TypeLists allow you to add almost anything to your blog sidebar, and TypeLists are easy to update with both Basic and Advanced templates. Notes TypeLists give you flexibilty to add text, HTML, and images to your sidebar. You can set up a drop-down menu for your Archives or include a short disclaimer by entering text.
The Pages sidebar module is an easy way to add links to the new Pages you have created for your blog. But with a Notes TypeList, you can add more pizazz by creating a series of linked images pointing to your Pages.
Using Notes TypeLists to Add Linked Images
After creating images to fit your sidebar width, you can upload the images to the File Manager at Control Panel > Files. Copy the image URL and add it to a new Notes TypeList Item. The URL for the image should be similar to:
http://example.typepad.com/image.jpg
The code can be edited to include the image and link tags. For example:
<a href="http://example.typepad.com/my_weblog/page1.html"><img alt="Contact Page" title="Contact" src="https://example.typepad.com/image.jpg" /></a>
The alt and title attributes can be edited to include the Title of the page linked through the image. This text will pop up when hovering your mouse over the image.
Replace "http://example.typepad.com/my_weblog/page1.html" from the example with the URL for the Page you want the image to link to. When creating or editing a Page, you can set the Filename for the Page. The full URL for the page is this Filename added to the end of your blog's URL and this is what you'll use in the code.
Additional information on adding linked images to your sidebar with a Notes TypeList is available in the Knowledge Base.
TypeLists and Advanced Templates
If you're an Advanced Template user, you can take advantage of this too. Although you can add HTML for links and widgets directly to a sidebar template using Advanced Templates, using a TypeList is usually better. The advantage to using TypeLists is the ease with which you can update the items in the list. There is no need to edit your templates each time you add a new link to a blogroll, for example. The new item can be added directly from the TypeLists tab by clicking the Add an item button.
TypeLists are included in your templates with a MTListInclude tag, or you can have more control over the TypeList within your templates by using the MTList tags. See the TypeList Tags article for more information.
After placing TypeList tags in your sidebar template, the list will update automatically when you add a new item or edit an existing item. Weekly polls, blogrolls, and any other sidebar content you will be editing frequently are good items to place on your blog with a TypeList, instead of editing the sidebar template directly.
Last month we wrote about how you can update your TypePad blog using desktop clients like Microsoft Office Word 2007 and Windows Live Writer. Yesterday, our friends at Microsoft released a new version of Windows Live Writer that adds some great new features including:
