Chapter 3 - Configuration

"The dedicated team of TMS
staffers configure Thingamablog
prior to its third rewrite..."

In this chapter I will lightly cover the steps required to set up your first site and create your first post. Now, this is boring stuff people, since Thingamablog makes it so darn easy, but I'll try to hit just the high notes if only to help set you up for what's coming up in the rest of this tutorial.

Tip! It can all be changed back later, BTW.

Open up Configure Weblog Settings. What you'll see right off are the "General" settings. They should be OK. Now, click on the Front Page icon on the left...

and change the following (if you can...Moo hoo mwah ha ha haaaa...).

1. Change "Limit front page entries" to 5.
2. Change the front page file name to: index.html

Now one by one, select the other icons there on the left, and make the following changes:

Archiving

1. Change the archives extension to .html
2. Change the Archives Index Page file name to archives.html
3. Change the entry pages extension to .html

Categories

1. Make sure that you have at least one category named "General".
2. Change the Category pages extension to .html

Authors

1. Make sure you have at least one author defined. Include an email address.

Pinging

1. Uncheck all checkboxes.

Note: The reason you're unchecking those boxes is that these are the sites you will be pinging every time you publish. As you work on your site (prior to your grand unveiling) you will be publishing many, many times. You simply don't want to overdo it with the pings before your site is ready. Besides, "Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Pinging" is covered in Chapter 20, and you'll definitely want to wait for that!

Publishing

1. Just for now, make sure you're publishing locally.

"OK ladies, back to work..."

OK, all that's left is to create your test post! You can create it directly in Thingamablog, or you can create it in your favourite HTML editor and then paste it into Thingamablog. Or you can do it the way I do it - with an abacus - but that's pretty advanced stuff we'll cover another day...

...Now let us dance like fairies of the night to Chapter 4 - Posting and Viewing!