Hi, since y'all sound like a friendly bunch, I'm Kathleen.
I just signed up, installed MT 3.16 and am now contemplating the importation of all my entries from my blogger-blog at http://designer-entrepreneurs.com/blog into my new account here at: http://fashion-incubator.com where I've installed MT.
My question is this:
Is there anything -outside the ordinary- that I need to be concerned about beforehand? Installing movable type has been a challenge, a steep learning curve since I'm navigating from a windows server. Anyway, I'd like to minimize whatever issues are known to exist ahead of time regarding importing entries if anybody has any advice to offer.
thanks!
Full Version: Blogger-> Mt Import: Known Issues?
I am not a blog expert, I will leave this one for them.
Just wanted to say welcome to your new online family.
Bill
Just wanted to say welcome to your new online family.
Bill
Welcome to the forums and the family Kathleen,
I am sure there are many here that can assist you with your questions
Make yourself right at home
I am sure there are many here that can assist you with your questions
Make yourself right at home
Welcome to the forums Kathleen
It's been a long time since I moved over from blogger to MT but it was pretty painless following the MT instructions.
It's been a long time since I moved over from blogger to MT but it was pretty painless following the MT instructions.
Welcome to the forums, Kathleen! 
The only issue I see is that with MT 3.16, the instructions for exporting your entries from Blogger have been removed from the MT manual. It appears the intent is to place these instructions on the main Movable Type web site, but that page is not ready yet. In case you don't have access to any instructions on how to export your Blogger entries:
Exporting Blogger Entries
1. Log into your Blogger account, then switch into template-editing mode.
2. Make a copy of your current template; you will be replacing your Blogger template with the conversion template in Step 3, but you probably don't want to lose your original template.
3. Replace your Blogger template with the following:
4. Enter the Settings area for this weblog.
5. Change your Blog Filename to a different filename; this will prevent you from overwriting your main index file.
6. In Formatting, set your weblog to display all of your posts on the main index page. There is no explicit setting for this; instead, you should change the number of days displayed on your front page (Show N days' posts on main page) higher than the number of days that you have been weblogging.
7. Set Date/Time Format to the format MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM:SS AM|PM. (Note: the format will not look like this in the menu; instead it will be the current time, formatted.)
8. Set Convert Line Breaks to No.
9. Set Archive Frequency to No Archive. This will prevent your archives from being overwritten with the new template.
10. Switch back to the Posts screen, and Publish your weblog. You will end up with a single file with all of your posts, formatted using the above template, at the location specified in your Settings. Download this file to your local hard drive.
From here, you'll proceed with importing your entries into MT. The instructions for how to do this are available here.
If you run into any problems or have any questions, don't be afraid to ask!
QUOTE
Is there anything -outside the ordinary- that I need to be concerned about beforehand?
The only issue I see is that with MT 3.16, the instructions for exporting your entries from Blogger have been removed from the MT manual. It appears the intent is to place these instructions on the main Movable Type web site, but that page is not ready yet. In case you don't have access to any instructions on how to export your Blogger entries:
Exporting Blogger Entries
1. Log into your Blogger account, then switch into template-editing mode.
2. Make a copy of your current template; you will be replacing your Blogger template with the conversion template in Step 3, but you probably don't want to lose your original template.
3. Replace your Blogger template with the following:
CODE
<Blogger>
TITLE: <BlogItemTitle><$BlogItemTitle$></BlogItemTitle>
AUTHOR: <$BlogItemAuthorNickname$>
DATE: <$BlogItemDateTime$>
-----
BODY:
<$BlogItemBody$>
-----
<BlogItemCommentsEnabled>
<BlogItemComments>
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: <$BlogCommentAuthor$>
DATE: <$BlogCommentDateTime$>
<$BlogCommentBody$>
-----
</BlogItemComments>
</BlogItemCommentsEnabled>
--------
</Blogger>
TITLE: <BlogItemTitle><$BlogItemTitle$></BlogItemTitle>
AUTHOR: <$BlogItemAuthorNickname$>
DATE: <$BlogItemDateTime$>
-----
BODY:
<$BlogItemBody$>
-----
<BlogItemCommentsEnabled>
<BlogItemComments>
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: <$BlogCommentAuthor$>
DATE: <$BlogCommentDateTime$>
<$BlogCommentBody$>
-----
</BlogItemComments>
</BlogItemCommentsEnabled>
--------
</Blogger>
4. Enter the Settings area for this weblog.
5. Change your Blog Filename to a different filename; this will prevent you from overwriting your main index file.
6. In Formatting, set your weblog to display all of your posts on the main index page. There is no explicit setting for this; instead, you should change the number of days displayed on your front page (Show N days' posts on main page) higher than the number of days that you have been weblogging.
7. Set Date/Time Format to the format MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM:SS AM|PM. (Note: the format will not look like this in the menu; instead it will be the current time, formatted.)
8. Set Convert Line Breaks to No.
9. Set Archive Frequency to No Archive. This will prevent your archives from being overwritten with the new template.
10. Switch back to the Posts screen, and Publish your weblog. You will end up with a single file with all of your posts, formatted using the above template, at the location specified in your Settings. Download this file to your local hard drive.
From here, you'll proceed with importing your entries into MT. The instructions for how to do this are available here.
If you run into any problems or have any questions, don't be afraid to ask!
QUOTE(TCH-David @ Apr 27 2005, 08:40 PM)
2. Make a copy of your current template; you will be replacing your Blogger template with the conversion template in Step 3, but you probably don't want to lose your original template.
Let me echo this. When I moved here a month or two ago, I used a similar process to import from Blogger into WordPress. But I'd never moved a domain name before, and my old web host's documentation was abysmal, the result being that it took a week or more before I actually got the new site up and running under the proper domain name.
In the meantime, however, I had wrecked my old Blogger template while importing to WordPress and had not made a backup. So I really had no good way to make new posts to Blogger during that transitional period (at least, not without creating a new template, and I didn't want to go to that trouble, thinking all the while that I was just on the verge of getting the new site up and running).
If I had simply kept a backup of the old template, I could have easily restored it and continued to blog at the old site while waiting for the new one.
Welcome to the TCH family! We are glad to have you...
Welcome to the forum, kathleen.
Welcome to the forums Kathleen 
What a bunch of cuties >wink wink<! I haven't felt this welcomed in a 'public' place in a long time. Maybe I should hang out in 'public' forums more often 
Okay, I have a MT-in 24 hrs book so I used that, the MT manual and then I got the code off of the MT community support forum to generate the import. So I did finish the import and it looks good except that my comments didn't come over. Bummer. I'm going to keep the original pre-mt blog up for awhile anyway so I figure I'll figure out how to import those comments at some point or another. Or worse, I'll cobble together some sort of ending edit to applicable posts and stick in all the comments in there. Not very professional I know but what the h**l.
As strictly a windows user, I'm becoming enamored of linux interfaces and operating systems; I never knew that about windows. Linux seems so elegant and lean. If you guys care to catch up my riveting material (not), step into Fashion Incubator.
Thanks everybody (until later)
Kathleen
Okay, I have a MT-in 24 hrs book so I used that, the MT manual and then I got the code off of the MT community support forum to generate the import. So I did finish the import and it looks good except that my comments didn't come over. Bummer. I'm going to keep the original pre-mt blog up for awhile anyway so I figure I'll figure out how to import those comments at some point or another. Or worse, I'll cobble together some sort of ending edit to applicable posts and stick in all the comments in there. Not very professional I know but what the h**l.
As strictly a windows user, I'm becoming enamored of linux interfaces and operating systems; I never knew that about windows. Linux seems so elegant and lean. If you guys care to catch up my riveting material (not), step into Fashion Incubator.
Thanks everybody (until later)
Kathleen
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