An archive map is an association of an archive type or grouping of entries (Individual, Category, Monthly, Weekly, Daily) with the template used to build a page containing the grouping of entries. By creating and editing archive maps, you can control with fine granularity how Movable Type publishes files.

For example, by default Movable Type provides you with three active archive maps: one for publishing individual entries, monthly archives and category archives. Those three archive types are matched with the Individual Entry Archive, Date-based Archive and Category Archive templates, respectively, which are also included by default in your Archive template listing.

The archive maps also contain an archive map file path, which dictates where the archive files should be wrriten to and what their URLs should be. If you have more than one template assigned to an archive type, you are also given a choice to indiciate which is your preferred archive map.