The Office Blogs are the official home for news about the Microsoft Office suite, from feature announcements to tips and tricks. They are also home to the Garage Series, the Office 365 show known for technology stunts, engineering commentary and unusual demos. Brian led the move of the whole property to WordPress.
The challenge
Like many Microsoft blogs, Office had almost a decade of articles locked in a proprietary system. Different sections needed different layouts, video heavy areas especially, and readers needed a faster way to cut through a feed that covered many products at once.
The approach
A full content migration
Every article from the old platform was moved into WordPress, so years of search history and links carried forward. The checklist behind a move like this is in protecting SEO during a WordPress migration.
Templates for mixed media
Not every section of the blog works the same way, so custom templates were designed for areas built around video and other media.
Product and topic filters
Readers click any combination of Office products and topics, choose Apply, and the news feed narrows to exactly what they asked for.
A Garage Series home
A dedicated template showcases the show: the newest episode is highlighted at the top, past episodes sit below, videos open in a lightbox, and each episode has a companion article.
Screenshots
The outcome
Readers reach the product news they care about faster, and the Office team publishes on an open platform it controls. The relationship continued with ongoing support, editor training and new feature requests. The Office Blogs sit alongside the other properties described in Microsoft on WordPress and the Microsoft News Center.
Stack
WordPress, content migration, faceted product and topic filters, custom video templates with lightbox.
