Movable Type was long over due for a major overhaul and this looks like the real deal. It could well be a superior CMS program for churches and ministries to use for integrating all of their internet sites, blogs, and social network pages.

Take a look at the offering and remember that it all can be downloaded for <<free>>.  Also, they offer support service packages, upgrade and installation services for a fee.

Here is some of the features listed on the website:

What’s New in Movable Type 4.2?

• Community features are now built in. Build a social network with Member Profiles and more.
• AntiSpam is built in. Six Apart’s free, open source antispam product, TypePad AntiSpam, is built into Movable Type.
• It’s faster! Common tasks like search are up to 100 times faster than in previous releases.
• It’s more secure than ever before. Our security record keeps on improving.
• Search results are threaded. Paginated search results make it easy for visitors to find content.
• Commenting is threaded. Commenters can now respond to one another.
• New professional templates. Beautiful, new professional templates are now included.
• Simpler default templates. New templates make it easier than ever to build your site.
• Faster, better publishing. Choose synchronous or asynchronous publishing to fit your schedule.

*Top

Related Posts?:

1. Book Review:”Sams Teach Yourself: Movable Type -In 24 Hours”
2. Getting Started: With Go Daddy’s Quick Blogs -An Evaluation

This is by far the definitive book on the ‘Movable Type’ blogging program. There are chapters on beginning with Movable Type- from installing the program to using all the basic features. Then there are chapters on customizing the program, custom templates, and adding ‘plug-ins’.  The book also covers advanced procedures, upgrades, and troubleshooting.

Anyone using the Movable Type program will find the book worth far more than its price. The $29.99 list is expensive indeed, however, the time saved and the tips gained in 554 pages will make it seem rather cheap.            *Top

Related Posts?:

1. “The Everything Blogging Book”
2. Book Review: “WordPress for Dummies, 2nd Edition”

Related Posts?:

1. Getting Started with TypePad -An Evaluation
2. Getting Started: MovableType -An Evaluation

(Image via CrunchBase)

MovableType is a powerful blogging program made by SixApart, the same company that operates TypePad.  Both programs have a lot in common, but MovableType has more options for customizing.  The greatest difference lies in the fact that TypePad is a blog service program like Blogger, while MovableType is designed to be downloaded onto your own hosted site.  There are some hosts like Yahoo! who will provide and install the program for you.  That is the case with when I installed MT as a test.

Yahoo! offers a choice (*Update-not anymore) between installing the WordPress blog program or MovableType . Both are advanced platforms for blogging.  Most of my other sites use WordPress and that is what I started out with.  I installed a MovableType program in order to experience and compare features between the two programs.

Setting up a MovableType seemed to be a lot more difficult than beginning with WordPress. I pretty much had it going after 1 hour.  It took another hour to find the present template or ‘style’ and get the blog to change.  I had to add HTML code to the ‘index’ page in order to have a blogroll.  I would have not been able to do this a year ago when I started.  WordPress provides linking and blogroll capability as part of the basic program, so does the sister program at TypePad. 

MovableType gives you a real clean basic program for publishing a blog, however, WordPress offers greater variety at your finger tips with more than 500 different ‘Themes’ presently available. WordPress also gives you the possibiliity to publish info. or ‘about’ pages, along with fully static pages.  MovableType does have a ‘plugin’ that can be downloaded for producing extra pages.

MovableType does offer the easier program for publishing pictures, that is the greatest WordPress difficulty. 

Since I started out with WordPress and have 10 different sites using it, I am somewhat inclined to favor it over MovableType.  However, it does provide a rather impressive blog. 

**UPDATE 8/08: New updated version of MovableType available.          *Top

Related Posts?:

1. Getting Started with TypePad -An Evaluation
2. Getting Started: With TypePad