The finalists for the Bloggies were announced today and we're very happy to see a large number of Movable Type users amonst the list:

Ain't Too Proud to Blog: New Weblog
All About George: Tagline
BobUpNDown.com: Canadian
Daily Sardonicism: Webcam
dollarshort.org: Design, New Weblog, Programming
Formica.ca: Canadian
Feral Living: European
Forty-Two: Webcam
Goluboy: Canadian
a.lifeuncommon.org: Design
Minid.net: Latin American
Movable Type: Web Application for Weblogs
Prolific.org: European, Programming
Slatch.com: Music
u2log.com: Music
What's New, Pussycat?: Australian/New Zealand, Best Kept-Secret
Wil Wheaton dot Net: Merchandise, American, Tagline, New Weblog, Blog of the Year

A personal thanks from Ben and myself to all that voted to nominate Movable Type for Best Web Application.

Good Luck, everyone!

Development on MT version 2.0 is going smoothly and we're looking at a early March release. Can you believe it's almost February?

A list of definite 2.0 features:

• Multiple category support: The ability to assign multiple categories per entry
• Multiple archive template per archive type
• Interface modifications, application navigation and icon improvements based on findings from professional usability testing
• Power edit screen: Apply title, category or author changes to multiple entries -- using one screen and all at once
• More sorting options for the MTEntries tag: alphabetical by title, most recently commented-on, ascending and descending chronologically
• Mail this entry
• IP banning for comments
• Support for execution as a mod_perl handler
• A number of bug fixes and stability improvements

After version 2.0 we'll be heading to Texas (driving from California!) for SXSW where we'll hopefully be able to promote our wares and take a break before resuming work on the the advanced version of the software.

Particularly exciting is the success we've already had in getting some of the MT advanced features working -- namely secure posting via email and FTP to remote host.

Thanks again for supporting Movable Type and if you're already using the software, please remember to credit and link back to this site. A donation is optional -- credit is not. We rely on word-of-mouth and those links as our main way of promoting the software.

Interested in using Movable Type but don't want to install the software yourself?

Sign-up for a pay installation.

We made a rather messy mistake of naming the default stylesheet included in 1.4 "styles.css" because that clashes (if stored in the same directory) with the name of the stylesheet used by the MT app.

If you haven't downloaded 1.4 yet, don't worry -- a correction has already been made to the distribution.

If you have downloaded 1.4 and just happened to wipe out your MT system stylesheet, you will need to re-upload the styles.css that was in the distribution into the directory containing mt.cgi. Then go into MT, and change the name of the Stylesheet index template to "styles-site.css" (or something), then change each of the templates to use this new stylesheet name (rather than styles.css).

If you have downloaded 1.4 and nothing seems amiss, then it is because the two stylesheets are in separate directories.

We have released a new version of Movable Type, version 1.4. Existing users of versions 1.0-1.31 should use the upgrade distribution to update their MT installation, and should follow the upgrade instructions.

In addition to bug fixes and improvements to general stability, this release adds the following features:

• New and improved default templates and styles (more information)
• Tags to produce a customizable calendar display (more information)
• Tags to link to the next and previous archives (more information)
• Editable comment previews
• The ability to customize the comment error page (more information)
• New global tag attribute filters: encode_js, zero_pad, space_pad, remove_html, trim_to (more information)

For a full list of changes, take a look at the changelog.

I had the pleasure of speaking about Movable Type with onLine Tonight's David Lawrence on Friday.

You can listen the archived hour-long interview via this continuous stream or you can download the January 4th show via their website.

While listening, please keep in mind that there is a reason why we prefer email as our method of communication.

Forming a complete sentence on live radio is quite the challenge.

Good news for those who use the default templates: We're adding a slew of new designs for the upcoming 1.4 release on Monday.

Finally! A default template you'll want to use on your page.

For those who can't decide whether to make the move to Movable Type, we'd like to offer a page of testimonials from satisfied users.

Are you a satisfied user?

If so, send us your testimonial in an email. Don't forget to include your URL so we can link back to the source of contentment.

Happy New Year, everyone!

We're looking forward to an exciting year of big Movable Type developments. Thanks go out to all who have supported us with donations, support and just really great feedback.

We hope our plans for Movable Type in 2002 will be as exciting for our users as they are for us.

As many of you know, we're currently developing a version of MT with multiple category support. This version, formerly referred to as 1.4, will also consist of interface improvements (including new and improved, and more importantly, more intuitive icons).

Expect this release to merit a version 2.0 label.

In the meantime, we couldn't resist planning a mini-release -- with the focus being the MT calendar display.

The MT calendar tags are infinitely customizable; you can build a calendar as simple as the output of the Unix 'cal' program, or as complex and custom as the calendar featured at 'A Day Late', a weblog of mine.

In addition, expect these additional features in 1.4:

• Tags to link to the next and previous archives (for example, the previous month)
• The ability to edit previewed comments directly (without using the Back button)
• The ability to customize the error page when an error occurs while adding comments
• New global tag attribute filters (encode_js, zero_pad, space_pad, remove_html, trim_to)
• A number of bug fixes and compatibility improvements

The release of version 1.4 is scheduled for Monday, January 7th.

Once again, thanks for the great response to Movable Type and remember to spread the word about the system!