Using RapidWeaver, I have - as a volunteer - set up and run the website for a local charity, which site has now been active for about eight years. In the last month I have been told that the charity want to ditch my website and start up a new one and pay someone to do it. I have been asked to dismantle the website, especially photos and to send them over to their new web people. Though it is tempting to ignore this, as it is rather irksome, I am invested in the charity, if not a top trustees fan and I want to make the transfer as painless as possible. For me at least. So I am wondering if there is a good way to send them something which is easy to reassemble in WP? They say they want their site to be on Windows and Mac though, what they mean is they want it on Windows, which is not somewhere I want to stray. Any ideas anyone?
Hi @Drew,
There isn’t any way to automagically import a RapidWeaver project file to WP. If the charity is looking to rebuild the site, they will have to do that manually with their software/app of choice.
If they have access to a Mac and RapidWeaver, you can send them your project file which they can use to help with the rebuild. If they do not have a Mac or RapidWeaver, you could publish the site to a local folder on your Mac, and then send them those exported files/folders to help with the rebuild. You’d also want to make sure you send them any images or other resources that weren’t copied to the project file.
FTP the site down into a folder and backup the site into a local folder on your system. Then you can zip it up and send it to them. There is nothing in your sites folder that cant be run on a windows system.
Many thanks. This is what I shall do.
Although migrating to WP is the wrong way, having seen that migrating from WP is covered, I wondered if there was an easy way to do this.
I’ll send the site as prepared and they can unpick it.
It’s not necessarily wrong but it may be misguided. I suspect someone has gotten in their ear about WP and told them anyone will be able to edit their site (a disaster waiting to happen if you’re not familiar with Wordpress - it’s very easy to break things)
It’s going to need to be rebuilt from the ground up in Wordpress. There is no easy way. A number of years ago I wrote an app which used the WP API to upload and edit sites but it’s not for the faint hearted and probably needs a programmer.
Seems crazy they want to pay someone to do what you’re doing as a volunteer. Give them a web archive and be done.
Thanks to everyone who commented.
I have never used WordPress but those whom I have met who do use WordPress seemed to be very pleased with their achievement. I did not realise that was not because they were simple people making their way in the world but because WP is really complicated and difficult to use.
I have been accused of being too altruistic for my own good, so I am going to do what you suggest and send them a big thumb drive with an archive on board and change my phone number.
I’ll leave them to it.
ATB
Drew
WP is as easy or as hard as you want to make it. I know complete novices who have published personal blogs with a default theme hosted free on Wordpress.com.
It’s when you start using plugins, complex themes and highly customised layouts it becomes challenging (and precarious) for the inexperienced.