WordPress News: WordPress 2.7 Awesome, WordPress.com 5 Million, Plugins Updated, and WordCamp News

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There was a lot of WordPress news this week, including the release last week of WordPress 2.7, which has been heralded by many as one of the easiest upgrades and enthusiasm for the new interface. Applause for the whole WordPress development team and community that worked so hard to make WordPress 2.7 so awesome. A lot of WordPress Plugins have been updated, and some thought discontinued by incorporation of their features into WordPress 2.7 are back and better than ever. Lots of WordPress.com news, including crossing the 5 million blog mark. WordCamps and WordPress Meetups are starting to fill up the schedule for 2009. And a lot more WordPress news is crammed into this issue, so hang on.

WordPress News

Things You Need to Know About WordPress 2.7: Last week’s issue, WordPress News: WordPress 2.7 Released, covered a ton of information you needed to know about the latest version of WordPress.

Ryan Boren announced that there have been 100,000 downloads in the first 20 hours of release, followed by a hint that WordPress 2.7.1 work in progress and will be out soon with many of the fixes found during the first week of the release.

Other WordPress 2.7 news and tips include:

  • Accessibility and Speed Comes to the WordPress 2.7 Comment Panel: Mark Jaquith presented a great demo screencast of the WordPress 2.7: Comment Moderation Keyboard Shortcuts which shows the various keyboard shortcuts you can use with the new version of WordPress to speed up the processing of comments. To turn it on, visit your Profile Page (click your name in the upper right corner) and check the box to enable keyboard shortcuts. From there, it’s just a few keystrokes to fast management of your comments.
  • Customize the WordPress Login Panel: WordPress 2.7 now features an easily customizable WordPress login screen and WPEngineer offers a tutorial on how to customize the WordPress login screen to your own design needs.
  • Admin Drop Down Menu Upgraded: With the major changes and easy-to-use interface of WordPress 2.7, many thought that Ozh of Planet Oz would discontinue support of his popular WordPress Plugin, Admin Drop Down Menu. Fortunately, the requests to continue and support an upgraded version were too much for him to resist, so it has been upgraded with some new features to better work with WordPress 2.7. It includes a horizontal menu to replace the left sidebar navigation, giving it a more “desktop application” feel. See below in the Plugins and Theme News for more WordPress Plugins making a comeback.
  • WordPress 2.7 Administration Panel Skin: While many are thrilled with the new look and feel of WordPress 2.7, some still like having the option to change and control it. The Fluency Admin WordPress Plugin has been updated with a total rewrite to cover the new underlying structure of WordPress 2.7 while allowing a lot of customization. This version features custom flyout menus, navigation click reduction, hot key access shortcuts, screen options, and some other color variations. Expect more Plugins to change the look of the new Administration Panels soon.
  • hCards in WordPress 2.7? Did you know that microformats are now a part of WordPress? Joost de Valk of Yoast was impressed with the new hCards feature of WordPress, so he’s written a WordPress Plugin to work with the new microformats feature to add name, website, email, and photo to your blog. He offers a a video to show how the Plugin works.

[Read more…]

WordPress News: WordPress 2.7 Released

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Mark Jaquith has just announced that WordPress 2.7 is now live and ready for download.

Rumors were flying with the WordPress 2.7 RC2 release announcement and WordPress mailing lists, and now, the official announcement is now out. This version of WordPress is named “Coltrane” for famed jazz Saxophonist, John Coltrane, a favorite of sax playing, WordPress founder, Matt Mullenweg.

The official announcement includes a video and information on how WordPress 2.7’s new interace was developed. For more examples, screenshots, video, and information on the new WordPress 2.7 version, see WordPress 2.7 Release News and Links, Countdown to WordPress 2.7 and WordPress 2.7 Hits WordPress.com Thursday, December 4, 2008, and keep an eye on WordPress 2.7 blog posts and coverage across the blogosphere. [Read more…]

WordPress News: WordPress 2.7 Out on WordPress.com, WordPress 2.7 News, WordCamps, WordPress Plugins and Themes Updated

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By now, WordPress 2.7 has been released on . The full version should be released by December 10. We’ve lots of WordPress 2.7 version news. WordPress Theme and Plugin authors need to update and ensure they are listed on the compatibility pages on the Codex. Hang on, we’ve got lots of WordPress news.

WordPress News

Things You Need to Know About WordPress 2.7: now features a Countdown to WordPress 2.7 on blogger’s Administration Panels. It is clicking off the time until WordPress 2.7 hits WordPress.com blogs.

Countdown on WordPress.com blogs for WordPress 2.7

In the announcement that WordPress 2.7 will arrive on Thursday, December 4, 2008, at 8PM Eastern Time in the United States on WordPress.com blogs, you will find all the tips and information you need to handle the transition to the new version of WordPress. Ryan Boren explained that WordPress.com users have been using WordPress 2.7 for a while without the new Administration Panel interface, which is due to arrive today.

Full Version of WordPress 2.7 Due December 10: In response to the Blog Herald announcement, Jane Wells confirms that the full version of WordPress 2.7 will be released December 10, though it could be sooner if testing on WordPress.com goes well. [Read more…]

WordPress 2.7 Due on WordPress.com December 4, 2008

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WordPress 2.7 will arrive on Thursday, December 4, 2008, at 8PM Eastern Time in the United States, so says the blog and Jane Wells of .

WordPress 2.7 Release Candidate 1 was released December 1, with 280 commits since WordPress 2.7 beta 3. This release includes the new menu icons created by the winners of WordPress 2.7: Project Icon, and fixes to the browser bugs that have been giving the development team headaches. [Read more…]

WordPress Wednesday News: Beta 3 Released, WordCamp Australia, No WordPress 2.6.4, and More

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WordPress 2.7 is at beta version 3 and the first Release Candidate is due any moment. I’ve collected tons of articles covering the next release of WordPress, expected to be one of the most exciting ever. WordCamp Australia is this weekend. Old versions of WordPress continue to be hacked, so please upgrade and not wait for WordPress 2.7. Be warned that if you are using WordPress 2.6.4, it could be fake. And more WordPress news.

WordPress News

WordPress 2.7 Development News: WordPress 2.7 Beta 3 fixed a lot of styles and design elements for the new interface, integrating 144 commits since beta 2. This version also includes an update for the first WordPress Plugin, “Hello Dolly.” The media upload buttons now have an “if available” option. They won’t show unless the ability to upload is available. QuickPress now features “Submit for Review” if the contributor can’t publish posts directly. They’ve added an API to the Administration Panels to make adding screen options easier. The Release Candidate One should be available any time now in final preparation for release by the end of the month if all continues on its right track. and will have WordPress 2.7 fully integrated a couple weeks later.

Jacob Santos has written “10 WordPress Features You’ll Never Care About”, a great list of some of the invisible features that helps make WordPress 2.7 even better, even if you can’t see or ever use them.

The WordPress 2.7: Project Icon for WordPress 2.7 is done and the winners are Ben Dunkle and Verena Segert. The two icon sets will be incorporated after some final adjustments into RC1.

Other articles and news about WordPress 2.7 include: [Read more…]