Hi everyone, I only recently started using Movable Type to create a website for a friend. He's not very computer literate, but he needs his website to be secure -- which is why we chose MT. I am myself a recent WordPress convert, and although I know how to use WP in CMS-mode to create normal websites (i.e. not web blogs), I don't like WP for its obvious security flaws.
I have tried both MT4 and MT5 and I really like the structure of the backend and the ability to create static pages. However, I've found it quite difficult to use MT in CMS mode. One thing I was wondering about is: How do I set up a page to be my home page (or start page), i.e. the page visitors see first after entering the URL of my site. Since I am not going to run a blog on this website, I have only created a number of ordinary pages. But whenever I call up the root URL of the project, I only get an empty page. I get the header and the footer as well as the navigation (which contains links to the pages I have created), but I've been unable to locate an option which allows me to specify a home page or at least manipulate the default home page's content.
Also, how do I disable the RSS feed? Again, since I'm not running a web blog, feeds are somewhat unnecessary.
Sorry if these questions sound noob :o) But this is really not as straightforward as it may seem to experienced users. Thanks for your help.
Reported on Movable Type 5
What template set are you using?
You should be able to customize the home page (called "Main Index" index template) and display there whatever you want. For instance any page or pages tagged as "@home".
<mt:Pages tag="@home">
For the RSS Feed, you will have first to delete it's reference from the "Header" template module (system blog level) and then set the template to "not publish".
Enjoy,
Mihai
hi mihai,
thanks for your quick reply! and thank you for your help, i did as you said and was able to solve both problems.
so, as i understand it, i can either edit the home page directly by manipulating the "main index" index template (i.e. by writing my own html) or by "linking" a page to the home page through a tag. choosing the second option would allow me to use the graphical editor to change the content of the home page -- but the problem is: the link to the original page still remains. e.g. if i create a page "information" and publish it, mt will put a link to "information" in the navigation bar. through the @home tag i can link the content of "information" to the home page, but i still have a link to "information" sitting in my nav bar -- it's still a separate page, the content is just "mirrored" to the home page.
is there a way to eliminate this small cosmetical issue?
Hi,
You're welcome!
Yes, you could exclude the page that you've included on the home page from the navigation module.
You would put something like:
<mt:PageIfTagged tag="@home"><mt:Else>your page navigation coding here</mt:PageIfTagged>
Kind Regards,
Mihai Bocsaru