had to reload them. Obviously, I am technically not that savvy, at least for blogs. Thanks.

Printer-Friendly for Typepad

Blue Buddha — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 10:55:12 -0800

Is there an easy-to-follow method for automating printer-friendly pages for Typepad? I would like to create a link attached to each post, so the user can click on it and have a printer-friendly page of that post open in a new window. The printer-friendly page would use a simple template and stylesheet, separate from the regular stylesheet. I don’t know how to automate this so each individual archive includes this option.

I've searched for and found a method for Movable Type (see here), but it needs a more advanced set-up than Typepad offers (blocked at the latter part of Step 2). Has anybody created a printer-friendly Typepad setup and is willing to share? Thanks.

How can move between blog software?

Sifter — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 14:44:06 -0800

(Blogfilter) I've had a BlogHarbor blog for ages and want to move all the posts to TypePad. Problem is, BlogHarbor exports an XML file that Typepad can't recognise. So I've had a BlogHarbor blog for 2 years and in that time have racked up a lot of entries, but since I've got a Typepad Pro account for running other blogs, I want to move my BH blog to Typepad. BH's export function creates an XML file, and when I try and 'import' Typepad refuses to play ball. I've had success using KBCafe's RSS to MT tool, but obvious the BH blog's RSS feed only picks up the last 20 posts or so... Anyone know of any converters that can make my XML file more TypePad/Movable Type friendly?

From Network Solutions to TypePad

PenguinBukkake — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 09:05:38 -0800

Blog troubles: I'm thinking about switching from Network Solutions to TypePad, and also have some problems creating my new blog. Please give advice if you can, I'm confused. I have already written a few posts for my blog and I want to go live soon: the blog will be simple (I don't care about fancy stuff) but will be image-heavy (from one to three images per post), needs commenting, archives, and a blogroll.

A few weeks ago, without doing much research, I paid for the basic Network Solutions Homepage package, at about $60 a year. I have one email box, one domain, and as of now my website consists of just a single homepage (one page). No FTP access, no commenting, no archives, no statistics, etc.

I mistakenly thought this might be enough for me. So I tried to make my website design and content using Network Solution's ImageCafe back-end software, and quickly realized that it sucks for me, and I will need to upgrade because I clearly chose the wrong package. I've put like 40 hours already into testing and experimenting with the layout in ImageCafe, and I'm just not happy. I have a decent design background and am fully competent in Photoshop, and am comfortable using new software, systems, etc, but just don't have the time. The shame is that all the content is there and pristine, but I haven't even gone live yet because the existing page is a mess.

Here's my dilemma:

This is my first website (aside from using blogger), so I don't have much coding experience, and can only build a webpage (not a site, though) using Dreamweaver. But even if I had FTP access, I don't think I am good enough to actually create a website from scratch. I was a website administrator for a work blog hosted through Real a few years ago, but I worked via FTP, and through a back-end tool. And I only did maintenance, editing simple code, and image uploading.

If I stay with Network Solutions, I will need to upgrade my package to another $70 a year. This will give me FTP, storage, etc... and I will also have to hire a designer to code my site. Because aside from Dreamweaver, I have no HTML experience, and don't really "get" how to make a multi-page website with features like archives, site metering, etc.

However, yesterday I researched TypePad, and thought it might be a good option instead. I might go with the full, pro package (about 150 bucks/year).

So I need help making-up my mind, and here are the options:

1. Stay with Network Solutions: upgrade my package to top-of-the-line, and hire a coder to make a good site, which I can then manage myself (hopefully).

2. Switch to TypePad: buy the top-of-the-line package and hope there are better templates for blogging, so that I can do it myself. (or, if it is still over-my-head, I will hire someone for coding).

Does anyone have experience using the top-of-the-line packages for both Network Solutions and TypePad? Can anyone predict the best option for me? This is making me so miserable! Thank you in advance!

Sitemap on bilingual Typepad site?

Blue Buddha — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 11:21:42 -0800

I have a bilingual website hosted on Typepad and want to create a sitemap for both sites that is friendly with Google Webmaster tools. I have a bilingual (French-English) website hosted with Typepad and want to create a sitemap to upload and use with Google Webmaster tools. The structure is www.website.com/en/ and www.website.com/fr/, respectively. On Typepad, this means two weblogs, maintained separately, with the default blog being the English one. There is a link at the bottom of the page to switch to the French blog, with files in the /fr directory as I mentioned.

I used a sitemap generator and entered www.website.com for the English site, and www.website.com/fr/ for the French site. No problems there, it created a sitemap for both English and French sites. However, Google only accepts the sitemap at the root directory (the English site, since it is the default).

I uploaded a sitemap into /fr and it said that's a no-no. However, this sitemap generator does not retrieve content from the French portion of the site through the link at the bottom of my English default page, and only sees the actual link to go there, being http://www.website.com/fr.

Should I copy all the links generated separetely from the French site, below the links from the English sitemap and merge them into one sitemap.xml file? Thanks for your input.

Should I switch back...again?

sjuhawk31 — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 14:47:55 -0800

Is switching blog services just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, or can it get me more readers? I used to blog on TypePad, where I developed a fairly dedicated readership, many of whom I can assume followed me to my current host at LiveJournal. I'd like to expand my readership further; as importantly, I'd like to see the change in readers through comments. LiveJournal's commenting system is pretty lame, and I am thinking that moving to TypePad will open up the commenting floodgates (at least allowing a steady trickle through).

The basic question, I guess, boils down to this: does one blog service lend itself to gathering more readers/commenters than another? Should I jump ship from LiveJournal if I want to grab readers, or should I try to drive more readers to my current site and encourage technically anonymous commenting, welcoming site linking to anyone who wishes to sign their comments that way?

This isn't a "how do I get more people to read my blog" content question, though those suggestions are welcome as well. But what I really want to know is whether my itch to switch is based on a real fact that more people frequent TypePad/Blogger type blogs than the oft-mistaken-for-online-diaries that land on LiveJournal.

Apologies for the massive amount of rambling.

Help moving TypePad to Movable Type?

apetpsychic — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 15:50:24 -0800

I am looking to switch my blog to TypePad a hosted Movable Type, but am having problems transferring the style sheet. Any tips for moving templates and stylesheets from TypePad into Movable Type? I thought I could just plus the code in from one to the other, but while it gets the basic elements (font, colors) right, it screws up the (really simple, two-column) layout.

Where can I find a weblog designer for Typepad?

IndigoSkye — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 11:55:46 -0800

Where can I find someone who can design an advanced typepad template for my blog for a reasonable price? I've been doing the 'blog' thing since 1999 using various platforms and hosts. But I've never quite mastered the vagrancies of CSS and MovableTyple MarkUp Language and now I don't have the time to. I have a moderately successful blog, in such that I have a lot of regular readers and am considered something of an expert in my subject, but I fear its design is holding it back. In fact, I've been getting lots of reports that it doesn't work well in Safari or Mozilla. I need someone who can take the design to the next level while still being usable across many platforms. I'm willing to pay for this service, but my budget is small. So I'd like to see examples of design work before making up my mind.

Does anyone have a designer with experience working with advanced typepad templates who they would like to recommend?

How do I make Network Solutions and Typepad work?

nthdegx — Sat, 21 Jan 2006 05:13:48 -0800

Please please please can someone help me make my Network Solutions registered domain map to my Typepad site? When attempting to follow Typepad's instructions for setting up domain mapping with a Network Solutions registered domain I receive the warning that "An A record already exists for the entered Alias". Has this anything to do with the domain presently pointing to a Network Solutions under construction page? Has anyone experience with using Network Solutions and Typepad that can offer advice on getting domain mapping to work? Any DNS monkeys care to volunteer to fix this for me? I'm that sick of it I'm willing to pay someone at this point as I'm not really getting the answers I need from either party.

TypePad + TypeLists + del.icio.us

donovan — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 17:32:10 -0800

TypePad + TypeLists + del.icio.us . . . need some help getting them to play well with each other. I've spent the past hour trying to figure this out so I figured it's time to turn to the hive mind . . .

I want to use a pair of TypeLists based on subsets of my del.icio.us feed to create a pair of sidebars. One would be posts with a tag "forblog" and one with the tag "postsIlikedfromMyfriendsblogs" (or something). The notion is that the former posts are things found on the Intarweb I want to spotlight and the later are recent posts from friends' blogs that I want to spotlight.

It appears this is doable as explained in the del.icio.us help pages:
http://del.icio.us/help/linkrolls
Shows me how to add all my links--I tried it and it worked.
This:
http://del.icio.us/help/json
explains how to modify the javascript to pull just a posts with a certain tag or combo of tags. I don't know javascript well and my trial and error tweaking of the standard script don't work.

I'm not using advanced templates on TypePad and don't want to.

I do, however, want to display both the link and my extended entry about the link in these TypeList/sidebars.

It probably doesn't matter, but the blog in question is:
joygantic.typepad.com
And the del.icio.us feed is:
http://del.icio.us/joygantic

Why don't Amazon and Typepad play nice together?

Servo5678 — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 09:43:25 -0800

Amazon links and Typepad blogs don't play nice together. Let me explain the issue that I'm experiencing with posting links generated by Amazon Associates on my Typepad blog. The problem is that Amazon links contain the & symbol, and when that symbol is pasted into Typepad the Rich Text Editor converts it to a & amp; which is the proper code in HTML for the & symbol. Amazon links do not like seeing & amp; in a URL instead of &, so my Amazon links are broken on my blog. Even if I remove the amp; by hand, Typepad restores it when I switch between text view modes. Even opening an existing post for editing restores the amp; text.

I thought I had a way around this by composing my posts in Rich Text mode and then switching to plain text for posting, but it turns out that posting as plain text sends unformatted HTML code into my Atom feed which is annoying my readers, to say the least.

So, after all of this, my question: how can I keep Typepad from changing the links that Amazon generates?

Tracking with Typepad: Need good logs!

Blue Buddha — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 13:32:26 -0800

I currently have a Typepad Pro account, but am not impressed with Typepad's "View Visitor Stats" feature. I need to upgrade the log tracking. I'm looking for decent log/tracking software that would be compatible with Typepad, and relatively inexpensive (~$100 is OK). Something where I can export logs into Excel and play around with number of visitors, most popular pages, click-through rates, etc. Something, but not necessarily, like Statcounter. Any suggestions?

Anyone anonyblogging?

skylar — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 04:49:37 -0800

Is there a simple to use, high-quality weblog creation service that will allow me to blog with a reasonable level of anonymity? Blogger has always been okay but as far as I know doesn't seem to cater for categories, which is something I seek. I'm attracted to TypePad though a look at their privacy policy suggests they're collecting all sorts of information and are likely to pass it on to quite a few parties. Are there more anonymous blog apps out there?

Mapping a Domain to a TypePad Blog

fionab — Mon, 28 Feb 2005 16:33:01 -0800

Domain mapping to a TypePad blog. For the past 10 days, I have desperately been trying to map a domain name to my TypePad blog. Every solution offered to me by either TypePad or my registrar seems to undo something else. I am trying to: have the domain mapped seamlessly (masked, I believe it's called), but also for the Permalinks (unique urls) to work. I am in over my head! Right now, if you type in http://www.mydomain.net *everything* works as it should. You don't see the TypePad domain name come up in the address, the permalinks work, and all is golden. HOWEVER, if you type in http://mydomain.net (notice the lack of WWW), it visibly forwards to my TypePad domain - as in, it then becomes http://www.myblog.typepad.com. This is NOT what I want to happen! One solution was to check "Masking" on the Registrar's side, but of course that removes the Permalinks, as far as I know. Someone else said that I had to do the forwarding first, then do any DNS changes. Now someone else there said that what I want to do is impossible. Is it really? Is it too much to ask so that http://www and http:// work the same? Obviously, this is the first time I've ever tried this, have little-to-no understanding of it all, and am at the mercy of their suggestions. Please hope me!

Typepad photo galleries: how do you get your photos to appear in the desired order?

schoolgirl report — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 06:34:06 -0800

Typepad photo galleries: how do you get your photos to appear in the desired order? I don't always want them ordered by date taken or date uploaded, but there aren't any other options. I end up having to make fake dates for them all. Until that glorious day when Typepad implements a drag-and-drop ordering system, any suggestions?

Help me with the Moveable Type learning curve

baltimore — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 17:39:52 -0800

I'm a TypePad user, moving to Movable Type. I know that MT is much more powerful, but out of the (virtual) box, it is lacking in a lot of the cool features (book lists, photo albums, blogrolls) that TypePad has built in.

What's the best place for a n00b like me to go to start bringing MT into line with what I had in TypePad? I've been slogging through the MT Plugins site, but if there's an even easier guide out there, I'll gladly admit I'm an MT loser and just paint-by-numbers!

Bought a Domain from Gandi -- Need Help With Their Interface

lia — Wed, 25 Aug 2004 11:07:41 -0800

Gandi, Typepad and custom dns/domain mapping, oh my. (More inside.) I bought a domain off of Gandi and am now trying to direct it towards a Typepad blog, only since Gandi is help documentation deficient I am having a devil of a time getting it done. Their custom page says:

A simplified interface which enables you to specify the adress of the site www.domain.tld as gived by your web hosting provider, and the name of the server in charge of receiving the emails for your domain (xxxx@domain.tld).A complex interface reserved to advanced users, any question concerning its use won't be answered by our technical support, the subject being too vast. This one enables you to specify an unlimited number of hosts ('A'), aliases ('CNAMES'), and mailservers ('MX'). For that case, you can find a tutorial here to avoid common mistakes: http://www.rscott.org/dns/

Which doesn't really help me very much. I did the simplified interface thing, which asks for A and MX, which I supplied, but doesn't ask for CNAME. So I went into complex interface, which then had (stuff replaced with xs for privacy reasons):

www 3600 IN A 217.xx.xx.xx
@ 3600 IN MX 0 xxxxxxxx.xxx

And added:

cname 3600 IN CNAME xxxxxxx.blogs.com

The change went through but again, as Gandi is not big on the error messages, I'm not sure if I screwed things up majestically. The domain's still not showing up for me or anyone else, so I can't really tell if it's me or just the DNS not propagating yet. Can anyone spot something I might've done wrong?