Movable Type User Manual: UPLOADING FILES

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UPLOADING FILES

Movable Type offers an interface for uploading files--either images or regular files--onto your webserver for use on your site. You can upload files into either your Local Site Path or your Local Archive Path directories; in addition, you can upload files into any directory beneath those two directories.

To upload a file, log in to Movable Type, select your weblog, then click Upload File. Browse your hard drive to choose the file you wish to upload. Then choose where you would like to upload the to. For example, if you are uploading an image, and you typically keep all of your images in an images directory under your Local Site Path, you should click the Local Site Path radio button, then enter images into the text box next to it. After choosing a destination for the uploaded file, click UPLOAD.

If a file with the same name already exists in the destination directory, you will have the option of overwriting the existing file; if you choose not to overwrite the existing file, the file you uploaded will be deleted, and you can then rename the file locally and upload it again, or resolve the issue in some other manner. (NOTE: if you do not receive the option to overwrite the existing file, but instead receive an error about File::Temp not being installed, take a look at the Installation Instructions, in the section If you need to install File::Temp.)

Auto-Creating a New Entry

After you have uploaded a file, you have the choice of either creating a new entry using that uploaded file, or just displaying the HTML used to link to the file. For example, if you have uploaded an image, and would like to create a new entry with a link to that image in a popup window, select Create a new entry using this uploaded file, and press POPUP IMAGE. If you are already editing an entry, then you won't want to create another new entry (and perhaps lose the one that you are working on); so in that case, click the Show me the HTML button and click POPUP IMAGE. This will display the HTML code for opening the image in a popup window. You can then copy and paste this code into the entry you are editing.

Creating Thumbnails

If you uploaded an image, and if your server has the Image::Magick Perl module installed, you have the additional option of creating a thumbnail of the image that you uploaded. To create a thumbnail, check the Create a thumbnail for this image, then adjust the Width and Height boxes to scale the image to the size or percentage that you want. You can scale either by pixel size (Pixels in the pull-down menu), or by percentage (Percent in the pull-down menu).

In addition, you can scale width and height either in proportion to their original sizes, or out of proportion (to distort the image). By default, the Constrain proportions box is checked; this will ensure that if you make a change to either the width or height, the other dimension will be scaled appropriately. If you uncheck the Constrain proportions checkbox, you will be able to scale the width and height to different proportions.

When creating a thumbnail, the POPUP IMAGE button will generate HTML to display your thumbnail image as a link to a popup window containing the full-size image that you uploaded. The EMBEDDED IMAGE button will generate HTML to display your thumbnail image as a link to the full-size image in the same window.


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