Blogs at Penn State Community

These pages contain common questions about migrating between the two blog versions with answers. You can also view additional migration help resources at http://blogger.psu.edu/gethelp

If you have a more specific question, you can post a message to the Blog Forum, fill in the Help Form or contact blogs@psu.edu.

Migration Questions

What new features have been added?

The new features include:

• Expanded WYSIWYG editing including lists, image import, right/center alignment
• Ability to import content from other blogs, including Word Press blogs.
• Expanded tools for creating static pages connected to your blog.
• Tag Clouds have words at different sizes reflecting frequencty of use
• Streamlined interface which simplifies the editing and publishing process.

In addition, the Blogs at Penn State team are working on a solution for creating password protected blogs, but this will only be implemented for the new blogging platform.

What features from the old system are missing in the new system?

The Blogroll feature to add external links has not been implemented yet, but you can create a custom widget which performs the same task. Instructions are included in Custom Widget documentation.

Will blogs I created before December 2007 be transferred to the new system?

The migration process for blogs in the old system is manual. You will have the option of migrating blog data to the new system or maintaining in the old Movable Type 3.5 system (at least for the Spring 2008 semester). At some point in the future, the old platform will be discontinued.

How can I migrate older blogs now?

Migration is done via a simple export/import process documented in MIgtatiuon Guide manual.

Which data can be migrated? Which cannot?

You will be able to manually migrate all your entries including categories, tags, comments, entry dates and links to uploaded images and multimedia files (you will not have to re-upload files).

You will have to reset your comments and trackbacks preferences as well as those for your sidebar widgets and any customizations to your blog template you may have made.

Can I keep the same theme as in my older blog if I migrate?

With the exception of a few Penn State themes, the options for style themes are different between the old and new blog system. While the new themes are attractive, the selection is not as varied at this time.
Note: You can create and implement custom theme stylesheets. See the Advanced Custom Theme documentation for details.

What about sidebar widgets?

You will need to reconfigure your sidebar widgets. See the Sidebar documentation for more details.

What about other customizations?

If you have modified your main index templates (e.g. included Google Analytics or customized the header bar) then you will need to reconfigure those. Please read the Advanced documentation for detailed instructions.

Where can I get help with the new blog system?

Both the online help and downloadable manuals are available at http://blogger.psu.edu/gethelp in the "New Users" area.

I tried to export entries, but got a security error. What do I do?

Make sure you are not using Internet Explorer. Export will work in Firefox.

I tried to import entries, but they do not appear on my new blog

1. Make sure to click the Publish (circle arrow) link. This will publlish imported entries.
2. Make sure the text file was not exported with Internet Explorer.

Can I create  a new blog in the old system?

All blogs created after January 12, 2008 will be in the new Movable Type 4 blof platform. Documentation for the new interface with expanded features is available at http://blogger.psu.edu, and this guide includes a reference chart about where features from the old platform are now located.

When will the old blog system be phased out?

The projected time frame is Sumemr 2008 (after the Spring 2008 semester).