***Please read this entire page and watch the embedded video BEFORE you switch to a WP-EZ 2.0 theme and begin the migration process! ***

We are excited that WP-EZ 2.0 is now available to everyone with a Gold, Silver, and Bronze hosting package. Before we get to the FAQs, a little house keeping...

• If you missed the announcement WP-EZ Website Builder 2.0 Is Now Available! posted Nov 2, 2017, please read it first. It explains (and shows in a video) the new features in 2.0 and how it's different from 1.0.
• If you are still using the ancient NE1 Website Builder and want to migrate go WP-EZ 2.0, go to the NE1 to WP-EZ 2.0 Migration FAQs page.
• If you would like us to migrate your WP-EZ site to 2.0, you can read more about that here.

Q) I am using the original WP-EZ Website Builder. Do I have to migrate to 2.0?

No. There are no security or usability problems with the original WP-EZ. We will continue to support and update 1.0. However, we think most organizations will want to switch because the 2.0 themes look better, the page templates help to make great looking pages very quickly.

Q) If I don't switch to a WP-EZ 2.0 theme, can I still use the Page Builder?

Yes, you can. You won't have access to any page templates because each page template is only available with the theme it was designed for, but can use the page builder to build new pages and edit your existing pages.

Q) Can the migration from WP-EZ 1.0 to 2.0 be done with the simple click of a button?

That would be awesome, but no. 

It's important to understand the goals of WP-EZ 2.0 and the problems it was designed to address. Before we designed the original WP-EZ, we were seeing lots of websites that used themes that were not mobile-friendly and looked like they were out of the 90s. So, we created WP-EZ to include modern, mobile-friendly themes, and we created a migration tool that copied all of the existing pages from NE1 into WP-EZ and put them in a new, modern theme.

Today, website themes are far less prominent while page content is far more prominent. One of the biggest problems we see with websites, including those built with the original WP-EZ Website Builder, is the layout and format of page content is often poor. We see a lot of pages with no images or tiny images, 3 or more different colors of text, multiple fonts, inconsistent headings. One of the main goals of WP-EZ 2.0 is to help users format their page content better. This is why we added page templates.

If we created a migration tool that simply copied all the page content from 1.0 to 2.0, the end result would be the same poorly formatted page content. That wouldn't help. Therefore, instead, when a website is switched from a 1.0 theme to a 2.0 theme, the website is given new pages that use the page templates for that theme. The new pages are beautifully designed with sample content. You then replace the sample text with your own text and sample images with your own images to create what is essentially a brand new website.

Q) Does that mean if I migrate my website from WP-EZ 1.0 to 2.0, my current pages will go away and I'll have to copy all of my existing content into new pages?

Yes. You can keep your current pages on your 2.0 site if you really want to but it won't look as good. Therefore, for best results, we highly recommend you copy your current content into new pages, and then unpublish your current/old pages.

Q) Would you provide step-by-step instructions that show how to migrate from WP-EZ to WP-EZ 2.0?

Yes. Watch this video tutorial which shows the migration process. An outline and text explanation is included below but it doesn't provide nearly as much detail as the video.



The migration from WP-EZ 1.0 to 2.0 is done in 4 phases...

1) Switch to a WP-EZ 2.0 Theme

Login to MyOCC and go to your WP-EZ Dashboard. Click the "Switch Theme" option in the left menu, and select the WP-EZ 2.0 theme you wish to use.

After you do this, three things will happen:

• Your live website will be switched to the new theme, so the header and footer will look like the new theme. However, your old menu and pages will still be visible on website.
• The pages that come with the theme and contain the sample content will be created as "drafts" which means they cannot be seen by visitors
• A new menu which contains the new pages will be created but it will not be shown on your website yet

2) Edit the WP-EZ 2.0 Pages

For most websites, this phase will take the most time. What you'll do is edit each one of the new 2.0 pages that has been added (as an unpublished draft) to your website. Replace the sample text with your own text and replace the sample images with your own images. We have created a video tutorial for each page template of each theme. Before you start editing a page, we encourage you to watch the video tutorial for that page.

You might find it faster to copy the text from your old pages and paste it into the page builder for your new pages. If you do this, please note content can't be copied directly from a published page. To copy content from an existing WP-EZ page into a new WP-EZ 2.0 page, go into the old page as if you were going to edit it. In the editor, highlight the text you wish to copy and hit control-c. Then go to the new WP-EZ 2.0 page, click into the Page Builder, click on the block of text you wish to replace, in the text editor that pops up, hit control-v to paste.

Also note, if the WP-EZ 2.0 theme you select contains a page you don't want to use, you can either delete it or just remove it from the new (and still unpublished) menu for the theme.

3) Activate the WP-EZ 2.0 Theme

Go to your WP-EZ Dashboard. Click the green button on the right side that says "Activate [name of theme]." This will cause several things to happen:

• All of your old pages will be unpublished. They still exist, but they cannot be seen by visitors.
• All of your new pages will be published, They will now be visible to visitors.
• The old menu with links to the old pages will be replaced by the new menu with links to your new pages.

4) Edit and Re-publish Any Old Pages You Want to Keep

Most organizations will have at least a few pages from their old website that have important content that didn't get copied into one of the new pages. For example, your current church website may have a page about weddings, but none of the themes has a weddings page template. After step 3, your weddings page has been unpublished, but now you can edit it and republish it.

We strongly recommend editing the page first to make it consistent with the format and style of your new WP-EZ 2.0 pages and consistent with modern web design standards - make sure there's a large image "above the fold," use only one color for all your text, etc.

After you publish a page, you will also need to click the "Menu" option on the WP-EZ Dashboard and add a menu item to your menu for that page. Try to keep your main menu to no more than 8 menu items. Utilize sub-menus if necessary. Also keep your menu text short so it doesn't cause the menu to wrap onto a second line.

Q) I'm confused and getting frustrated. What should I do?

First, stop and pray. Seriously, God is in this with us. He gives wisdom, understanding and patience. Second, make sure you've watched the migration video tutorial above, the WP-EZ 2.0 General videos. If you're still confused and frustrated, create a help desk ticket so our support team can assist you.

If you want a 2.0 site, but doing this migration just isn't the best use of your time, let us migrate your site for you - here's how.