Lately I’ve been trying to find a workaround to get my SquareSpace hosted blog into a print book. I haven’t been completely successful, yet, but I think I am getting closer to a solution. If you use WordPress or Blogger, you will be so happy that you don’t have this problem.
Blog2Print and Blurb BookSmart both offer easy solutions to move a blog into a book — as long as you are using Blogger, WordPress or TypePad. Blurb also accepts LiveJournal blogs. My blog platform, oh-why-did-I-have-to-be-different SquareSpace, is an odd duck out of the game.
SquareSpace Support seems to think this is a no-brainer project. They advise using the the Export facility (on the Journal congifuration page) to produce a full export of all blog posts; however the resulting MoveableType .txt file is not accepted by Blog2Print or Blurb. You have to go through some hoops, but it is do-able. Here’s how I moved my SS Blog to a Blurb BookSmart book.
1. In SquareSpace, access your Journal Page Configuration (following these instructions). You can only export your blog posts, the Journal, not the overall blog structure with multiple pages. Scroll down the configuration page to “export blog data” button and click the button. This copies all your blog posts to a Movable Type .txt file. Save it to your desktop.
2. Go to the MovableType to Blogger conversion page here. Skip the Steps 1-3 since you already have your .txt file. Follow the directions on Step 4: Choose your .txt file and click the Convert button. Step 5: Save this file to your desktop. Continue with Steps 6-9 to create a new blog on Blogger. You can also use a test blog; just turn off Permissions so it isn’t viewable by everyone. It can get messy. You will import the converted file into Blogger, populating it with your SquareSpace posts.
3. You will have an option to Publish on Import. If you select this option, all posts will be published and available. If you deselect the option, you will need to go into the Edit Post window and manually select posts to publish. Only Published posts will be moved into your blog book, but you will have another opportunity to select posts for your book when you are in the Blurb BookSmart application.
4. You should now have your blog posts in Blogger. Check View Blog to see that all posts transferred by comparing your monthly archive numbers with your SquareSpace archive count.
5. Now it’s time to move your blog to Blurb! Download the BookSmart desktop application, view the Blurb video, and follow the directions. It’s that easy.
A Few Tips I Learned Along the Way —
Decide how you want to break up your book. My blog begins July 2007, so I decided to do annual editions. My first blog book included posts from July 2007 through June 2010, the first three years.
Do you want to include photos? Blurb can “slurp” images from your blog but they may not print well due to the difference in web and print resolution. You can substitute the high-res images, but it will take more time.
Do you want to print your entire book, or just selected posts? My first book came out to be 388 pages — one blog post per page using the auto-populate feature. I haven’t decided if I will try to reformat to condense the length to a less costly book or go back just select my favorite posts to print. Another option is to print at home, or print to PDF; however the Blurb book will not include the cover and each page will have a Blurb watermark.
All the fancy formatting and page design of your blog does not carry over to a book. The export is strictly text and images.
If you know of a better way to accomplish this task, I would love to hear about it. Please leave a comment.
Hi Jennifer, I'm glad to be of some help with the blog to print, but I sure wish SS would implement an easier way to do it. Unfortunately, I don't know how to help you with the picture transfer. Do you have enough space on Blogger for all the photos? What a hassle to have to add them individually.
Please come back and let me know if you find a good workaround.
Thanks for stopping by, Denise
Greetings! A year later, squarespace still does not find it necessary to interface with blog to print. I followed your directions to move my content to blogger, but only the first twenty pictures in the blog will open. The rest do not open. Do you know why this is? Any ideas? I am so thankful for your tutorial on how to convert from squarespace to blogger. Thank you! Any help you could give would be greatly appreciated.
ooops, sorry, that should have read Kind regards!!
Hallo Denise,
Sorry I can't help you regarding your query! I just wanted to let you know that I have nominated your blog for the One Lovely Blog Award. Please visit my blog for your badge and acceptance rules. 🙂
http://rootsresearcher.wordpress.com
Kind rggards,
Christine (rootsresearcher at So That's Where I Get It From)
Ah, Denise, I had to laugh at the way you wrapped up your five-step program: "It's that easy." Glad you were able to figure a way to get it done!
I'm currently trying a new method… instead of blog-slurping, I've set up a Blurb book and am adding my posts to the book as I write them, via copy and paste. That way I can add the high-res photos to the book as I go along (i.e., while I still know where they are!). Time-wise, is this any more or less time-consuming than the slurp-and-edit method? I don't know yet. For myself, I'm guessing it would be about the same either way.
I like the three-month interval, Heather. It sounds fairly do-able, and still a great record of all your blog work. For the record, are you on the Blogger platform? It sounds like the Blogger to Blurb Blog Book is a better workflow.
I slurp my blog to Blurb every three months. I do take a little time to replace certain photos with the bigger images, and I try to consolidate pages so to save paper. I try to keep the books to under 120 pages so that I can get the sewn vs. glued bindings. I like Blurb a lot and I've made a few genealogy books (one for my husband's family, one for my mom, etc.) and loads of vacation photo books. I've made about six Blog/Blurb books, and give them out at Christmas time to family members.