I’ve Had It With Movable Type

Oct 24

universalheadSite News 3 Comments

Warning: geeky programming content follows!

This blog started on Blogger, then moved to Movable Type, and now, with the release of MT4, it’s time to move again. I’ve had it with Movable Type. In this day and age of visual communication, Movable Type persists in being the most complex and user-unfriendly content management system I have yet to come across. It may be venerable, it may be powerful, but the company can’t seem to get a decent set of tutorials together, leaving 90% designer/10% programmer types like me floundering in an ocean of wikis, messy documentation, and articles that assume so much knowledge on the part of the reader that it’s virtually impossible to get anywhere.

In start contrast, there’s Expression Engine. I’ve only just started going through the tutorials and already it’s starting to make perfect sense.

Take note companies–if you’re trying to sell to the public, then you have to put as much effort into communicating to them how to use the product as you put into your product itself. MT may be the best content management system in the world, but if I can’t find clear, easy-to-understand documentation on how to use it, how will I ever know?
Things may get a little messy round here as I change it all around to the new system. Bear with me readers!

3 Comments (+add yours?)

  1. jedimacfan
    Oct 26, 2007 @ 09:56:28

    You might also try WordPress. At least it is free.

  2. Oliver
    Dec 18, 2007 @ 08:01:28

    I second the wordpress comment; I use it on my blog and although you have play with some stuff, more or less, it’s pretty easy to wrap your head around.

  3. Universal Head
    Dec 18, 2007 @ 08:09:51

    I used WordPress on a job once and I must admit I found it very non-intuitive. I just couldn’t get my head around the fact that one template was used for almost everything, and found it very hard to add other templates or modify the main one.
    Still haven’t had the time to absorb Expression Engine, but I like the paradigm. Your content is kept in the database and can be sent out to multiple ‘mini-blogs’ that can share the same page or multiple pages. And, like WordPress, you don’t have the interminable ‘rebuilding’ business of MovableType.