Times, They Are A-Changin'

I simply could not stand using Wordpress. The user-unfriendliness, ugly templates, need to utilize CSS to manipulate your layout - yuck. I couldn't deal with it. So after lots of emails to my wonderful cousin and unsuccessfully teaching myself CSS, I threw in the towel and explored other options.

First, I considered hiring someone to help me. After recommendations from friends and a few Etsy conversations, I was still coming up short. Onto Plan B: look for a different blogging platform. 

Last year, I started a Blogger account with the intention of creating a blog for my students. Then, our school created blogs for every teacher so I didn't need it anymore. I came back to Blogger after an hour of wrestling with CSS on Wordpress, frustrated and dejected - looking for a rebound but finding love ;-)

You guys. BLOGGER IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN WORDPRESS! It's so easy. Change layout? Click, click, done. Add header that isn't cropped in half? Took me 10 seconds to do this. Sure, there are some things that take getting used to, but nothing that's a deal breaker. In general, Blogger is not as sophisticated as Wordpress but the hassle and expense of customizing a Wordpress blog is simply not worth it.

Here are some ways that Blogger is a bit more rough around the edges than Wordpress. Again, issues are not deal breakers for me.

• The preview option is a bit archaic/slow. 
• Saving a draft isn't automatic. You have to remember to save your drafts. I'm a compulsive-saver, so this is no biggie for me.

It took me probably 10 minutes to create my Blogger account, download my Wordpress files, and import them to Blogger. Here's how I did it:

• Create a Blogger account.
• Log into Wordpress and click on the "Tools" tab on the Dashboard.
• Click "Export." This option is free, woohoo.
• Download your file.
• Go to Wordpress2Blogger, a nifty tool that converts all your posts into Blogger ones. Sort of. As you can see below, the posts are a bit wonky-looking. Nothing major.
• Import this file into your Blogger account.
• Presto chango, shazam, ta da! - you're done!

What a relief. It's awesome to be able to manipulate my blog freely. I'll update more on changes when they're finished. Stay tuned!