[It’s finally out.](http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/beta/)

I’m dying to play with it, but I wouldn’t dare throw my 10111012 entries at it so early in the beta testing process.

So I think this is my plan:

1. Set up a new MySQL database for the beta
2. Install MT 3.2 to a separate directory
3. Get to know the new features, while re-working my existing templates to play nice with the new version. I still like the layout here, but this is a good chance for some major clean-up/reorganization.
4. Once the new version is stable and working the way it should, delete any test entries, import real entries and rebuild to real blog location.

Should work, right? If anything gets messed up between steps 2 and 3, I can delete/start over without losing anything. I’ll blog anything significant here for those looking at others to be guinea pigs before diving in on their own blogs.

**Update:** Steps 1 & 2 are done. [My new “testing” blog is here.](http://www.momathome.com/mt32beta/) So far, I like what I see. I’ll use my test blog as a place to talk more about it, including any pitfalls I run into in converting the templates over. That way, if you’re not interested in MovableType stuff I won’t blather about it here as much. 😉 I’d appreciate comments over there since they have a new “feedback” interface for managing comments/trackbacks. I’m hoping that it does for trackback/comment spam what Spam Sieve and SpamBayes did for email spam…make it a non-issue.