Sunday, February 04, 2007

Girding my Loins

This evening I am going to migrate this blog to the new version of Blogger. I am not looking forward to doing it as I have heard terrible things from people who have lost their entire archives or the format of their blog has changed completely. Any advice is gratefully received. Anyway, if the blog disappears later you will know why!

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, if it only gets rid of that silly Snap popup thing, which is even more irritating when it refuses to show any comments, it will be a relief.

Is there any way you can download your archives first, as a backup if disaster strikes? Which, in my experience of new accounting systems, it frequently does, hence the need for parallel running.

Iain Dale said...

Due to popular demand I have removed the SNAP facility!

Anonymous said...

Good luck Iain! I have found the new blogger to be an absolute dream!

Anonymous said...

Good luck Iain, I hope all goes well with the move!

I read this blog more than the BBC's news page now - in the hope of breaking news for one...

I don't like Snap popups either. They look like "Hey, great technology, aren't we cute!" But you can't read what's in the box and you have to be careful where you hover with your mouse or they eclipse the main text of what you're reading.

Anonymous said...

Good luck with moving the blog, anything that gets rid of the SNAP facility is an improvement.
One complaint, the content of this article did not live up to the title!

Anonymous said...

If you move to the new blogger there is no import facility should you decide to move to WordPress.

Anonymous said...

If it fails Iain, well done for the blog and we all hope to see you again one day on the internet. Fare well! We'll meet again! (sounds of Vera Lynn)

Anonymous said...

just moved Labour Watch over in the last week; after some problems *before* the move, the move itself and the aftermath have been fine

Anonymous said...

anon 5.48, "Let's say goodbye with a smile, dear,
Just for a while, dear, we must part.
Don't let the parting upset you,
I'll not forget you, sweetheart. "


Whoops, back to reality from the sentimental 1940s, M. Durruti suggests there is no import facility on the new Blogger, but I feel he means "export". If this is true it would mean, once in new Blogger you'd be stuck with it. You couldn't then switch to Wordpress.

Not that you would be so fickle, of course....

Anonymous said...

But I liked Snap... :(

Anonymous said...

Migrating to Beta was fine for me, and the tagging facility is quite handy.

Anonymous said...

But I liked Snap... :(

He wouldn't have been good for you, dear.

Anonymous said...

Make a backup of your template, just in case. (Simply copy and paste the entire contents of the template into a blank MS Word or Windows Notepad document).
Do NOT, at first, choose to download the new, improved template editing features, when it asks you. It's when you do this that you will temporarily lose your personalised settings, so again, you'll need to make a backup of your template just prior to upgrading the template editing thingy. You'll see what I mean when you get to that point.

Anonymous said...

If you're worried about your archives, Iain, here's what I would do, which will at least save them on your own PC:
(Before switching to New Blogger), change your archive display settings to "monthly", so you can call up an entire month's entries as one single webpage. Then display each archive page and simply go File>Save Page As> and save all the pages to your hard drive. *In the "save as type" box, choose "Web Page - Complete".

That way, at least if you lose your archives, you've got a copy of them all, and I'm sure Blogger will assist you in reinstating them.

Anonymous said...

tom tyler is a geek.

Anonymous said...

The migration was painless when I did it, but I would advise backing up your template to a text file before you start and then adding each customised bit back in one at time to check that they display ok.

Letterman said...

Welcome to the new blogger :)

Anonymous said...

This blog is currently moving...

You mad fool. DON'T SAY I DIDN'T TELL YOU SO!!

Anonymous said...

Did mine yesterday after some advice from Devil's Kitchen.

The archives did disappear but I managed to get them back after a bit of googling.

The whole thing was a bit worrying!

The Constituent said...

Looks OK to me!

The Constituent said...

I take it back - the comments brought over to the new Blogger have had their owners anonymised!

Anonymous said...

My PC is now sternly advising me that your blog contains both secure and insecure items. Well of course, I knew that already, that's why I patronised you in the first place. Should I be worried?

Anonymous said...

oh dear, "If you do not feel confident about working with this site, click No". What should I do, Uncle Iain?

Cllr Mike Flower said...

Out of interest - why do you not use Wordpress?