I'd use wget. Something like:

wget -np -m -E http://site.com/page.htm

should get you a mirror of the site as a directory full of .html files. After that, I'd think it'd be just a matter of a bit of cutting and pasting.

i really appreciate your help, but can you explain it like i don't have a clue? cause i don't.

thanks.

Oh, Ok. First what OS are you using?

Here're some windows details.

For OSX you would want to install Fink(which just gives you access to a sort of package manager which has wget), and then, at a terminal, do:

fink install wget

to install.

If you're on linux (or have access to it for a short while), you may already have it installed... and if you don't your package manager will have it.


Once this is done, then you run wget from a command line, using the options I gave above (but obviously changing the address). The options mean:

-np : (no parent): do not follow links up and then attempt to download the whole internet.
-E : change filename extensions to HTML
-m : mirror the site.

Actually, if you're on windows, there's probably a pretty front-end for it somewhere. Here's one, but it's probably overkill for mirroring one site.

Alternatively, tell me the address and I'll see if it's small enough to just grab it and zip it up for you.

(WinWget is another popular wget GUI.)

slacks: is this blog hosted on your library's server, or on blogspot? You'll be able to tell, because the url will be something like http://soandsolibrary.lib.ny.us/blog/libraryblog.html, or something like http://libraryblog.blogspot.com, respectively. It'll probably be blogspot. And do you know whether the old admin used one of the default Blogger styles? She probably did. Ooh, and how big is this blog? How many entries are there? And do the entries go back a long way, or just a couple months?

Since you don't have admin access, you can't really migrate things in the way that people usually use that word--what you'll (probably) have to do is sign up for a new blog and then just copy everything over. Like most computer things, there are many ways to go about doing that.

You could open one browser window to the create-your-new-blog page, and another to the old blog, then just start copying and pasting. That's pretty easy, from a tech-skills standpoint, but, depending on how many blog entries there are, it might be pretty slow and tedious. And, worse, if there are a bunch of links and italics and bold text, the copying might not work very well, or require some cleanup.

You could look at the source code of the original entries, then copy it. Your browser will let you view (and copy) a page's source code, usually via the right-click menu. That way, you'd be sure to get the text formatting. One downside to that approach, though, is that in addition to the stuff that you actually want to copy, those blog pages will also have a bunch of other stuff. And if you haven't spent some time looking at it, or if you have, sometimes html code can seem like a big confusing mess.

You could use wget, or another downloading program, to get all the pages from the old blog at once, then use Notepad or Wordpad or something to copy the new entries from the source code. But you'll still be doing a lot of cutting and pasting. And if you're not a 'View Source' kind of person, there could be a learning curve. (pompomtom said he might help you with the first couple steps of this approach.)

I feel like there might be other easier ways that I'm not seeing (especially if your blog is hosted on your library's site), but, to the best of my knowledge anyway, it sounds like you're going to be looking forward to some copying and pasting.

thanks guys. windows. hosted on blogspot. default style. 4 months old and about 65 posts with comments-so not terribly huge, but not tiny either.
i do have some understanding of html and i know about view source, and i guess i was hoping there was an easy way to just copy all the code(kinda like i think pompomtom is suggesting). i guess the part that has me confused about that approach though, is A)where exactly I would paste the code? I don't really get how to access blogspot in that way-the only place i see to enter html is on the template page-is that it? i tried copying the code there to no avail, and B)would that actually be any easier than copying and pasting all the posts and comments. do you think i would have to do more cleanup copying the code, or copying the text? will links still work with either approach?
yeah, i think im in denial about the fact that i am gonna be makin sweet love to my right mouse button for awhile no matter what.
thanks again for all your help, much appreciated.ss