WordPress 2.7, A New Beginning

Over the last few days I have been spending time upgrading blogs to the latest version of WordPress. The 2.7 version is a major upgrade and has quite a few people in awe. Not only does the newest version have a different look in the Administrative panel but there are many new features. Apparently 150 different people contributed to new coding and the over all development of this version. So what’s the hype? If you have been using WordPress for blogging for the last year or more then the hype is obvious.

Let’s just say when I upgraded my first blog and logged in I went “yikes….” I literally was thinking “Oh brother, what a mess!” Within 10 minutes of clicking through it began to really grow on me. By the end of the day and about 20 upgrades later I was really liking it.

Normally to navigate through the WordPress dashboard (control panel), all your options are displayed in tabs along the top in a horizontal fashion. When you clicked on any of those options a set of sub-options would display. In this new 2.7 version all your options are displayed vertically down the left side. You have your main options and clicking on any of those will allow more sub-options to accordian down. You can minimize or maximize these sub-options as you wish.

As you can see in the above image I grabbed from my screen, all the options are on the left. I clicked on the top left option to display more options so you can see it. Also in the second image you can see it right up close. It has a nice feel to the controls and it is easier on the eyes with a soothing light gray hue.

One of the more drastic changes you will notice is the layout of the dashboard. You actually have the ability to rearrange information and tables in order to keep what is most important to you at the top and in the forefront. You do this by checking and un-ckecking a few options. You can’t miss the QuickPress feature where you can add a new article and either publish or save it right on the main dashboard page without having to click on “Add New” under the Posts option. I can see immediately from the developments of this version that the intention was to make it very quick and easy for bloggers to get in, navigate, and get out quickly and efficiently.

It can be a bit overwhelming to new bloggers or those who are simply new to the platform. Even I was a bit taken back from it, but the key is spending time clicking through all the links and options and see what’s available. You will quickly learn to really enjoy it and, in fact, I am excited to see what they have planned for new features in the coming months…

Click here to download WordPress 2.7

There is a more in-depth articles about 2.7 if you are interested to learn more about its features. I found the following article helpful for myself when I was browsing for more information.

10 Things You Need To Know About WordPress 2.7 – Technosailor

Please let me know what you think of the new version…