A number of visitors wrote to me recently, asking how they could upgrade from KompoZer to BlueGriffon. A few of them also wondered if their websites were "compatible" with the latter editor, having created them with the older KompoZer. This article describes how you can move your website to BlueGriffon from either KompoZer or Nvu.
The procedure for "upgrading" to BlueGriffon is actually quite straightforward.
Install BlueGriffon using the instructions given in my main BlueGriffon tutorial (chapter 1).
When you used KompoZer or Nvu, you saved your web pages on your computer before publishing it to the Internet. Even if you don't remember doing that, for example because it was years ago, you certainly did so, since it was part of the procedure for creating your site. Locate the place where you saved those pages.
Attach a USB flash drive or an external hard disk into your computer. Copy all the files you found in the previous step onto that drive. This will serve as a backup of the site should something catastrophic go wrong when you upgrade to BlueGriffon.
DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. I know newcomers always think backups are unnecessary or too troublesome, or that it can be done at some indeterminate time in the future. But you are upgrading to a different web editor. Even if you think you will not make any mistakes at all using that new program, don't be blind to the possibility that the editor itself may have bugs that can corrupt your website. Let me say this again, copy your website files onto a separate location. And make sure it's really a complete copy of all the files. Don't work directly on those files: unplug the USB drive from your computer and keep it away for the day you make such a mess of the original that the only way to recover is to use that backup copy.
Start up BlueGriffon. Click "File" from the menu bar, followed by "Open File" from the drop down menu that appears. This will bring up a dialog box with a title "Open a file or a template". Click the "Choose File..." button. This launches the "Choose a file" dialog box, from which you can navigate to the location where you previously saved your website. Click the file you want to modify in BlueGriffon to select it, followed by the "Open" button.
Your page will be opened in BlueGriffon. You can now proceed to change it as you like. But you should probably read the next section first before you do anything.
Although BlueGriffon was written by the same programmer who made Nvu and KompoZer 0.7.10 (which is essentially Nvu with some bug fixes), it sports a different user interface from those earlier programs.
As such, unless you are an experienced computer user, who doesn't mind exploring a new program by experimenting with the menus, pop-up windows, toolbars, etc, you will probably want to take a look at the rest of the BlueGriffon tutorial to find out how to use it. If you have a specific task in mind not covered by the main tutorial, take a look at my list of all BlueGriffon tutorials to see if there's an article on it.
If you are satisfied with your website as it stands, and merely want to update the content of your existing pages (such as to change the words or pictures), you do not need to recreate the entire website just because you're using a new web editor. You can just open the existing page as mentioned earlier, make your changes, and save the page.
Note that this only works in one direction. That is, BlueGriffon should be able to open the pages you created with KompoZer without any issue. However, KompoZer may or may not be able to successfully display the pages you designed using BlueGriffon. This is because KompoZer was developed in an earlier era, when some of the current web technologies (specifically the newer versions of the HTML and CSS standards) have not been developed yet. If your pages use features from some of the later standards, KompoZer may display it wrongly and mangle it when you save.
Important: make sure you have made that backup copy of your website that I mentioned earlier before you do the above, in case something goes wrong. Although your old website should theoretically work fine in BlueGriffon, there is no guarantee.
Unlike KompoZer and Nvu, BlueGriffon does not, by default, have any facility for you to publish your pages onto the Internet. It only allows you to design your website.
To publish your site, you will need an FTP program. See the How to Upload a File to Your Website Using the FileZilla FTP Client guide to find out how to do this. Alternatively, if you are following my main BlueGriffon tutorial, you can also use the FireFTP extension that works from with BlueGriffon, as taught in chapter 8.
Since you no longer use an editor that automatically tracks all the supporting files that you need for your site, make sure that you remember to upload any additional files that your web page needs, such as pictures, CSS files and scripts. This applies to you whether you use FileZilla or the integrated FireFTP extension (or, for that matter, any other FTP client).
BlueGriffon and KompoZer/Nvu are separate programs that work independently. If you are not confident you want to switch permanently to BlueGriffon, you can always leave KompoZer (or Nvu) installed on your computer, as a sort of insurance policy in case you don't like the new program and want to return to the tried and true. (This assumes that you haven't used features of HTML and CSS that are not supported by KompoZer/Nvu).
Having said that, do not edit the same file with BlueGriffon and KompoZer simultaneously. By this, I mean, don't start both programs up at the same time, and edit the same file in both editors, switching back and forth between them on a whim. That way madness lies.
For those who want to uninstall KompoZer and don't know how to, please read How to Uninstall KompoZer.
Since KompoZer and Nvu are really old programs, predating a number of the HTML and CSS constructs used in today's websites, I am not surprised that users want to upgrade to BlueGriffon. As you can see from the above, the procedure can be completed in a few steps, after which, you will have a more modern web editor with which to work on your site.
Copyright © 2015-2018 Christopher Heng. All rights reserved.
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