The 42nd Estate

A few days ago, the fine WordPress folks released the latest version of their blogging/content management system, WordPress 2.8. In addition to bug fixes and speed tweaks, WordPress 2.8 includes five new helpful features.

1. Password Change Reminder

After setting up a new blog, WordPress will post a message at the top of the admin panel reminding you to change your password from the auto-generated one to something you’ll remember better. It’s not a huge change, but a nice little addition to make the initial installation process just slightly more intuitive.

2. Photo URL in Media Section

In what seems like a nod to the Thesis Theme crowd, the photo info in the media section now includes a section at the bottom with the photo URL. Previously, you’d have to click through to the photo twice to figure out the URL (either two left clicks or a left and right click), now it’s right there after you upload the photo.

It helps the Thesis users, as it allows you to upload a new picture and immediately have the URL to use for the post image section.

3. Drag and Drop Widgets

WordPress 2.8 adds a Mac style drag and drop interface to the widgets section. You can now drag new widgets into the active widgets sidebar, and reorder them by dragging the widgets around. In Safari on a Mac, the feature is a little buggy and at times doesn’t grab the widget. Luckily, if you click the screen options tab you can activate accessibility mode, which places an “Add” link next to each widget.

4. Add themes from admin panel

WordPress added the ability to install plugins directly from within wordpress in their previous release. The feature now makes its way into the theme section too. You can search for and add any theme from the WordPress.org theme directory directly from the admin panel.

5. Configure number of columns on admin dashboard

If you click screen options after logging into WordPress 2.8, you’ll be presented with the option to choose how many columns should display on the dashboard [Kudos to Marko, would not have spotted this otherwise]. It’s a nice feature that helps reduce clutter and gives you more control over how to organize your WordPress installation

Here’s the full list of changes in WordPress 2.8. What cool new features have you found or enjoy in WordPress 2.8?

Tags: features, list, updates, wordpress

This entry was posted on Monday, June 15th, 2009 at 12:20 pm and is filed under Blogging Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.