I don’t usually blog about Wordpress, but since we’re users this is really exciting to us.
Wait.  Users?  That makes us sound like addicts, doesn’t it? umm…well, I…

Moving on:  Did you see our blog go down Sunday night for 10 heartstopping minutes?  We took the jump to 2.7.  Hubby just couldn’t wait.  He’s impetuous like that. 

Wordpress 2.7 has some major changes. Here are the ones that really excite me:

• Automatic upgrades -  No more download-unzip-upload routine for either plugins or Wordpress itself.  Just click the Upgrade button.  Hurray for auto upgrades!
• Drag-n-drop dashboard - Rearrange things the way you want, so you don’t keep forgetting to choose a category just because the category thingie is down where you can’t see it.
• Quick post from right on the dashboard - all of the formatting options aren’t there, but it’s perfect for just a quick twitter-like post.
• Screen options to hide/show elements - example: if you never use excerpts or custom fields, just hide them.
• Built-in plugin features - many features that users could only get with plugins are now built in.  Notables: SEO optimization, sticky posts, plugin central, threaded comments and easy reply-to-comments.
• Add media without creating a post - very handy when you want to use an image in your sidebar, for example.  Technically, this was possible before - but now it’s built in and straightforward.
• Quick edit posts - no need to go directly to a post to edit the date, author, tags, status, categories, etc.  Just do it in the list of posts.
• Bulk edit posts -  do the above on a whole group of posts at once.

We also learned the hard way that yes, you really should deactivate all of your plugins before you upgrade:

• The wp-sticky plugin creates a conflict that will crash both your dashboard and your blog.
• The lighter-admin menus plugin hid the new navigation while the old navigation was gone, so we were left with no navigation at all.  We were not impressed with the new layout until I had my “duh” moment and disabled that plugin.

I don’t like change just for the sake of change, but I do like this.  In spite of all the changes and the totally new look and feel, the new interface seems very intuitive to me.

3 Great Ideas from Wordpress:

• Theme Compatibility: Here is a list of Themes compatible with WordPress Version 2.7. Compiling this list is a work in progress, so don’t panic if your theme isn’t on there yet.  It’s very likely that your theme will work but hasn’t been tested yet.
• Plugin Compatibility: This page provides a link to the various Plugin Compatibility articles for each major release of WordPress.  It’s not complete by any means, but it’s a good start on a great idea.
• Host Compatibility: For the new feature which allows automatic updating of the Wordpress core.  Our host is ok, with one small issue; is yours?

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You loved it, right? Here's more like it:

1. How to move from Blogger to Wordpress, part 2
2. How to move from Blogger to Wordpress, part 1
3. Blog questions and answers
4. It’s here!
5. Another step in the right direction…

Filed under: blogging