I am currently testing the new Version of WordPress, version 2.7  Beta and so far I am very impressed with it.

The new look and feel of the dashboard gives you navigation buttons down the left hand side. The most important navigation button of them all to me and many other WordPress platform users is the Media button. The dashboard also has a cool drag and drop configuration for all your most used window screens.

My good friend Peggy Duncan and I were in agreed annoyance over why WordPress made you create a new blog post or blog page in order to add new images to your media library. Well Peggy, the new media button takes care of that problem. Now you can add images to your media library in two button clicks. So you can now add and edit your images before posting anything.

The other major change is the ability to update your WordPress to the newest version without the use of an FTP client like FileZilla or CuteFTP. All you have to do now is click on the Tools button (see screen shots below) which will then give you a drop down of choices. One of the choices is Update as in upgrade your WordPress to the latest version. This feature works similar to the plugins automatic update. Even a novice WordPress user can now keep up to date with all new version updates.

Speaking of plugins, WordPress 2.7 Beta has made installing plugins just as simple as upgrading them. You can find additional plugins for your site by using the new Plugin Browser/Installer. This new feature will help you automatically search for and then install a plugin using the zip file format.

What has not changed so far is the uploading of new WordPress Themes. This still has to be done the old fashioned way by uploading your theme folder into your wp-content/themes directory. I am sure uploading Themes is not that far behind.

If you have not seen the new dashboard yet here are a few screen shots.

If you would like to test the new version out for yourself you can download WordPress version 2.7 beta here.

I am sure WordPress has even more great changes to come. I will post a follow up article when they release version 2.7 officially.

All the best

JB

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