Review: WordPress 2.7

So I’ve been waiting pretty much for this upgrade since October.  I have to admit, I was a bitty iffy about the changes but overall I am very pleased with the results. If you’ve been following the WordPress development blog, you’ve been hearing about the new installment of the WordPress blogging platform for months. WordPress has been very involved with its clients by listening to the demands of  bloggers, designers, developers, and etc. have all put in to make a bigger and better WordPress. They even allowed users to vote on the icons used in 2.7. (That really entertained me for ten minutes.) 

If you have never upgraded your WordPress, you can learn how through this nifty little guide. If you’re completely new to WordPress, this guide is for you. Before updating, you may want to check some of your plugins and de-activate them.

I’m sure on the updating guide, it tells you to de-activate all of your plugins. If you’re hard-headed like I am and never do so, these are the plugins I learned that I should’ve de-activated: Easy Admin Color Schemes, Simple Tags, and Lighter Menus. I really thought that 2.7 wasn’t working with my browser, Chrome, so I was kinda pissy at first but I realized it was my plugins.  Also plugins-wise, I was pissy because I use WP Easy-Uploader and I couldn’t find it on my side-menu. After fidgeting around for 10 seconds, I found it under Tools.

The new dashboard is really sleek and sophisticated. My two favorite features are the recent comments and Quickpress. The icons are clean and light. I love the color-scheme.

It takes some getting accustomed to (1-2 minutes at the most) but the side-menu is very nice. I would like to be able to have the menu pop-out because I can be terribly impatient; however, the slide-up and down feature doesn’t take much time at all. 

Another new feature that’s been added is the Add New Plugin feature. Somewhat like the WP-Easy Uploader plugin I listed above, the Add New Plugin feature allows you to upload plugins directly from your PC or browse through the offical WordPress plugin directory. I haven’t had the opportunity to use the feature yet, but I still prefer the WP-Easy Uploader which allows you to upload files, plugins, and themes.

The post page is updated to look a bit more sleeker. Everything isn’t so large which is very nice. The categories functions are back on the right side as in WordPress 2.5. You can now choose tags  from your popular tag cloud. I find that feature to be very helpful as in WordPress 2.6, the tag feature while posting was a bit sloppy without the help of plugins. Inserting/uploading media is the same as version 2.6. 

I would definitely recommend the update to 2.7. It’s quick and easy, and a lot easier on the eyes. WordPress has definitely done a lot of good with this update and I can’t wait to see what more they have in store for us. If you have any other plugins that aren’t compatible with 2.7, please feel free to comment here.