WordPress 2.7 is already released in beta and will go live shortly for all. I was lucky enough to get a demo of it at BlogWorldExpo a couple of months back and I have to say that I’m quite excited by what I saw. It is very different to look at and will take some getting used to but having had the changes explained to me I think there’s a lot to like about WordPress 2.7 (particularly some of the configurable options of layout in the back end, comment moderation and plugin management).
If you’re going to be upgrading and want a little tour of the new features check out Aaron Brazell’s great post 10 Things You Need to Know about WordPress 2.7 which will run you through some of the new features, design and usability.
I’ve upgraded to WordPress 2.7 and I LOVE it. :) The organization is much nicer and I love being able to turn on and off the admin widgets. If you’ve used WordPress before, you will be able to adjust to the new admin control panel very easily.
Wow, I look forward to trying this out on my own blog. I love it when they update wordpress because there are so many more option. The current one is great for my blog I bet the new one will be even better
I am using WordPress version 2.6. I updated a few times and then got tired of updating it. They change it so often that it’s hard to keep up.
Cheers,
A Dawn Journal
http://www.adawnjournal.com
Any idea of the release date? I am about to do a lot of updating to some blog themes, and I would hate to have them break with 2.7 if it is due out very soon. Maybe I should just wait?
Hi Darren;
Do you recommend upgrading right away?
I’ve got WordPress 2.7 beta 3 on a sandbox directory, and I am really impressed! The dashboard takes a little getting used to, but once you do, your workflow is greatly sped up. Of particular interest is the automatic installation of plugins and WP updates, which will please less-technical users.
Most of the improvements on the front end are not going to become apparent until themes are updated to use them, such as threaded comments and paged comments.
The release date has been pushed back to the end of November, I believe. With the big changes in WP 2.7, I’m sure they want to make it as bug-free and workable as possible before its release.
Well, what I didn’t like about 2.6.1
is I couldn’t figure out
how to view upcoming posts directly
from the manage posts screen.
I had to go into the post
and view it from there.
Major pain in the butt
(and why I didn’t upgrade most of my blogs)
Plus it was incredibly slow.
Thanks for the heads up. Looks very cool, and looks like it will solve a lot of the frustrations and time consumption.
Cheers.
I agree — though the admin site looks totally revamped, people who are new and experienced with WordPress will be totally surprised at how more user-intuitive the interface is. The only thing that concerns me is the slightly slow loading time. I hope that gets fixed before the stable release comes out.
I really like wordpress, and I love how they are always improving and updating. I really look forward to checking out their latest upgrade.
Thanks Darren, and thanks to Aaron Brazell as well! ;o)
I’ve got plugins that revamp the admin side so I probably won’t notice a big change once I upgrade.
I’m just a little worried that all the major changes with 2.7 will break my current theme and some plugins.
I wish they would stop with all of the damn upgrades so often unless it’s a security vulnerability.
I disagree with this in the article:
“The first thing you will notice … is the new menu layout. Without a doubt it’s going to throw you for a loop and you’re going to hate it.”
Also, the Media Library for managing uploaded images is already available in version 2.6.
Also the article includes a couple of obscure items which I don’t consider worthy of a top 10 things you “need” to know about 2.7 at the expense of some stuff that will be more immediately useful to bloggers such as improved image handling (especially the new image setting defaults) and bulk post editing, and the new plugin management features.
I wrote about a few of those on my site if anyone wants to see more about them.
I can’t wait. I seriously can’t. I compulsively update all my software, both online and off. It’s just something I learned early on in IT at college.
Im think im looking forward to the full release. I will wait though for people to review it once it goes live and then decide if i want to upgrade.
I just downloaded and installed it on a new site this morning and it works great. It’s taken me a little while to figure things out, but once I have it makes so much more sense than before.
Had no plugin or theme difficulties either.
I already check the link and read deep about the information….complete and useful, thanks for the linking
i deffinitely agree, wordpress 2.6 is really in a dip and 2.7 is amazing but most of the blogging platforms have been paralleling these big changes and i think we are on the verge of a blog revolution where blogging may actually be easy to do instead of rocket science for people who have the time to study the art and craft. i think the new age has arrived
Gosh…this WP thing get up dated more often this days, I still using WP 2.5 and now already in 2.7?
I think I will wait until it is release and skip the beta version :D
I have gone through a lot of change in my life and each time I hated the thought of it. The thing is that change happens and you can either encompass it and grow with it or you can fight it which usually has a lot of negative results. Every time I’ve embraced it, no choice really, and each time it has turned out for the best.
I am ready for whatever WordPress has to throw at me, and I am sure that it is all for the best. I just love that blogging platform.
Love WordPress upgrades! Can’t wait!
thats a great news, im already using WordPress 2.6 and im really satisfied with it and the next version is really worth a try. Thanks for sharing.
I still dislike the layout. The right hand toolbar puts all the useful links clear across the page from the scroll bar. This means to access the information you have to mouse clear across the page then back again to scroll down to it. This negates any real value of having the information spread clear across my wide screen monitor, something most of us have now.
Even with beta 3 out I have my doubts whether all the bugs will be out by the pushed back release date.
@Brad Hart, your mouse doesn’t have a scroll wheel?
@not everyone uses a mouse, especially those of us blogging from a laptop and not every mouse I have has a scroll wheel. The trackball my wife uses for her carpal tunnel, the marble mouse from logitech, doesn’t. Not to mention scroll wheels are often difficult for people with existing hand and wrist problems.
Regardless of scroll wheels it is still a bad design…
Thanks for the link Darren!
I always wait for the first few minor updates (x.x.1) to be released before installing them. Same thing for other application and operating systems.
I used to always love having the latest version of everything, now I just stick to what works already. If it ain’t broken…
I am really looking forward to this release! Thanks for the update.
I’m waiting to upgrade to 2.7 when they release it. But they release new versions so often that its a pain to do all the work and upgrade to the latest version. Still, I’d love to test it out.
I am excited about some of the new features but am scared to upgrade because I don’t know if my theme will work properly if I do.
@kim I took a look at your blog and I don’t see any reason it won’t upgrade just fine unless you are running scripting through your functions page which I have no way of seeing.
Awesome! I can’t wait.
Im really loving this plugin, i have just installed wordpress 2.7 and its damn good. Highly recommended for everyone.
I really wish WP, which I really love, would stop making such drastic changes to the dashboard and functionality. Imho, there hasen’t been leaps and bounds of improvements, if anything, it confuses average users more.
Yes si understand i will read this becuase upsdtae coming soon.
Than you
@Mike I think you will find a lot of bloggers move away from using the wordpress interface anymore than they have to because of these sorts of radical changes. I have long been an advocate of scribefire and just recently started testing windows live writer and if either one of them would make the jump and allow me to enter metadata in optional fields I would very seldom if ever open a write window in wordpress.
I have enjoyed the updates and user interface changes, and have found them to be a boost to productivity.
That being said, several clients who use WordPress less frequently than I do have expressed concern over the interface changes. They find the learning curve excessive for the small amount of time they spend in the Admin Dashboard. I think I have to agree with them. It does get a bit confusing.
I’m with A. Dawn – I’m sick of updating! I still dont have 2.6.3 because I kept getting technical error messages. :(
To all those sick of updating, I reckon that its because you don’t have the automatic update plugin. This plugin makes it a breeze and also allows you to backup the database. I love the updates if for no other reason that it reminds me to backup those databases. As far as I am concerned, I say bring em on.
@Sire – I do have the automatic update plugin and it still doesnt work.
Thanks for the heads up. I will need to be ready for this one since I build blogs for other people and advice them on their use, and was planning on putting some tutorials together soon.
I think its great that they are upgrading. I can always find things I would improve with – I guess I’ll see if the WP Developers think along the same lines.
@Carla – I am not a tech geek or anything and so I do not know what is causing your problem, but I know that in the past, when I have come across this sort of problem it has had something to do with either the theme or one of the plugins.
If you are using the automatic update plugin, then the plugins are not the problem as it de-activates them all. Perhaps if you try reverting to the standard wordpress theme before doing an update.
I’ve been using beta2 and now beta3 since beta2 was released. I find WP slower to load, the admin interface generating far more http requests than it used to, and the UI “improvements” have actually made the admin interface less usable.
As someone who has clients using WordPress I am not looking forward to the extra training and support. Clients for whom accessibility is an issue are going to have to stay on 2.6.3.
For me, I am looking at rolling back to 2.6.3. I had threaded comments and Oz’h comments plugin which allowed me to respond from the admin interface. I didnt need Atom because I send all feeds to feedburner. While the access to writing new posts is faster, granted, the slower speed and additional http requests negate that advantage.
Unless something vastly improves between beta3 and the final release, I am going back to 2.6.3.
I am nervous about this as I am only so new at blogging and I am always worried about mucking some thing up, but it should be good, I hope :))
I am unaware of the impact the update would have on my blog. I am still using the wordpress 2.5. Darren, can you point me to a detailed article which would help me in upgrading?
Thanks a lot.