WordPress 2.7 Will Rock Your Socks Off

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I was really hard on Automattic and the launch of WordPress 2.5. I went so far as to install the Fluency Admin plugin so that I didn’t use the admin panel unless I had to (using IE at work). I even installed Movable Type and Textpattern on my Macbook (using the indispensable MAMP) to see if they were suitable replacements, which they weren’t.

When I heard that Automattic was messing with the admin panel again in 2.7, I had a certain sense of trepidation. I decided to go ahead and bite the bullet and see what it was all about. I installed the 2nd beta of 2.7 locally, and you know what? I fell in love with WordPress all over again. Most importantly, gone is the circa 1999 admin panel. Halleujah!

The admin panel is gorgeous. You can see screenshots on the official WordPress blog. Most importantly the write panel has been fixed. The amount of scrolling has been drastically cut down. Tags and categories are back to the right of the writing box rather than below it. There’s even a “Quick Press” function on the main home screen that allows you to knock off a quick post without even going to the full “Write” panel.

Site Map Though, the coolest functionality may be the automatic update. Basicallly, if you’ve used the automatic plugin update functionality, Automattic has applied it to the “trunk”. I got a notification this morning that the Beta 3 version of 2.7 was available. I pushed the button to update the install, and within 30 seconds I was running the 3rd Beta. It was really that simple. It even goes through an “update database” step, so there isn’t an extra click for that (like my current host’s automatic install and upgrade). You can see if your host will support the auto-update here.

Given that I was so hard on them for 2.5, I wanted to thank the team at Automattic for hitting a home run in 2.7. I can’t wait until it is released in full so I can update this site.