Features, Fixes, and More

The best thing about TypePad? We do most of the heavy lifting, and you don't have to lift a finger. We take your questions and feature requests that you submit with our support team, feedback from our Customer Advisory Board, and features on our roadmap, and improve the product about every two weeks.  All without you having to worry about software updates, compatibility issues, or anything else.

To kick off the new year, we focused a lot of energy on fixing issues that we researched (thanks to your feedback) and fixed over the holidays.  Here are just a few:

• Control your “Autosave". We know you love having autosave, but some people found some inconsistent behavior and requested more control. We’ve added a "Remove" link so that you can dismiss the "do you want to recover the last post" message if you know for sure you've saved it already.

• Now half a billion people can sign in and leave a comment on your blog using TypePad Connect.  Now it’s easier than ever for OpenID users to leave a comment on your blog. Anonymous comments are fine; getting to know your commenting community is way better. (Check out this great post by our own David Recordon.) It’s time to try TypePad Connect, don’t you think?

• Spiffed up TypePad Profiles. Now you can share more about your interests and favorites. Take a minute to update your TypePad profile and track your conversations around TypePad Connect-powered sites.

We've also added in a bunch of small bug fixes to TypePad. Here's a quick list:

• Fixed “date published” for approved comments
• Fixed archive calendar
• Fixed Amazon wishlists
• Improved comment notification emails
• Made the "password reset" email more clear
• “New blog” notification for TypePad Business Class blogs

And a few for TypePad Connect:

• Made “share email address” setting immediately after registration
• Leaving a comment is faster!
• OpenID improvements for the US and Japan
• Improved Profiles, so TypePad Connect profiles on your site can have your look-and-feel
• Auto-linking of URL's in comments
• Fixed “Recent Comments” link

Want to request a feature? Let us know through your account in a help ticket, or leave us a comment!

Comments

[Richard Nikoley]

Can we have an ALL COMMENT RSS? The single post RSS is not very useful, for me and my readers, anyway.

[a]

Thanks for these features and fixes.
A couple of years ago, I requested the following feature and I keep hoping that it will be implemented:

I'd love a place for comments in the photo albums.Pretty please? :) I realize a reader can comment if I make a post about the photograph in the album, but many of my readers look through my photo albums long after that initial post. Plus, I often post a piece of poetry or prose that I wrote, so the two are separate.

I'm an artist and this would GREATLY enhance feedback.

Thank you for considering this.
-gel

[Account Deleted]

It would be great to be able to include a small amount of text with html at the top of category pages.

For example, on my travel blog, I have posts tagged under the category "Morocco". I would like to be able to write a small note to readers at the top of the "Morocco" category page with, for example, the dates I was in the country, and a link to a map of the country.

I think this small addition could be easily implemented, and make for a better experience for readers of Typepad blogs.

Thanks for your consideration!

[David Saunders]

I so want my new community to be fluffed up and a larger comment button ;)

[Karen]

I like to reply to all my comments by email (and only some by commenting back, because I don't necessarily expect people to go back to read every blog post they comment on). So I can't stand the new Profile thingy, because when someone leaves a comment but doesn't include their email address, I can't reply (unless I already know their email address from before). This means that I'm not able to reply to lots of new commenters.

[Account Deleted]

Still hoping on the 'email me' when someone else leaves a comment - so everyone who leaves a comment on my blogs can join in straight away again when another comment is left.
Now that would really spice up the conversation and the community of readers!
N.B. trying to watch the video on Typepad connect - but all it does is keep loading.

Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)
http://www.thekissbusiness.co.uk
(because I have to sign in with my account which points to the default blog out of the 8 I have)

[Maxine]

Are you planning a dynamic blogroll, as is possible with Blogger (google). I am so jealous of blogs that can plug their RSS reader into a sidebar, instead of having to stick with these old-fashioned static blogrolls. Or have I missed something and one can do this already?

[Alexandria, Professional Bagpiper AFM Local 349]

Hi there! Great work you guys! A really cool feature I would like to possibley see is a customizable contact page so that for business blogs, visitors could have a quick way of contacting you by filling out a form.

[Ginevra]

that's a cool idea - I've sent this along to our product managers, who are taking a quick look at this to see how we could make it work.

[Ginevra]

I know! Maybe we can build you a larger comment button in custom comment CSS? http://support.typepad.com/cgi-bin/typepad.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1337

[Ginevra]

Hi Karin: you should see the "email to" link now in all comments! Some commenters haven't shared their email addresses in their profiles, but you can always post and ask them to. :)

[Account Deleted]

Hi Ginerva

You mean I can email any commenter through Connect. That's not what I mean.
I love - and I've been known to mention this before - an application underneath the comment box a commenter can tick to receive an email notification when another comment in published on the same post.
(Think WordPress application ;-))

Karin H

[Ginevra]

Hi Karen - those users do have to opt-in with their email addresses, but there's lots of ways we're working on improving this for profile members. One of them is making “share email address” setting immediately after registration, so that it's more apparent to your readers that they'll need to share their email addresses.

Let me know if you have some other thoughts.

[Ginevra]

that's a really cool idea - I'm checking with the product team to see what we could do about this for y'all.

[Ginevra]

I understand now - thanks much! :) I'm checking to see how best we could accomplish this.

[Ginevra]

oh, now THAT's a really good one. I've seen a few widgets you would add into the TypeLists frmo third parties. The challenge with contact forms is that there's usually a password request they do to email accounts. Have you seen one in particular that you like?

[DD]

Thanks for the fixes. How about a native Typepad site search capability, like the one you have installed for this blog? This is my eternal favorite request -- and I go back to 2003 and the first days of Typepad ...!

[Alexandria, Professional Bagpiper AFM Local 349]

Hi there! Is anyone else having trouble with their domain front page giving them a 404 error? When I go to ww.honorguardbugler.com/blog it works fine, but when I leave off the /blog, it gives me a 404.

[Beth]

I am very happy with typepad for the most part, except I would like to have a custom banner with my basic service. Other blog hosting sites out there offer free service with custom options. Why do I need to pay 89.95 a year to be able to change the banner when I am happy with the rest of the basic service?

[Ginevra]

are you still getting this error? I've been able to load up your blog just fine, and so was technical support? If you're still having trouble, then may we help you over in technical support to diagnose and troubleshoot the issue? That's usually the best way to get things answered.

[Ginevra]

Hi Beth:

I like to think of the paid service as a great way to get both technical support and a way to show other readers you're serious about blogging. It's one of the most advanced and yet user-friendly blogging services around. You've got hosting, upgrades, and cutting-edge features - pretty worthwhile, I'd say! Please let me know if you have any other questions.

[Ginevra]

that's a great idea. You can add Google (or other) searches to your blog now, here's some more information about that... http://support.typepad.com/cgi-bin/typepad.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=177

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

[Ginevra]

hm. this is on our roadmap, for sure, but not for right away. I've let folks on this side know you're interested, though!

[Samantha Brett]

Hi, does anyone know how to make edit the new nav bar with Custom CSS so you can use different images for each nav item? I've dont it before with advanced on a different blog, but now that you can't copy your basic template to advanced i can't be bothered starting the design all over again.

Also it would be great if you could create a simple page footer editor that allows you to add copyright info, and links like most webpages have.

[Ginevra]

Hi Samantha: Our tech support team should be able to help you get this sorted out. Let me know how it goes!

[Philip Voice]

I am disappointed tonight.

I wrote a long post with lots of links to strengthen the piece and then Typepad threw a wobbly but I thought, no need to worry because I kept seeing the 'autosave' kicking in.

The publish didn't work (as Typepad was in wobbler mode) but when I re-loaded the editor the auto save reassured me that there was a post that I could recover.

Trouble was, when I clicked on the recover link I was taken to a blank editor. The post looks to be lost.

Not the end of the world but you know yourself, with blogging, if you miss 'the moment' to get something off your chest, tomorrow does not feel quite the same.

Any ideas why my auto save and recover feature didn't work?

I don't know if it is relevant but I had another Tpyepad blog (not mine) open and I had just left a comment (I have recently upgraded comments to 'connect') and it was while this window was open that my editor went wrong.

Regards

Phil Voice

[Ginevra]

Hi Phillip! Gosh, I am so sorry this happened. I know that feeling well. What happens if you sign all the way out of TypePad and sign back in? Does it find the post then?

[Philip Voice]

Hi Ginevra

No joy I'm afraid.

I very briefly saw the previous post flash on into the editor but that then disappeared. This has saved already though and not the one that had caused me the grief.

[Ginevra]

grr. The best thing to do since it's not working as expected is to file a help ticket with our awesome tech support team to see if they can figure out what's gone wrong. I wonder if it was just a momentary glitch or something that we can fix for the future so that you don't have to go through this again. You can cut and paste your comments if you like and they can diagnose and troubleshoot from there.

I'm really sorry, though - it has happened to me a few times and is always a /headdesk sort of moment. Blech.