Sams Teach Yourself Movable Type in 24 Hours

Sams Teach Yourself Movable Type in 24 Hours
Molly E. Holzschlag,Porter Glendinning | 2004-05-28 00:00:00 | Sams | 576 | Databases

Movable Type, a low-cost, distributed publishing software solution is helping thousands of Web site developers organize and automate the Web content management process.

In 24 well-paced chapters, the authors of Sams Teach Yourself Movable Type in 24 Hours show readers how to install, personalize, and configure Movable Type into an indispensable content management tool.

Features hands-on tutorials for finding Web hosting services, adjusting publishing preferences, customizing page templates, setting up multiple author accounts and extending the program with plug-ins and custom features, the authors show readers how to use everything from the most basic fundamentals of Movable Type to its most powerful features.

Reviews
I'm certain that, like all the books in this series, this was a fine book in its time. But its time is past. There is very little at all in this book that will help any user of the newer version of Moveable Type .
Reviews
If you're wanting to learn Movable Type, this book won't help. All this book tells you is how many other books you need to buy (CSS and HTML).



See, Movable Type is a combination of web-standards HTML and CSS combined with its own proprietary tab system. So, really, it brings THREE different programming languages together (which is what makes MT so powerful). Howver, this book doesn't cover any of them.



What this book does give is a simplistic look at the different areas of MT. However, it doesn't give you enough tools to actually USE MT. For example, one would think the layout of the site would, you know, warrant a significant portion of the book. In actuality, the layout is only covered in chapters 10 and 11 and only the basics: changing colors and adding an image to the banner. That's it.



Sure, there are other issues (such as installation, migration, syndication and publishing) covered in the book but with such a minor look at the fundamentals, this book is near useless.



To put it simply: YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PROGRAM MOVABLE TYPE.



Look at Movable Type's manual, web forums, www.elise.com/mt, movalog.org and other CSS and HTML tutorials (learning CSS and HTML is CRITICAL!) for the real guide to Movable Type.
Reviews
Moveable Type (MT) is a blogging tool that I've been using on my site for several years. This is not a review of which software is the best, but on the book's usefulness in getting a person up to speed on MT. On that note, the authors do a first-rate job of helping the reader learn how to use MT.

As a person who is experienced in using MT, it provides me with a few tips and tricks I hadn't considered. Since I'm self-taught, I missed a few steps. Besides, there are many things you can do with MT especially when adding plug-ins.

For the person who has never touched a blog or MT in particular, the authors start at the beginning and keep things simple. Realistically, how do you write a book that meets the needs of the experienced while introducing the new users to the software? Experienced users will probably skip the first few chapters where it covers installation and setting up a blog. But the rest covering templates, plug-ins, managing archives, and adding features will more than provide enough to keep anyone busy.

Not only do the authors show how to use MT, but also they offer information on how to write and promote content. The book focuses on v2.x of MT. As I understand it, MT v3.0 doesn't have major changes and much (if not all) of the book is still valuable. You could wait around for a v3.x book, but by the time it comes out the software will have upgraded. Blogging tools upgrade very frequently and I use seldom use the word "very."

The MT online doc is one of the better blogging software documentation I've seen. The book offers accompanying pictures and additional information not found in the help doc. If you like getting all of your information in one place accompanied with visual aids, this is sure to please.

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