***Dave talks about it and I intended to bring it up myself so here I go. A lot of folks who get started with MovableType end up using one of the default style-sheets with the standard template until they can get their head around how to make their own custom layouts. There’s a half-dozen or so variations available and they’ve not changed in a long time now so what do you do if you want a little more pizzaz in your layout, but haven’t mastered the templating system yet?

Well, that’s where the folks behind Movable Style step in. They’re offering up a whole mess of alternate stylesheets that are compatable with the default template included with MT allowing you to spice things up a bit with a single cut and paste and a quick rebuild. OK, you might have to upload a graphic to your site for a couple of them, but beyond that it’s a pretty simple process to get these things up and running. Many of them are really nice looking as well. I was particularly impressed with the “Slashdot” look-alike and a recreation of the popular “TypePad Thin” style which emulates a layout available through Six Apart’s other blogging package.

In addition, this site speaks to both the power of CSS to radically change the look of a website without modifying the HTML aspects of the layout as well as the solid flexibility of the default template included in MT. All of the stylesheets are offered under the Creative Commons license requiring nothing more from you than a link back to the folks who created it. A fair trade for a snazzy new look with a minimal amount of work. I think I’m going to use one myself for the Michigan Blogs site I’m running until I can find the inspiration to come up with my own layout that Mozilla can chew up and spit out on me.