I'm Just Sharing

Yes, it’s time for another major update to the Wordpress software, this time Wordpress 2.7. This is one of those times where I don’t have to have a link to the product, because if you have a Wordpress blog you’re seeing something in your Admin telling you to update. Even though you should always update your blog because most of the changes are security improvements to help guard against your blog being hacked, I wanted to tell you what to expect once you do update.

For once, the entire Admin area has drastically changed, even moreso that the update to 2.5 originally. The “theme” is just like a 3-column blog, if you will. On the left you have categories of the things that used to be under both the Manage and Settings section.

In the middle is the dashboard and everything it used to contain, which includes a listing of the most recent comments, but you see more of the comment than you used to see. When you go to write a post, the middle changes to that screen instead, and the other stuff disappears. Matter of fact, when you click on most of the items, the middle is what changes. That’s pretty neat, I must say.

On the right is something new, a quick post option if you have something you want to say in a hurry. However, from that option you couldn’t access your SEO plugin, although you could always go back and do an edit to your post, and set up your SEO and other options then. There will also be a box talking about recent Wordpress developments, the only thing from the old dashboard that’s moved to another place.

There’s also one more neat thing in 2.7. At the top right is something that says “screen options”, and it gives you the opportunity to determine if you want to see some of the things that show up in the admin area. That’s kind of neat, and you can play around with that if you so choose, and if you don’t like something you can always put it back.

Of course, as with 2.5, you’re going to need some time to figure out just how everything works. For instance, it took me awhile to figure out how to get to comments, and instead of it taking you back to the main blog you actually write your comments within the admin area, although if you wish to you could still go to the blog post and do it there.

Anyway, now you know what to look forward to. If I may make a recommendation, please, PLEASE go and get the Wordpress Automatic Plugin first, load that bad boy, and make it easy on yourself in upgrading; it only took me a minute, with no errors. I say that because one of my Twitter friends got it wrong, got lots of error messages, and had to reload her old database and start from scratch, first downloading this plugin after I mentioned it to her. Save yourself the hassle.