Blogger to WordPress

Copied from my blog on voodooguru.net using the same title.

I’ve really only used Blogger as my blogging platform since I began blogging in 2006. I did have a brief flirtation with WordPress when creating a Staying Healthy on wordpress.com but I was never comfortable with it and ended up continuing it on Blogger. As I wrote at the time:

I’ve had enough of this platform and its frustrations. I’m moving to Blogger where all my other blogs are anyway. The new address is https://voodooguru1949.blogspot.com/ with the same title for the blog, namely Staying Healthy. I’ll eventually link back to the previous posts on wordpress from my new blog or maybe I can export them. We’ll see.

WordPress was unfamiliar to me at the time and I had gotten so used to Blogger that I couldn’t be bothered coming to terms with the new interface. At that time (August 28th 2020), it hadn’t occurred to me that I could have exported the WordPress blog to Blogger. I’m now realising how relatively easy it is to export and import entire blogs from one platform to another, and to back up entire blogs, using the xml file format.

On this site, there is a simple and straightforward guide on how to move an entire blog from Blogger to WordPress. I’m not sure that I really want to do that but it’s good to know that it’s possible. I’m really still coming to terms with this new WordPress blog and what I want to do with it. I’m happy that I’ve created categories in this blog that correspond to my blogs on Blogger. These categories are:

• Mathematical Meanderings
• Mystical Meanderings
• Astrological Meanderings
• Pedagogical Posturing
• Alternative Media
• Staying Healthy

At this point, I’m inclining to simply continuing my former blogs on the single WordPress blog, differentiating them by the use of the above categories. As I described in my previous blog post, I can export individual WordPress posts to my various blogs on Blogger (should I choose to do so). It’s good to know that I can mothball all these blogs by backing them up in xml file format and saving them on Google Drive and a local computer.

The quality of my posts on Blogger have been variable over the years. Most have been mediocre, a few downright dumb and few of high quality (in my opinion). It would be interesting to revisit my earlier blogs and evaluate them in terms of the current world situation. My blogs have never been about garnering readership. I enjoy writing and expressing my thoughts “on paper”. My electronic blogging may have started in 2006 but I was committing my thoughts to paper long before this. Perhaps this history could be the material for a future post.

WordPress to Blogger

Copied from my WordPress blog on voodooguru.net under the same title.

I have my various blogs on Blogger, some of which date back to 2006, but I only seriously started blogging when I retired in the middle of 2015. I am in a dilemma whether to keep blogging on that platform or shift to WordPress. Anything I post my voodooguru.net website will only survive as long as I keep paying the annual fee for domain name and web hosting.

There is perhaps a solution in the form of a WordPress plugin called “Export to Blogger” that boasts:

With this WordPress plugin, you can easily export WordPress data to Blogger(Blogspot).No need to use software and convert by yourself anymore! This plugin exports dedicated xml files directly, so what you need is just import it to Blogger. Source.

The instructions are straightforward enough:

1. Upload directory export-to-blogger to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
3. Go to Settings -> Export to Blogger to export xml.

There is a website that can be referred to if I have any problems. I plan to do this and then test it out. If it works, then what I may do is to post to this blog but then export to the relevant blog on Blogger. That way I still have the posts on Blogger should I decide to stop using bluehost in the future.

First Impressions

Copied from my blog on voodooguru.net under the same title.

I’ve only just begun to create the site on which this blog is appearing so there’s more to come as I familiarise myself with its inner workings. I made an attempt to insert some mathematical equations. using a KaTeX plugin, documentation for which can be found here. I did get single line equations working for a while but now nothing works.

I’m gradually getting my head around things. I was hoping to set up a number of blogs on this site and that is possible, although not at all straightforward. The site builder default is one blog only. For the time being I think it’s best to simply link to my Blogger blogs and continue creating blog posts on that platform. I can also link to other sites so that this site acts as a coordinating centre for my various Internet activities.

The photo shows a Raspberry Pi 400 with two monitors connected. It’s not my Pi (I only have one monitor connected) but it demonstrates the impressive capabilities of this little keyboard computer which I purchased about a week ago now.

Returning to my LaTeX problems, I’ve tried three different plugins: WP-KaTeX, KaTeX and QuickLaTeX and none of them work. It amazes me that there is such lack of support for LaTeX from the most popular blogging platform on the planet. Blogger may be out of fashion nowadays as a blogging platform but I’ve never had any problem inserting LaTeX into the posts on my mathematical blog.