Welcome to the TypePad FAQ!

Here you will find answers to the most frequently asked questions via our Help Ticket system. We've designed this to be an easy way for you to get the answers you need as quickly as possible. Have a question you'd like to see answered? Let us know

About page

How do I add or edit content for my About Page?
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You can add or edit content to your About Page by clicking to Account in the top green navigation bar. On the Basics page you can set your general information such as your Name, Display Name, and Location.
Under the About Me Page link of the left-hand side, you can set the items you want to display on the page, and set your Biography and theme for the page.
Your Photo, One-Line Bio, and Interests can be edited by clicking your name or display name in the top green navigation. You should now be on your Profile page and you can click on "Edit Your Profile" in the green bar under your photo (or randomly generated avatar).
How can I make my banner fit on my About page?
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The About page always uses a two column, left layout. If you have designed your theme for a three-column layout on your weblog, the banner image will most likely be too wide to fit on your About page.

To get around this, you can make a duplicate of your weblog design, then modify it to use a two-column, left, layout and upload a slightly smaller version of your banner image to fit it.

Also, as an alternative to the default About Page, you can use the Pages feature to create an additional "about" page - which will match your design exactly.

More information about creating additional pages is available here.

Account

How do I delete my profile?
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At this time, there is not an option to delete your account completely.
However, your free TypePad account can be used to comment on TypePad and other blogs which require authentication and support OpenID.
You can find information on editing your free TypePad Profile page here:
http://help.sixapart.com/tp/us/editing_profile.html

If you would still like to remove your account, please let us know, and we can take your profile offline.
How do I cancel a paid account?
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We're so sorry that you're thinking of leaving us. Each of our bloggers is an important part of the TypePad community, so we'd love to have the opportunity to make this a better experience for you. If we can help with this in any way (some one on one help, a walkthrough, some service time on us), we'd love chance to communicate with you before you cancel!

If you must cancel, you may do so by going to Account > Billing Info > Cancel account, and following all of the steps there. We are not able to cancel for you, as you MUST agree to the Terms of Cancellation.

More information on cancellation is available at:
http://help.sixapart.com/tp/us/cancel.html
Can I transfer ownership of my account to someone else?
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Currently, we do not have a way to transfer account ownership to someone. The best way to handle this is to allow the new owner access to your account so that they can update the billing information or you can update it yourself with their information. To change the Account information simply click to the Account link and update the fields - including the email address, and Save Changes. To update the billing information, go to Account > Billing Info > Payment Method (Update)
How can I change my email address?
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To change your e-mail address you need to go to Account link. Once there simply type your new e-mail address in the Email Address textbox. You'll then receive an e-mail to the new address asking you to verify the change. Once you've verified the e-mail, your account's e-mail address will update.

We have more information here:
http://help.sixapart.com/tp/us/email_change.html

Banners

Why doesn't my banner print?
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Because of the way that our designs are set up, graphic image banners are actually a background image, so it won't show up on your printout. As a workaround, if your browser has the option available, you can enable printing of background images.
How can I make my banner fit on my About page?
Permalink

The About page always uses a two column, left layout. If you have designed your theme for a three-column layout on your weblog, the banner image will most likely be too wide to fit on your About page.

To get around this, you can make a duplicate of your weblog design, then modify it to use a two-column, left, layout and upload a slightly smaller version of your banner image to fit it.

Also, as an alternative to the default About Page, you can use the Pages feature to create an additional "about" page - which will match your design exactly.

More information about creating additional pages is available here.
How wide should my banner be in a fluid layout design?
Permalink

A Fluid width expands and contracts depending on how wide the browser window is. This means that there isn't a suggested width for the image because it can fluctuate. You may wish to use a matching Background color, in the Blogs > Design > Theme Builder area under Page Banner, so the color will blend more seamlessly into your image. You can find additional information here.
How wide should my banner image be in a fixed layout design?
Permalink

To determine what size of banner would work best with your design, go to Blogs > Design, and click the Select a Theme link, then Theme Builder.

At the top of the page, under General Page Settings, it should have something like this:

Column Widths
Left: 150 pixels
Center: 500 pixels
Right: 150 pixels

In which case, the example design would be 800 px wide. TypePad adds a 15 pixel (px) border around the banner, so:

800 px - 30 px (15 for right, 15 for left) = 770 px

To be centered on the design, the banner for this example should be 770 px wide.

You can find additional information here.
How do I center a banner in a fixed layout?
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Pro Unlimited (or above) members can center the banner using some Custom CSS. At Blogs > Design > Custom CSS, just use the following CSS:

#banner { background-position: center; }

This will center the banner image.
How do I add a banner to a pre-defined theme?
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Using Custom CSS, you can add a custom banner image to a Pre-Defined Theme easily. If you need to upload the banner, you can do that at Library > File Manager, then click the file link to copy the complete URL from the browser's address bar.

Then, just follow the instructions in the Knowledge Base here. We have all the information you need, including the code to add a custom banner image to a Pre-Defined theme.
How do I add an image banner to my custom theme?
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If you're using a Custom Theme, you can use an image for your banner by going to Blogs > Design > Select A Theme, then Edit the Page Banner Element. You can find additional information on setting up a Custom Theme - including information on adding your banner image here.

You would need to create the banner image on your computer, using a graphics editing program like Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, or with an online editor like Gimp or Picnik.

Billing

Why was my transaction declined?
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"Transaction declined" means that, for whatever reason, your credit card issuer (or debit card issuer) is declining the purchase. Usually this is due to being over the credit limit or not having enough funds for the transaction, but it could also be a card hold for security reasons. You may also want to check to make sure you have entered the security code correctly from your card as the transaction will be declined if this information is missing or incorrect.

If the issue was resolved, or you believe the transaction was declined in error, you can resubmit the billing information to prompt the charge to run again.

Go to Account > Billing Info > Update Payment Method. Enter the entire credit card number, the security code, make any other necessary changes to the information, and click Save Changes. If the update is successful, the fee will run again in the next 24 hours.

We have more information on this here.
My account was suspended because of a billing error?
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When a billing failure occurs, you have a seven day grace period before the account is suspended.

If you have another credit card to use, you can enter the information for it at Account > Billing Info > Update Payment Method which will prompt billing to run in the next 24 hours. More information on updating billing information is available here.

Otherwise, please re-save your credit card information once you've cleared the matter up with your creditor and that will signal us to run billing again.

If you're not able to resolve the problem or use a new card within seven days, your account will be suspended. However, none of your data will be deleted and you can resubmit the transaction at any time by updating your credit card.

Blog Settings

Can I change my blog's subdomain?
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To change your account's subdomain, click to the Account link in the top green navigation bar and click the "Change" link next to Domain and enter the new domain that you would like to use.

Please note that once your subdomain is changed, any link to your blog from outside sources will be broken. Images and files in your posts will not be in the same location, and you will need to manually edit each post to correct the URLs for the images and files.

We have more information on this at:
http://help.sixapart.com/tp/us/change_domain.html
Why do all of my blogs use the same subdomain URL?
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Every account has a single TypePad URL, regardless of the number of blogs within the account. This URL acts as an umbrella for all blogs so that they appear like:

example.typepad.com/blog1
example.typepad.com/blog2

If this doesn't suit your needs, or you would like something without the TypePad reference in the URL, we recommend using our Domain Mapping feature.

If you have a registered domain like www.example.com, you can use TypePad's Domain Mapping feature to point it to your TypePad blog. This means that people can enter the domain name in their browser to get to your blog, and the domain name will be used in the URLs of all pages in your blog!

You can find out more about setting up domain mapping. You can read a more thorough explanation of how Domain Mapping works here, as well.
How do I delete a blog from my account?
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To delete a blog from your account, go to Blogs > Settings > Basics, and click the link at the bottom of the page that says "Delete this blog." It looks like this:

To complete the deleting process, you'll need to make sure to confirm that you want to delete the blog by clicking "Okay" on the resulting pop-up window.
How do I change the name or title of a blog?
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To change the title of your weblog, go to Blogs > Settings and change the name that is listed under "Blog Name." Then, save your changes and you're all set! You can find more information on on blog settings in our Knowledge Base here.

Comments

How do I turn comment notifications on/off?
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You can enable or disable comment notifications under Settings > Comments, look for the 'Email Notification' section towards the bottom of the page.

You can find more information on Comment Settings at:
http://help.sixapart.com/tp/us/comment_settings.html
Why aren't my comments displaying?
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If you are using TypePad Connect, instead of TypePad's built in commenting system, you may encounter a problem where some posts are not displaying comments. This is usually due to errant code in a comment which is added when emailing a comment reply using a Rich Text email format.

To quickly resolve the issue, you can disable TypePad Connect. At Settings > Comments, click to disable TypePad Connect. Then, click Save Changes to update your blog. This change will not impact existing or future comments.

All the features of TypePad Connect will be available for all TypePad comments very soon.

Custom Themes

How wide should my banner be in a fluid layout design?
Permalink

A Fluid width expands and contracts depending on how wide the browser window is. This means that there isn't a suggested width for the image because it can fluctuate. You may wish to use a matching Background color, in the Blogs > Design > Theme Builder area under Page Banner, so the color will blend more seamlessly into your image. You can find additional information here.
How wide should my banner image be in a fixed layout design?
Permalink

To determine what size of banner would work best with your design, go to Blogs > Design, and click the Select a Theme link, then Theme Builder.

At the top of the page, under General Page Settings, it should have something like this:

Column Widths
Left: 150 pixels
Center: 500 pixels
Right: 150 pixels

In which case, the example design would be 800 px wide. TypePad adds a 15 pixel (px) border around the banner, so:

800 px - 30 px (15 for right, 15 for left) = 770 px

To be centered on the design, the banner for this example should be 770 px wide.

You can find additional information here.
How do I add an image banner to my custom theme?
Permalink

If you're using a Custom Theme, you can use an image for your banner by going to Blogs > Design > Select A Theme, then Edit the Page Banner Element. You can find additional information on setting up a Custom Theme - including information on adding your banner image here.

You would need to create the banner image on your computer, using a graphics editing program like Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, or with an online editor like Gimp or Picnik.

Design

Why doesn't my banner print?
Permalink

Because of the way that our designs are set up, graphic image banners are actually a background image, so it won't show up on your printout. As a workaround, if your browser has the option available, you can enable printing of background images.
How can I make my banner fit on my About page?
Permalink

The About page always uses a two column, left layout. If you have designed your theme for a three-column layout on your weblog, the banner image will most likely be too wide to fit on your About page.

To get around this, you can make a duplicate of your weblog design, then modify it to use a two-column, left, layout and upload a slightly smaller version of your banner image to fit it.

Also, as an alternative to the default About Page, you can use the Pages feature to create an additional "about" page - which will match your design exactly.

More information about creating additional pages is available here.
How wide should my banner be in a fluid layout design?
Permalink

A Fluid width expands and contracts depending on how wide the browser window is. This means that there isn't a suggested width for the image because it can fluctuate. You may wish to use a matching Background color, in the Blogs > Design > Theme Builder area under Page Banner, so the color will blend more seamlessly into your image. You can find additional information here.
How wide should my banner image be in a fixed layout design?
Permalink

To determine what size of banner would work best with your design, go to Blogs > Design, and click the Select a Theme link, then Theme Builder.

At the top of the page, under General Page Settings, it should have something like this:

Column Widths
Left: 150 pixels
Center: 500 pixels
Right: 150 pixels

In which case, the example design would be 800 px wide. TypePad adds a 15 pixel (px) border around the banner, so:

800 px - 30 px (15 for right, 15 for left) = 770 px

To be centered on the design, the banner for this example should be 770 px wide.

You can find additional information here.
How do I add an image banner to my custom theme?
Permalink

If you're using a Custom Theme, you can use an image for your banner by going to Blogs > Design > Select A Theme, then Edit the Page Banner Element. You can find additional information on setting up a Custom Theme - including information on adding your banner image here.

You would need to create the banner image on your computer, using a graphics editing program like Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, or with an online editor like Gimp or Picnik.

Domain Mapping

How do I set up domain mapping?
Permalink

To use domain mapping you would first go through the Domain Mapping Wizard in TypePad under Account > Domain Mapping.

Then, at your registrar, you will need to create a CNAME record which points to
[example].typepad.com

be sure to replace [example] with your blog's subdomain

We have more information on how to do this here:
http://help.sixapart.com/tp/us/domain_mapping.html

When you can verify your CNAME is set correctly as described at:
http://help.sixapart.com/tp/us/verify_cname.html
you would then set the domain mapping to Active under Account > Domain Mapping.
If you need any assistance with this, please just let us know!

Photo Albums

Do you offer more styles for Photo Albums?
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The Photo Albums use special premade templates at this time, selected from the Photo Albums > Design area. In the future, we hope to enhance these options and look forward to having a wider range of ways to customize the Albums.
As a workaround you may wish to use a weblog with a Mixed Media Layout to showcase your photos. This would give you greater control over how your pictures are displayed, and all of the options for themes that your blogs have - including a Custom Theme with a banner. Mixed Media Layouts are designed specifically for showcasing images.
Can I change the link at the top of my Photo Album?
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Currently there is not a way to change the link in the Photo Album banner
since there is not a way to associate a photo album with a particular
weblog.

However, you can work around this by including an introduction for the
album and then put a message like this, linking to your weblog:

Welcome to my photo album. I hope you enjoy it. When you're done viewing,
you can return to my weblog here: http://example.typepad.com/blog/
How do I change or remove the title/link for my Photo Album?
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Currently there is not a way to change the link in the Photo Album banner since there is not a way to associate a photo album with a particular weblog.

However, you can work around this by including an introduction for the album and then put a message like this, linking to your weblog:

Welcome to my photo album. I hope you enjoy it. When you're done viewing, you can return to my weblog here: http://example.typepad.com/blog

Posting

Can I password protect just one post or page?
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Currently it is not possible to password protect specific posts or pages, only entire weblogs.

However, Pro Plus subscribers can create up to 3 blogs, and our Pro Unlimited subscribers can create unlimited blogs, so as a workaround you could create a blog with a similar design and use that blog for your sensitive content and then simply link to those pages on your main blog.

We'll look into possibly including this as a future enhancement to the system.
How do I create a single line break?
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Browsers treat the Enter key differently. In some browsers, Enter will create a new paragraph. To add a single line break, use Shift+Enter on a PC or Cmd + Enter on a Mac. In many other browsers, the Enter key will create a new line, and pressing Enter twice will create a new paragraph.

So if you're seeing a double line break or a paragraph when you only want to see a single line break, you can do Shift or Cmd + Enter to get a single line break.
How do I add anchor links to a post?
Permalink

You can read more about creating link anchors at:
http://www.hypergurl.com/anchors.html

To set up anchors in a Post like this, we would recommend you complete and style your post with the Rich Text editor and then you'll want to click on the "HTML" tab and choose "Convert Line Breaks" Once you've added the anchors to the post, don't switch back to the Rich Text editor or they may become corrupt.

Sharing

How do I share my posts on a Facebook Fan or Business page?
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The option to share your posts on Facebook only applies to your personal profile. However, you can use the Facebook Notes feature with your blog's feed to display your published post on a Facebook Business or Fan page.

After logging in at Facebook click to your Notes Settings (under Applications) and select "Import a blog."

In the "Web URL:" field, you can paste your blog's Feed URL.

Sidebars

How do I add an image to my sidebar?
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You can add an image to your sidebar using the Embed HTML widget option.
First, you'll upload the image to your account. Go to Library > File Manager. In the right sidebar there's a place to Upload a New File. Once the image is uploaded, the page will refresh, and you'll see the file listed on the left side. Click the Filename. Copy the URL from the address bar.
Then create a new "Embed your own HTML" widget under Weblogs > Design > Organize Content. Choose "Widgets" under the Categories menu, select 'Embed your own HTML' and then use the "Add this Module" button.
Paste the URL you copied into the Notes section. It should look something like this:
http://example.typepad.com/image.jpg
Change it to this:
<img src="http://example.typepad.com/image.jpg" />
To link the image to another site, you would add the link code, so the final result would look something like:
<a href="http://typepad.com"><img src="http://example.typepad.com/image.jpg" /></a>
You can find more information on this at:
http://help.sixapart.com/tp/us/sidebar_images.html
If you are using a Mixed Media template that does not allow for widgets, you can follow the same process, but instead you would use a Notes TypeList, which you can create under Library > TypeLists.

Troubleshooting

My blog display is messed up or my sidebar has dropped.
Permalink

The most common reason for this issue is that there are unclosed tags in a post or a sidebar item that are preventing your weblog from displaying properly.

You may want to try removing items from your sidebar one at a time and/or setting your recent posts to DRAFT mode one at a time to see if you can determine the specific post code that is causing the issue.

Additionally, you can use an online HTML validation tool, such as:
http://validator.w3.org/

to help you find and correct errors that may be causing the problem.

We also have more information on correcting weblog display issues at:
http://help.sixapart.com/tp/us/troubleshoot_display_issues.html
I can't view my blog!
Permalink

It sounds like your default blog might need to be reset, which is super easy to do. Just go to your Dashboard, click the down arrow next to the blog that you wish to show as the main blog on the account, then choose "Make this the default blog?" Then click "Okay", and you're all set. Here's what it looks like:

Are you able to see your blog when you go to your URL now? If not, please open a help ticket so we can help!
Why aren't my comments displaying?
Permalink

If you are using TypePad Connect, instead of TypePad's built in commenting system, you may encounter a problem where some posts are not displaying comments. This is usually due to errant code in a comment which is added when emailing a comment reply using a Rich Text email format.

To quickly resolve the issue, you can disable TypePad Connect. At Settings > Comments, click to disable TypePad Connect. Then, click Save Changes to update your blog. This change will not impact existing or future comments.

All the features of TypePad Connect will be available for all TypePad comments very soon.

TypePad Knowledge Base