About the author: Dan Cannon is the Lead Web Applications Developer for Nicasio Design and Development. Nicasio provides web based solutions for both individuals and businesses. Nicasio is highly proficient in WordPress design and development. Nicasio also owns and operates the E-Commerce solution NicE-Comm.

Anyone that is obsessed with WordPress as we are here at Nicasio is probably already well aware that WordPress has recently released their latest version of WordPress – 2.7 Coltrane. This is the first major overhaul to the WordPress platform and interface in some time. This new version adds more than a pretty new face to WordPress though. It also adds some much desired functionality making it easier than ever to be a blog admin.

Admin Interface

The first thing you’ll probably notice when you login to a new WordPress 2.7 site is that the admin interface is completely overhauled. Love it or hate it, supposedly the new interface is designed to take fewer clicks to do almost anything within the WordPress environment. The new dashboard provides you with more ‘at a glance’ information than previous versions. It also features a quick post area to allow you to post those quick thoughts immediately. This will allow you to get those breaking news stories out even quicker.

As you can see the interface is far different from past versions. Personally I feel the new design is pretty sleek and polished. The new menu system and layout takes a little getting used to but after publishing a few test posts I found myself having no problems navigating the new menu system at break neck speeds.

Plugins

One of the more exciting features of WordPress 2.7 is the ability to add new plugins from the WordPress plugin directory directly from the WordPress admin. No more going to the WordPress site, downloading a zip and FTPing into your server. And no worries to those that like to use custom plugins. You can now upload a zip file of a plugin through the admin and WordPress will automatically decompress it and install it. Pretty nifty.

Upgrades

Another new feature aimed at making admin’s lives easier is the ‘true one press upgrade’. Supposedly future upgrades of WordPress will  be easy to perform from within the admin. This has been claimed in the past and upgrades have traditionally been a source of problems and compatibility issues for admins so if this new upgrade process truly does work as described we are in for a treat.

Possible Issues With Upgrading

With any new release of an open source software system we recommend that users wait until all of the bugs are worked out of the new system, wait until plugin authors update their plugins and wait until theme authors upgrade their themes before just jumping into the new version.

We have already had some clients who attempted the upgrade themselves have plugin compatibility issues that caused their admin pages to load incorrectly, among other issues. So be patient and make sure you are ready to undertake the process of upgrading to this new and exciting version of WordPress before you jump blindly in.

As always, if you require assistance with your upgrade, plugin development, theme design, or anything else to do with WordPress, don’t hesitate to Contact Nicasio Design and Development Today for a quote.