While working with WordPress sites you may sometimes need to export the entire site or transfer just specific portions. While WordPress offers a provision to export the entire site, you may have a hard time exporting specific sections like WordPress menus. Doing it manually isn’t practically recommendable due to the complexity and possibilities of human error. So, in this blog we are going to show you the best way to export WordPress menus automatically which will save your time and efforts, and also streamline the entire process:
It is possible to make complete file transfer through the default WordPress including menus but there is no default provision to transfer only the menus without transferring the entire file.
The WordPress offers you a provision to import or export menus while transferring the sites.
· Go to Tools menu and click import if you wish to import the menus or export if you wish to export the menus.
· Click the export option and you would be shown the options to export the desired content.
· Here you can select the specific content or multiple contents that you wish to export like pages, posts, custom fields comments, terms, and custom post types
In some case you may wish to export the entire content but sometimes you just wish to export a specific content only. For instance in this post we will show you how to export the navigation menu.
How to Export/Import Navigation Menus in WordPress
· Install the WPSmenu exporter plug-in and activate it.
· Now visit Tools > Export page in the dashboard
· Once done, it will add a new option for exporting the navigation menu items including the menu as well as different pages linked from it.
· Select the radio button called navigation menu items and click upload export file.
· It will download the navigation menu along with the associated pages to the system which are stored as a .xml file with the default name yourwebsite.wordpress.date
Steps for importing WordPress menus to the new site
For importing the .xml file you just need to open WP admin bar and upload the navigation menu file to the new site through WP import feature
Note: Before importing the files make sure to change the name of any existing files with the same name as the menu pages that you are going to import.
· Now click Tools > import. At the bottom of the list you would see the Install Now option WordPress and under it there would be a link. Just click there.
· It will install the WordPress importer. Confirm it by rechecking the same menu the install now would be replaced with the run importer. Click the link
· It will show you import WordPress screen. Click choose file button
· From the list select the .xml file that you downloaded?
· Click upload file and import button
· You will now be directed to the page where you can assign the authors. By default the list would have the name o the original menu author
· Most people keep the name of the existing user as the imported content author. That said you can check any desired name from the dropdown menu
· For reusing the page content you can check the box that says download and import file attachments.
· When complete successfully you will get the following message.
· You can reconfirm same by going to appearance and clicking menus.
So, you see that how easy it is to export or import the navigation menu with the help of this plugin.