The Doggy Diaries... gone to the dogs!

Modifying the MT Login Screen

Whenever I frequent a web site that also requires me to login, I always appreciate the web site designer adding that small 'extra touch' by placing the cursor in the first field of the login form awaiting my tippy-tappy little fingers to enter my username and password. The same holds true of any application I use that requires a login. Movable Type just so happens to be one of those applications.

From the first time I logged in to the MT system, I became increasingly annoyed at the MT login screen because the interface designer had not taken into account that the only purpose of that screen is to log in, and perhaps it would be nice to place the user's cursor in the first field of the form.

My annoyance finally hit new levels, and I decided to do something about it. After a bit of research to determine which file would need to be edited, I went for it. Here's how you can do the same thing yourself.

The login screen is located in the “templates” directory of your MT installation. If you have used the default installation settings, your login screen template should be located at /public_html/cgi-bin/mt/cms/tmpl/. Navigate to that directory. Find the file called “login.tmpl,” and open it in your favorite text editor.

Look for the following code:

Modify the code as indicated.

Save the updated version of login.tmpl back to it's original location on your web server. No rebuilding is required. (Yee haw!) Simply call up your MT as usual and enjoy the results!