If you would like to export your data from your Create account, either because you are migrating your data or because you are closing your account, there are several options.

If you are leaving the university, you can migrate your domain from Plymouth Create to Reclaim Hosting.

You can also find information on how to export the data from a WordPress installation in order to move it to another WordPress installation or move it to WordPress.com.

Exporting

If you would like to move your WordPress site from your Plymouth Create account to either a free WordPress.com account or a different paid host, you can do so with the export system built into WordPress.

From the Dashboard navigate to Tools>Export

It’s probably a good idea to download all your content, but there are reasons you may want to download a partial archive. In some cases, if you will be importing your content into a new site using WordPress.org, your new hosting provider may have a file size limit on uploads. If your export file is too big, you can download a set of partial archives by using the following filters:

• Content published within a time frame – set a Start Date and/or an End Date
• Content authored by specific users. Use the Authors drop-down menu.
• Posts belonging to a specific Category or Tag.
• Only posts or only pages, using the Content Types filter.
• Specific posts Statuses

This process will generate an XML file of your blog’s content. This format, which WordPress calls WordPress eXtended RSS or WXR, will contain your posts, pages, comments, categories, and tags.

Note: This will ONLY export your posts, pages, comments, categories, and tags; uploads and images may need to be manually transferred to the new blog. The current version of the WordPress.org installation gives you the option to import uploaded files, but the blog you are importing from must be live and serving images properly in order for it to work. So, do not delete your blog until after media files have successfully been imported into the new blog.

If you are planning to export your content to another blog platform, it’s best to manually download and save your images from your WordPress.com Media Library to  before trying to import/upload them into the new blog.

This information has been adapted from the WordPress support material on exporting a WordPress site.  For more information on exporting your WordPress site, please go to  the WordPress Support site.

Importing

Once you have exported your posts, pages, etc., you will import them into your new WordPress site.

Login to your new WordPress.com or self-hosted WordPress site and go to the Dashboard. From there navigate to Tools>Import

Choose the WordPress option at the bottom of the list of the services.  Next you will see a screen that prompts you to upload the WXR file you generated through the export process.

Choose and upload your file.  You will then be prompted to assign an author to the posts that you are importing.  You can use this function to assign one author to all posts, or you can manually set the author for each post in the posts menu.

You will also need to reinstall your themes and any plugins that you would like to continue to use.

This information has been adapted from the WordPress support material on importing a WordPress site.  For more information on importing your WordPress site, please go to the WordPress Support site.

SPAM! Everyone hates it in their email. If you’re new to WordPress and blogging platforms, spam exists in the form of comment spam – people (or vermin) leave comments promoting their services or schemes, on a post or page.

So how do you deal with comment spam when it can come in even more often than email spam? Do you have to delete every comment that comes in? Well, the answer to the second question is “no”, and the answer to the first question is, with a plugin called Akismet.

1. To get started we need to install a plugin. To do this, we’ll start at the Dashboard.
2. Navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins.
3. At or near the top of the list of plugins that are automatically installed in a new WordPress installation, is Akismet. It is not activated, so part of the process of getting Akismet is Activating the plugin. Before you activate it, however, you need to get something that will be somewhat strange for most people. It’s called an API key. API stands for Application Programming Interface, and it’s a way for programs and services to “talk” to each other. The Akismet plugin requires you to get an Akismet API Key, which is simply a “code” that you supply when activating the plugin. The key is free if you use it on a personal WordPress installation, and it’s available on the Akismet website.
4. Once you arrive on the Akismet for WordPress site, click the Sign up for Akismet Now button.
5. You will be prompted to log in with your WordPress username and password. Note, this may be different from your Plymouth State login credentials. Click the Sign up button to proceed.
6. Type in the URL of the site you’ll use Akismet on and click on the Sign Up button under the Personal plan (that is if you want it to be the free version). When you get to the next page, the recommended contribution is $36. You can adjust the slider down to $0. The smiley face will begin to frown, but at least your key will be free. 
7. Also fill in your name and click Continue.
8. You’re finished with the sign up process for your key, and it will be displayed on the page for you. Now follow the steps that they show you for using your new key. You will enter the key in either the Akismet area under Plugins or JetPack (if you have that installed).
9. Go back to your WordPress dashboard, and click Activate under the Akismet plugin. Enter the API key and click Use this key.
10. You’re done! With Akismet activated, spam will be filtered automatically from contact forms and comments sections.