I’ve been blogging on Windows Live Spaces for a while now, and life has been good. But I knew that by getting a fresher, shorter Windows Live ID, life could be even better. And now it is—12 keystrokes better every time I sign in. But while I did want to lose those keystrokes, I didn’t want to lose the space I was slowly (very slowly) building with the old ID.
In a previous post, Kaarin explained how to move your photos from your old space to a new one, which worked out great for me. But I also had a few blog entries to migrate over. Thankfully, Windows Live Writer makes this step relatively easy, too.
Here’s the skinny: Use Writer to download all of your posts from your old blog (on Windows Live Spaces or on another blogging service), and then upload them to your new blog (again, it doesn’t have to be on Spaces, but we recommend it!). That’s pretty much it.
Get posts from your old blog
- If you don’t already have it (but of course you do!), install Windows Live Writer.
- Add your old blog to Writer, either during setup, or by clicking Add Weblog Account on the Weblog menu.
- To find the posts from your old blog, click More… under the Recently Posted list in the right-hand pane.
- Click the name of your blog in the left pane. (You may need to click the Refresh Posts button if your blog has changed a lot recently.)
Add them to your new blog
- Add your new blog to Writer, by (you guessed it) clicking Add Weblog Account on the Weblog menu.
- Prepare to publish your old posts to your new blog by clicking More… under the Recently Posted list.
- For each post that you want to migrate, double-click it in the list to open it.
- At the bottom of the open blog post, select a category (you’ll need to add your custom categories to the list), and then set the publish date to whatever it was on your old blog.
- With the post from your old blog still open, point Writer at your new blog by clicking its name on the Weblog menu.
- Then click Publish to add the old post to the new blog.
That’s it. Some might say the physical actions required to migrate one’s blog are so subtle that one could complete the task during the course of a routine meeting. Not that I would know anything about that.
Oh, by the way, the comments people have left won’t follow your posts to their new home, so you’ll be making a fresh start in that sense. If you’ve formed a deep emotional attachment to the old comments, you may want to keep your old blog online and add a link to it in a custom module, as suggested at the end of Kaarin’s post.
Happy blogging!
Lisa Andrews
Windows Live editor
http://perro-gordo.spaces.live.com/
Well, I wish it were more easier to migrate ALL the stuff you did under Microsoft services to migrate to your new one.
Like what about all those hard-earn Live QnA points you made? Or your Xbox Live account and your Gamerscore? And all the other stuff? I\’d hate to see that all go to waste.
Can\’t it be simple as replacing your old account\’s name with a new one? Or the ability to easily transfer? It shouldn\’t be that bad.
We hear you, Michael. Wish we could offer you a solution now, but making this happen turns out to be more complicated than it sounds. But this is definitely an issue we\’re aware of and thinking about! Thanks for the comment.
hi
Y\’know what I\’d like? The ability to extract the 1000s of entries / archives in my blog that I\’ve made over the past 3 years into an XML download or even just plain text for safekeeping. This appears to be outside the capabilities of WLWriter. Several other services have had this ability for a while and I\’d be willing to even PAY for this right. Meanwhile I\’ve been using Spaces since it\’s inception and it still doesn\’t provide this facility.
On the topic of long awaited features, it\’s nice to see that LiveSearch FINALLY provides the ability to search an individual\’s blog from a Spaces blog. Geez LiveSearch, how long did that freakin\’ take? I thought the power of Windows Live was all the cross-integration between services.
But I\’ve noticed that LiveSearch fails to index a lot of older blog content. I often have to refer people to previous posts I\’ve made and they can\’t find it using LiveSearch… but <ahem> Google finds it JUST FINE. I usually have them search for keywords like the topic along with my blog\’s name or my own name to help narrow the search and lo and behold, LiveSearch many times completely whiffs on providing any sort of search results. Naturally I end up referring them to "the other search engine" and they find it lickity split.
Is this an issue with LiveSearch or the presentation of content from Spaces backend?
I got a @live.com e-mail long time ago, and I started my MSN Space back in 2004. Although I could have transferred all my entries and photos to the new space, but I\’ll lose the very short name of the space – just my first name… like
Old: soony_tang@hotmail.com
New: soony@live.comNew space: maybe like soonytang.spaces.live.comWhich makes the space\’s address longer, I wish to keep the same address of my space. Is it possible to do so?
If you dont be wolfe the wolves aeten you
I feel that we are living in four dimension as according to me if time gets stopped then nothing will happen to is we will remain as we are then, this is also shown in Einstein theory of relativity by twin paradox…I want to know much more abut it.
I feel that we are living in four dimension as according to me if time gets stopped then nothing will happen to is we will remain as we are then, this is also shown in Einstein theory of relativity by twin paradox…I want to know much more abut it.
i need to find the host name so i can sync my i touch with my hotmail please help
very interesting this tutorial
thank you
Ja sam Elma idem u srednju školu za medicinske sestre tehničare,drugi sam razred,jako sam komunikativnaosoba spremna pomoći drugima mrzim laganje,prevare,i izdavanje .
All the new Live features are really cool, live spaces, mobile integration, live writer, Live Photo Gallery, swap photos in live messenger, voice clips, and so on… Live has all the tools, functionality and platform and hotmail and messenger users to become one of the best Social Networks – it could be even better than facebook… there is only thing that is missing – it seems to me that the Live program manager does not know what their competitors are doing or simply don\’t understand the concept of Social Networking. Don\’t take this as an offence but as something to encourage the Live team to pay attention on what facebook and myspace are doing…
Hello! i\’m looking to find my two daughters Amanda lynn &Brittney may….i\’am the birthmother of these two young women and i would like to find them and to let them know i love them and worry about health and happiness in there young adult life….just want a new start or a chance to say i am sorry,please forgive me.
Please go back not forward. I hate this new arrangement.
Is there an easy way to move the publish date, instead of manually doing it?
@HELLS ANGEL The comments space is not for advertising.