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Alden Bates' Weblog

Feigning normality since 1973

Comparing Movable Type and Wordpress

Filed in: Weblogging.

One of the things I've been meaning to do for a long time now is upgrade the TSV Editor's Weblog to use a decent blogging package rather than the software I'd whipped up myself (which did little more than let the blogger add an entry). As Movable Type's licence only allows for one user, I opted to install Wordpress.

Installation is a lot easier than MT. Wordpress has almost a third of the files to upload, and they're all in the proper directories in the zip file. It's therefore just a matter of following the brief installation instructions to get started.

I wasn't as impressed with the back end. It doesn't look as elegant as the MT backend. The "dashboard" which is the welcome page you get when you log in is cluttered with news from the Wordpress development blog (MT shows titles from their blog only, and tucked away at the side). That said, the only one who's going to be looking at the back end is going to be the author anyway.

The page for adding an entry is very nice with the advanced options hidden until you click on the appropriate title (I had to google to find out what a "Post slug" was though). I also like the concept of using the blog software to add "pages" too (I.E. HTML pages which aren't actually blog entries).

Prefilling the links list with links to (I presume) the Wordpress developer's blogs was a bit cheeky though!

I haven't yet looked at how easy it is to create skins for Wordpress - that will be the next step, so I can make the Editor's weblog look like it's part of the site.

Posted January 3, 2006 9:16 PM

Comments

To improve the look and feel of interface look for a plugin called 'Tiger Style Administration'.

I would also recommend plugins:
wp-cache - speed up page downloads
optimal title - make your pages more search engine friendly

then start exploring widgets for WP which make life a lot easier.

good luck - JoC

Posted by: Johnny | October 20, 2006 11:11 PM

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