Changing Movable Type Themes

Kim Riemann (Kim), May 2007

Originally, when we started the blogs on SlowTrav, we thought it would be good for them all to have the same format or theme, to look alike, basically, for ease of maintenance. But with MovableType's Plugin feature called StyleCatcher, it's easy to change the look of your blog with a few clicks of the mouse.

By following these step-by-step instructions, you will be able to change the appearance of your blog into any of several dozen different themes, and easily change it back again into the SlowTrav theme.

Step One

From your blogs main screen, click on "Select a Design using StyleCatcher" on the right side of the screen.

MT styles example

Step Two

You will see the StyleCatcher Screen with Saved Themes displayed. These are themes we previously used during testing or that other bloggers in our system have used. You will be able to select one of these themes, but if you would like to see more, click "Find Styles" (see screen below). This may take a moment to load all the selections from the Movable Type repository, so be patient.

MT styles example

Step Three

Now you'll see the screen filled with different examples of blog formats (you can use the arrows to page through them). In the example below, we've selected the one entitled "Beckett" by clicking on it and then clicking "Apply Selected Design" at the bottom of the screen.

MT styles example

Step Four

Now you'll see a screen that shows your "Current Theme" as indicated below, the current theme for this blog is now Beckett. If you click on "View Site" you will see how your blog looks with the new theme.

MT styles example

After you click on View Site - you'll see the new theme of your blog as shown below:

MT styles example

That's it - now you're done. You can use your browser's back arrow to return to edit mode, where do NOT be surprised if you're current theme doesn't appear correct. This is a snafu in StyleCatcher, just use your reload button and the screen should update nicely.

If You Want to Change Back to the SlowTrav Theme

It's simple to do. Following similar steps to above, go to the Style Catcher screen and click on Saved Themes. You'll see a screen similar to below. Find the SlowTrav Theme and click it then click "Apply Selected Design." That will return your blog to the standard SlowTrav format.

MT styles example

Are There Other Themes I Can Use?

In addition to the standard SlowTrav theme and the ones in the MovableType Repository, you can also access themes created by other bloggers as part of a MovableType contest. To access these themes, enter the URL "http://thestylecontest.com/browse" into the field "Theme or Repository URL" as shown below. Then click "Find Styles" remembering, it may take a few moments for these styles to load. Then just select a style as you would above.

MT styles example

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