Introduction

WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress installs are very different. You will have access to a lot more options and controls than you did previously. If you are new to self-hosted installs, please take some time to go over Getting Started With WordPress to learn the ins and outs of your new admin panel.

Themes on WordPress.com are also fundamentally different than self-hosted WordPress themes, including those offered by Obox on both platforms. We give some examples here of things you will need to do to transition a WordPress.com site using Gigawatt WP to a self-hosted one using the full Gigawatt theme.

The Solution

Transferring the Data

  1. Export your content from your wordpress.com blog.
  2. Install WordPress on your own host. View our detailed setup for doing this the right way.
  3. Install and Activate your Obox Theme following the Theme Documentation
  4. On the Create Your Content step, import your wordpress.com content instead of importing our demo content.

Adjusting Your Content

Continue through your theme setup per the documentation, making any necessary changes to your category structure, adding new content, or editing menus.

Next, you may need to edit your posts to adjust how things like featured images and videos display, depending on your WordPress.com theme. Below gives an example of checking content from Gigawatt on WordPress.com and updating it to use the full features of the self-hosted Gigawatt theme.

  1. Under Posts, edit a post and check the post body for images or video links you intend to use as the featured image or video and remove them
  2. Add your featured image or video using the standard processes.
  3. Install the Regenerate Thumbnails plugin(search for it under Plugins→Add New), then run it from Tools → Regen Thumbnails. This resets all pre-existing images to fit the new theme specifications.

Special Checklist for Gigawatt

  • There is no Showcase page in the full Gigawatt theme. Use the Widget-Driven Home Layout with a Slider and Four Column widget for the same effect.
  • There is no Blog page template. Use Categories in your menu instead.
  • Video posts must have either an embed code or an oembed url in the post options panel. Featured images are optional.