Weblogs

Manage

Your Weblog Overview

The Weblog Overview is the main page for the weblog management area. Access it by clicking the name of the weblog from the Weblogs tab.

At the top of the screen, summary information about your weblog appears: the name and URL of the weblog and counts for the number of posts and number of comments in the weblog.

You can view the weblog in a new browser window by clicking the URL link. You can also view the visitor stats for the weblog by clicking the View Visitor Stats and Referrers link.

A summary of your weblog's recent activity also appears, including the five most recent posts and five most recent comments and pings (TrackBacks). To go directly to managing your posts, comments, or TrackBacks, click either the List all posts, List all comments, or List all pings links next to their respective list headers. You can also delete comments directly from this screen by clicking the icon next to the comment you want to delete. A pop-up confirmation screen will appear before your selection is permanently deleted.

On the right of the screen, the Weblog Editing Shortcuts section includes single-click shortcuts to most commonly used weblog tasks.

While working on a weblog, you can come back to the Weblog Overview page by clicking the Manage tab.

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Managing Your Existing Posts

Manage your weblog posts by clicking the Edit Posts shortcut link for the weblog on your Weblogs tab. This opens the List All Posts page where you can edit any of the posts that you have access to edit by clicking on the post Title.

Use the filter options to view posts by category, author or posting status (the second selector changes on the choice you made with the first selector). Click Go to display the filtered posts.

You can also use the drop-down list to select the number of posts to display in the list.

Deleting Multiple Posts

Delete more than one post at a time by checking the boxes under the Delete column for the posts you wish to remove and clicking Delete.

A confirmation popup window opens asking you to confirm that you would actually like to delete the posts. Select Yes, Delete or No, Cancel. There is no undo, and the posts will be permanently removed from your weblog, so make sure to delete carefully.

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Managing Comments

TypePad gives you powerful controls for managing reader comments posted to your weblog. You can establish who posts comments and make sure all commenters are authenticated for security purposes. You can also control when and how comments are published. To enable the comments feature, see Enabling Comments on Your Posts.

To manage comments, click the List Comments link from the Manage sub-tab on the Weblogs tab.

List Comments Screen

The List Comments screen displays all comments that have been posted by readers to your weblog. Comments are arranged in a list that details:

Comment - title of reader's comment. If the comment appears in bold, it has not been approved. When you first approve a comment, it is automatically published. If the comment is unpublished, an icon appears next to it. If you unpublish a previously approved (i.e., published) comment, it will not appear in bold, but will have the icon next to it.
Author - name of reader who made comment. If the author has been authenticated, an icon appears next to the name. If the author has been authenticated but requires comment moderation, an icon appears next to the name.
On Post - post for which reader made a comment
Date - date of comment

Organizing Comments by Filters

To organize your comments:

Choose a filter option from the drop-down list box. You can filter by Email, Name, or IP Address.
Type a filter value in the text box next to the filter option drop-down list box. For example, if you want to see all comments posted by genericuser@isp.com, type genericuser@isp.com.
Choose the number of comments you want filtered from the drop-down list box. You can filter the most recent 5, 20, 75, 125 or all comments.
Click Filter. Your comments list will re-appear according to your filter options. To clear your results or try a new filter, click Reset Filter.

Performing Management Tasks

You can perform management tasks directly from the List Comments screen by clicking individual items from the comments list. A task shortcut drop-down menu appears with customized options depending on the list item, as shown by this example:

Below are task details for each comment list header:

Comment

The comment details appear, including the full comment and its status (published or unpublished). You can change the publishing status by clicking Unpublish or Publish (only one option appears depending upon its corresponding status). You can delete the comment by clicking Delete. To edit the comment, click Edit and the Edit Comment screen appears. After making changes to the comment, click Save Changes.

Author

To see all comments by this author, click the View all comments link. If the author is authenticated, you can view his or her profile, by clicking View Profile. If the author is not authenticated, you have the option to ban all comments originating from the author's IP address.

If new comments are automatically published, you can change this option by clicking Set to: Hold for Approval (for authors who require authentication, an icon appears when you select this option, meaning the author is blocked from commenting without your approval). If new comments are already set to hold for approval, you must change this option on the Preferences sub-tab under the Weblogs/Configure tabs.

On Post

To see all comments on this post, click the View all comments link. Click Close Comments to discontinue the option for future reader comments (previous comment postings are kept and published unless you unpublish or delete them). To edit this post directly, click Edit Post and you will go to the Edit Post screen.

Approving Comments

To select comments for approval, click the checkbox(es) next to each comment list item and click Approve. To approve all comments in bulk, click the checkbox to the left of the Comment list header and all checkboxes will automatically be selected. Then click Approve. When comments are approved, they are automatically published.

Deleting Comments

To select comments for deletion, click the checkbox(es) next to each comment list item and click Delete. To delete all comments in bulk, click the checkbox to the left of the Comment list header and all checkboxes will automatically be selected. Then click Delete.

Unpublishing Versus Deleting

When you unpublish a comment or TrackBack, the item will still exist on your listed comments or TrackBacks, but will not appear on your published weblog. You can still publish it again in the future.

When you delete a comment or TrackBack, it is permanently removed from your weblog as well as weblog management pages.

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Managing TrackBacks

To manage TrackBacks, click the List TrackBacks link from the Manage sub-tab on the Weblogs tab. For more information on TrackBacks see Setting Your Weblog TrackBack Preferences.

List TrackBacks Screen

The List TrackBacks screen displays all TrackBacks that have referred readers to your weblog. TrackBacks are arranged by in a list that details:

TrackBack - title of post that tracks back to your post. If the TrackBack appears in bold, it has not been approved. If the TrackBack is unpublished, an icon appears next to it.
Source Weblog - source of TrackBack
On Post - post for which another weblog made a TrackBack
Date - date of TrackBack

Organizing TrackBacks by Filters

To organize your TrackBacks:

Choose a filter option from the drop-down list box. You can filter by Title, Blog Name, or IP Address.
Type a filter value in the text box next to the filter option drop-down list box. For example, if you want to see all TrackBacks posted by genericblog.typepad.com, type genericblog.typepad.com.
Choose the number of TrackBacks you want filtered from the drop-down list box. You can filter the most recent 5, 20, 75, 125 or all TrackBacks.
Click Filter. Your TrackBacks list will re-appear according to your filter options. To clear your results or try a new filter, click Reset Filter.

Performing Management Tasks

You can perform management tasks directly from the List TrackBacks screen by clicking individual items from the TrackBacks list. A task shortcut drop-down menu appears with customized options depending on the list item, as shown by this example:

Below are task details for each TrackBack list header:

TrackBack

The TrackBack details appear, including the full TrackBack and its status (published or unpublished). You can change the publishing status by clicking Unpublish or Publish (only one option appears depending upon its corresponding status). You can delete the TrackBack by clicking Delete.

Source Weblog

To see all TrackBacks from this weblog, click the View all TrackBacks link. To view the source weblog, click View Website to open it in a new browser window.

On Post

To see all TrackBacks on this post, click the View all TrackBacks link. Click Do not accept TrackBacks to discontinue the option for reader TrackBacks on this post. To edit this post directly, click Edit Post and you will go to the Edit Post screen.

Approving TrackBacks

To select TrackBacks for approval, click the checkbox(es) next to each TrackBack list item and click Approve. To approve all TrackBacks in bulk, click the checkbox to the left of the TrackBack list header and all checkboxes will automatically be selected. Then click Approve.

Deleting TrackBacks

To select TrackBacks for deletion, click the checkbox(es) next to each TrackBack list item and click Delete. To delete all TrackBacks in bulk, click the checkbox to the left of the TrackBack list header and all checkboxes will automatically be selected. Then click Delete.

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Importing Weblog Content

With TypePad’s Import feature, you can easily import existing content into TypePad.

Converting an Existing Weblog

To import, the content needs to be in the proper format so it is readable by the system. You can convert content from other weblogging systems for import into your TypePad weblog. Below are instructions for converting content from some popular weblogging systems:

Movable Type

Use the Export page in Movable Type to export your existing content to a file. Save this file to your computer and upload it to TypePad using Option B when Importing Content.

Blogger/Blogspot/Blogger Pro

A) Log into your Blogger account, then switch into template-editing mode. Make a copy of your current template; you will be replacing your Blogger template with the conversion template.

Replace your Blogger template with the following:

<Blogger>
AUTHOR: <$BlogItemAuthor$>
TITLE: <PostSubject><$BlogItemSubject$></PostSubject>
DATE: <$BlogItemDateTime$>
-----
BODY:
<$BlogItemBody$>
--------
</Blogger>

B) Click the Settings tab for the weblog:

• On the Publishing sub-tab, change your Blog Filename to a different filename; this will prevent you from overwriting your main index file. Note: Blogspot does not have the option to set the output filename, so output to the main index page instead. This is the default setting for Blogspot, so you should not need to change anything.

• On the Formatting sub-tab, set your weblog to display all of your posts on the main index page. There is no explicit setting for this; instead, you should change the number of days displayed on your front page (Show N days’ posts on main page) higher than the number of days that you have been weblogging.

• Set Timestamp Format to the format MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM:SS AM|PM. (Note: the format will not look like this in the menu; instead it will be the current time, formatted.)

• Set Convert Line Breaks to No.

• On the Archiving sub-tab, set Archive Frequency to No Archive. This will prevent your archives from being overwritten with the new template.

C) Switch back to the Posts screen, and Publish your weblog. You will end up with a single file with all of your posts, formatted using the above template, at the location specified in your Settings.

Enter the URL of this export file using Option A when Importing Content.

Radio Userland

Use the Radio exporter:

http://www.ideaspace.net/users/wkearney/misc/radio/radio8/exporter/

Upload the file to TypePad using Option B when Importing Content.

Content in Another Format

If you are not using one of the above weblogging services, you can still import your posts if you can create a file in the import format that TypePad's import function uses. The following document shows the import format you will need to use (Note: TypePad uses the same format as Movable Type):

http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/docs/mtimport

Importing Content

Once you have your weblog content in the appropriate format, you can import this file into TypePad. If you do not have a weblog to import into, set this up first by Creating a New Weblog.

To import posts into the weblog, click the Edit Posts shortcut link for the weblog on your Weblogs tab. Then click the Import/Export link to enter the Import area:

1 Choose Option A or B

Option A

Use Option A if your export file is online, to enter the URL of the export file.

Enter the full URL, such as:

http://www.example.com/export.txt

Option B

Use Option B if you have saved the export file, to browse for the file on your computer.

2 Click “Import”

Click Import and your posts will be imported into the weblog.

After this has completed, view the listing of your posts on the List All Posts page for the weblog. Publish the weblog to see the changes on your site.

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Exporting Your Weblog Content

To export posts from your weblog, click the Edit Posts shortcut link for the weblog on your Weblogs tab. Then click the Import/Export link to enter the Export area.

To save the exported data to a file, you can right-click the Export link and choose Save Target As... to choose a location. On the Macintosh, hold down the option key while clicking on the link.

This will give you a file that contains your weblog posts. The file can be saved on your local computer as a backup, or imported into another weblog.

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Searching and Replacing Text

Use the Search & Replace tool to search through all of your entries, or to replace every instance of one word/phrase/character with another.

IMPORTANT: be careful when doing a replace, because there is no undo. If you are making a replacement in many of your entries, you may wish to first use the Export feature to back up your entries.

Search fields

Choose which fields to search: Title, Entry Body, Extended Post, Keywords

By default, search and replace operates on the Title, Entry Body, and Extended Entry Body fields of each post in your weblog. You can tune the Search & Replace to operate on only a subset of these fields by checking and unchecking the Search fields boxes.

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