Blogs at Penn State Community

With this process, you can transfer 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).

Note that you will have to reconfigure your sidebar, reset your preferences for comments and trackbacks and re-implement customizations to your blog template.

Export Content from Movable Type 3

The recommended browser for export is Firefox. Blog files may not correctly export from Internet Explorer 7.

Export Text

This operation preserves the text of each entry, but images and links will be lost.  To export text:

1. Click Access Old Blogs... on http://blogs.psu.edu and enter a blog by clicking the link name.
2. Click the Import/Export button in the left menu.
3. Click the Export Entries tab, then the Export Entries from… button.
4. The text of all the entries will be downloaded into a text (.txt) file.

Other Files

This operation allows you to save other files including images, raw HTML code and custom stylesheets.

1. Use SFTP or the Penn State Portal Pass Explorer (http://www.psu.edu/portalproject/passexplorer/) to navigate to the /blogs folder in your Personal Web space www/ folder.
2. These files can be downloaded and saved.

Create New Blog

Note: Your old blog will not be overwritten until you click a Publish link. You can continue to make setting changes as needed before publishing.

1. First visit the public pages of your blog (e.g. http://www.personal.psu.edu/xyz123/blogs/portolio) so you know your blog URL.
2. Go to http://blogs.psu.edu and click Login to New Blog System. The first time you log in, you will see the System Overview page.
3. Once you have successfully activated your account, go to the Create menu and select Blogs.
   
4. Enter the same Blog Name as in your old blog.
5. Change the directory name in the Site URL to match that of your old blog.
   Note: If you select a different URL, this will create a new version of the blog.
   
6. Click Create Blog at the bottom to finalize the process.

See Create a Blog for more detailed instructions if you need them.

Import Entries into a New Blog

Note: Your old blog will not be overwritten until you click a Publish link. You can continue to make setting changes as needed before publishing.

1. Click the Blog Dashboard (home) button. You should see a “dashboard” for your blog listing Blog Stats.
   Note: You can also click the Dashboard link at the bottom of the page.
2. In the Handy Shortcuts section to the right, click the link for Import Content.
   
3. Select Movable Type as the platform in the Importing from menu.
4. Use the Browse button to select the external file to import on your local system. It will likely be either a .txt text file or an RSS file.
5. Click the Import Entries button at the bottom to begin the import. You will see a new window listing imported entries.
   
6. To edit entries, click the Manage menu at the top, then select Entries
   Note: If you are appending entries to a pre0existing blog, they will not appear until you click a Publish link.

Note: Your old blog will not be overwritten until you click a Publish link. You can continue to make setting changes as needed before publishing.