How to Link the Title of a Post to the Permalink URL in TypePad

This Hack goes out to Phillip Molly Malone, who suggested it for the list of Agenda Items.

I would love to have the ability to make the title of a post link to the Permalink URL. Posted by:Phillip Molly Malone | March 20, 2006 at 06:08 PM

Making your blog's Post Titles link to the permanent URL for the entry requires using advanced templates. Props to Colleen and Carla at the TypePad Help Desk for helping me figure out how to implement this Hack.

1. Login at www.typepad.com and click the Weblogs tab.
2. Click the name of the weblog for which you wish to convert post titles to permalinks.
3. If you are already using an advanced template, click the Design tab. If you are using a basic template follow these instructions to convert your template to advanced.
4. Navigate to this page in TypePad's Knowledge Base (preferably in a new tab or browser window) and copy the entry-individual template module code. Return to the Design tab page.
5. Near the bottom of the page, locate and click Create New Template Module. Give your new template a name of entry-individual by typing it in the Template Name field. Paste the code for the entry-individual template module into the Template Body field. (If you already have a template module called entry-individual, skip to the next step.)
6. Scroll down until you see the following line of code: <h3 class="entry-header"><$MTEntryTitle$></h3>
7. Replace that line of code with the following: <h3 class="entry-header"><a href="<$MTEntryPermalink$>"><$MTEntryTitle$></a></h3>
8. Click save.
9. Navigate to this page in TypePad's Knowledge Base and copy the entry-list template module code.
10. Click Create New Template Module again. Give your new template a name of entry-list. Paste the code for the entry-list  template module into the Template Body field. If you already have a template module called entry-list, skip to the next step.)
11. Scroll down until you see the following line of code: <h3 class="entry-header"><$MTEntryTitle$></h3>
12. Replace that line of code with the following: <h3 class="entry-header"><a href="<$MTEntryPermalink$>"><$MTEntryTitle$></a></h3> and click save.
13. Those of you who started out with existing template modules for entry-individual and entry-list are done! Click save and republish your site. If you created new template modules in the previous steps, follow the next set of instructions:

1. If you created new template modules for entry-individual and entry-list, return to the Design tab.
2. Click on your Main Index Template. Replace <$MTWeblogIncludeModule module="entry-list"$> with <$MTInclude module="entry-list"$> Click save.
3. Return to the Design tab and click on your Category Archives Template.
4. Replace <$MTWeblogIncludeModule module="entry-list"$> with <$MTInclude module="entry-list"$> and click save.
5. Return to the Design tab and click on your DateBased Archives Template.
6. Replace <$MTWeblogIncludeModule module="entry-list"$> with <$MTInclude module="entry-list"$> and click save.
7. Return to the Design tab and click on your Individual Archives Template.
8. NOTE: the next step uses different code!
9. Replace <$MTWeblogIncludeModule module="entry-individual"$> with <$MTInclude module="entry-individual"$> and click save.
10. Now you're done! Click save and republish your site (be sure that Publish all Files is selected in the popup window).

Okay! Your titles should now all link to the permanent entry for each post.

Comments

[Posted: Apr 21, 2006 4:16:35 AM]

Thanks, it worked perfectly for me. My blog is www.techiediva.com if anyone wants to see.

Now if I could only get the the Post Column aligned to the right. I tried this, but the column ended up taking up the whole page, and the two side columns were all the way in the bottom. Any suggestions why this may have happened?

BTW, You're doing a bang up job on this blog. Thanks for your hard work!

[Posted: Apr 21, 2006 6:08:03 PM]

Gina, I eventually made it work by playing around with the pixel sides of the alpha, beta, and gamma columns.

[Posted: Apr 21, 2006 7:53:34 PM]

Thanks Tom, I'll try that.

[Posted: Apr 21, 2006 8:02:53 PM]

Gina,

Thanks for providing a link to your use of the Title/link hack.

Sorry, I didn't get back to you quicker about column alignment. Tom is right that it works better if you use absolute values for the pixels, rather than the "auto" width.

I like using auto so that page can fit whatever size browser is trying to view it, but I discovered just yesterday that if you post an entry with less than two lines of text, the auto window will end at the end of the first line (or image). Not optimal, eh?

Tom,

Thanks for commenting to help Gina out!

[Posted: Apr 22, 2006 9:25:54 PM]

Cool. Only thing is I want Typepad to make it an option for all rather then a feature of advanced templates.

I am actually considering to hosting my own blogs on a hosting service and possibly seeing what all the Wordpress fuss is about!

Molly

[Posted: Apr 22, 2006 9:33:24 PM]

Molly,

I agree that this is definitely one of the items that should be integrated as a feature for all TypePad blogs. But at least for now, the hack will work.

I'm not gonna diss Wordpress, because I think it's a good system, but I doubt you'll find it any easier to use than TypePad's template code. I could be wrong on that, though. If you decide to give it a try, let me know what you think when you've played with it a bit.

[Posted: Apr 23, 2006 4:19:32 AM]

I've tried this twice now and can't get it to republish after I make the changes - any suggestions

[Posted: Apr 23, 2006 4:37:31 AM]

d'uh - I worked out the problem. I had capital E at the start of the titles of entry-individual and entry-list such a little thing - not it works perfectly - Thanks - great job you're doing

[Posted: Apr 23, 2006 3:53:41 PM]

Trevor,

glad to hear you got it working!

[Posted: Apr 24, 2006 2:32:02 PM]

General note:

Usually when a template causes an error during republishing it does turn out to be something along the lines of Trevor's experience above… that is, a typo. The other thing to watch out for is whether you've used the correct version of MT includes tags.

[Posted: Jun 15, 2006 3:54:52 PM]

This worked perfectly. Thanks for making it so easy!

[Posted: Sep 18, 2006 1:23:14 AM]

Very useful post. My question is now that my titles are links, can I change the link colors for the titles only? I would like all my titles to be solid black despite the fact that they are links. Any ideas?

[Posted: Oct 8, 2006 2:54:35 AM]

I HAVE TO PUT LINKS TO TWO BUSINESSES ONTO MY WEBBLOG PERMANENTLY

WWW.AUSSIEESCORTS.COM.AU

WWW.ONLYMELBOURNE.COM.AU

CAN YOU PLS ASSIST ME

NATALEE

[Posted: Oct 9, 2006 9:35:33 AM]

Natalee,

It's really easy to put permanent links in your sidebar by adding them to a typelist in your sidebar. If you're not sure how, just go to the help section in typepad and search for typelists. You can either create a links style typelist and just paste the URLs in and title them, or you can get fancier by using a notes style typelist which will allow you to use html to add descriptions, pictures or whatever else you might want. Pretty much all my typelists are the notes style because they're much easier to edit later (Note: although you can have as many items in a notes typelist as you want, I put everything in one entry and separate the items with paragraph or break tags… that way, you can change the order of items more easily by just editing the html in the one entry).

[Posted: Jan 10, 2007 11:15:35 PM]

I implemented this for a client - worked like a charm. Thanks, TypePad Hacks!

[Posted: Jan 13, 2007 10:50:25 PM]

Hi,
Because I've previously done "How To: Display Excerpts Rather Than Full Posts on Your Blog's Archive Pages" I do not have <$MTWeblogIncludeModule module="entry-list"$> in neither of Category Archives Template nor Category Archives Template.
What could be done?
Thanks.

[Posted: Jan 14, 2007 12:36:32 AM]

Yoichi,

You can search the TypePad knowlege base for any bits of template code that's either been removed or which you might wish to include.

In this case, though, just follow the instructions above and work with the code that you replaced in the "Excerpts Rather Than Full Posts" hack. The title tag is still there, and you just need to add the permalink tag to it.

[Posted: Jan 14, 2007 9:05:00 PM]

Hi John,
I was afraid that you were gonna say something like that :)
So I guess there's no easy way around. Oh well. I'll give it a try.
Thanks for your quick response.
Cheers!

[Posted: Jan 18, 2007 12:18:42 AM]

Hi again,
I've got it done! But one more question.
How can I get rid of the underline from the titles?
Thanks for your help again.

[Posted: Feb 21, 2007 6:15:00 PM]

Jon, what a great site you have here! Can't believe I didn't find it sooner. The first site I came across to improve my typepad SEO, the guy describes how he improved traffic by swapping the position of the post title to be in front. He offers to do it for $75 - 100 and doesnt say how in the post! I nearly fell out of my chair because I know how easy it is once you know where the line of code is. Anyway, great resource and thank you!

[Posted: Dec 5, 2007 5:01:55 PM]

how can you get the entire post title to show as the permalink? right now it's just showing about 15 characters long.