Talking about exporting from WordPress, we might think of a lot of types of data. It can include customer information, media files, SEO stats, and so on. Content also appears as one of the most important elements that you should care about.
WordPress, by default, allows you to export pages and posts or a whole category of your site and import it to another easily. However, when it comes to migrating selected posts of specific categories, it’s a bit complicated. Besides that, transforming a category into a PDF file becomes impossible without a supporting tool.
In this article, we’ll share 2 ways to export WordPress categories to both XML files and PDF files. But beforehand, let’s discuss common reasons for extracting categories from WordPress.
When do you need to export categories from WordPress?
Before lifting your content categories to another format, it’s necessary to understand the purposes. The 2 following ideas explain why WordPress site owners want to export their blog categories.
Build a new site
You have a website publishing both company and personal blogs there. The site becomes viral after a while and you intend to .develop a new site for your personal content only. Moving post by post manually takes a lot of time. That’s why you should simply export content categories to an XML then import them to the new website.
Another example is to sort out products. At first, you offered different goods on the same site. One of them has turned out to be the best selling so you plan to separate this product along with related content from the others.
Repurpose your content
Migrating WordPress categories is useful when you want to repurpose your content. By exporting the blogs to PDFs, you can make use of them by providing subscribers with giveaways, how-to-guides, checklists, etc.
Once working out why migrating categories from WordPress, it’s nice to discover how to get the job done in the easiest way. WordPress already enables you to export and import all kinds of data, including blog categories to an XML file right in the Tools section of the admin dashboard. Meanwhile, you need help from a third-party solution in order to change the content format to PDF files.
#1 Native WordPress Export
This built-in feature allows site owners to pull out a list of blogs of your decided category into an XML file. It proves useful when you change the domain and need to move content from one site to another.
Here is how to get started with the function:
- Log into your WordPress admin dashboard
- Go to Tools then click Export
- Select Posts and pick the desired categories from the dropdown list
- Choose the post type, from Published, Draft, to Pending posts. It’s possible for you to export all of them at a time
- Hit the Download Export File button
The downloaded XML file contains everything in your posts, including the text content, links, headings, date… However, media files are attached just the files’ URLs instead.
Please notice that WordPress doesn’t let you export multiple categories at a time. You have to pick all content or just a single category to convert at a time. Moreover, in case you intend to export posts from different categories, you must create a new category. After that, move selected posts to the new one, then export this category.
#2 Watermark WordPress Files Plugin
Watermark WordPress Files works as the top plugin to export WordPress categories to PDF files with a single click. Not only the text but also JPEG, PNG, and GIF file formats will be included in the exported PDF too.
The 6-step-process below shows you how to use the plugin:
- Download and install the Watermark WordPress Files plugin on your site
- Head to the Watermark WordPress Files section in your WordPress admin dashboard
- Scroll down to the Export Multiple Pages option
- Select Categories in the Content dropdown
- Customize other setting elements such as Header, Footer, First and Final pages, Table of content, and so on.
- Click Export
Now you have a long PDF consisting of all blog posts of the converted categories. The header and footer sections help personalize your files. The plugin also makes the PDF content consistent by using the same font for all posts.
The Table of Content is worth your consideration. You can provide a list of posts’ titles on the first page so readers easily get what the main content of the PDF is about.
Out of the box, you’re able to pick several posts from different categories then convert them into a PDF file. Unlike the default feature, you don’t have to combine these posts into a new category and export it.
The plugin will display media files of posts in the PDF only the files still exist in your WordPress Media Library. If the images or videos are deleted before, they will be presented as blank spaces in the PDF.
Watermark PDF files
Not only does Watermark WordPress Files convert content to PDF files, but it also secures your media files by adding a watermark, as the name suggests. There are 2 types of watermark: text-based and image-based. As a result, you’re encouraged to add the company logo or brand name to prevent content theft from stealing and re-using your files.
The watermark style can be customized in only one place. You can adjust the fonts, colors, or transparency easily. On top of that, once setting the rules and enabling the Integration feature, the new files uploaded to your WordPress Media Library will be auto-stamped.
It’s time to export WordPress categories
There are plenty of methods to export WordPress categories. While the built-in feature enables you to convert all posts of a category into an XML file format, many third-party tools support you in migrating them into PDF Doc files.
Watermark WordPress Files has become the best solution to transform WordPress categories to PDF files. It’s possible for you to export a group of categories into one file, or have posts from separate categories displayed in a PDF. The plugin comes in handy by authorizing you to stop visitors from using your files illegally as well.
Have your category content converted into PDF using Watermark WordPress Files now!
