Although tentatively scheduled for November, WordPress 2.7 looks to be as big of a release since WordPress 2.5, perhaps even bigger. Before reading the rest of this post, please keep in mind that what you see in the following screenshots is by no means a representation of the final product. Also keep in mind that WordPress 2.7 should not be used on a live blog as 2.7 is no where near stable. What you see here is not necessarily what you’ll get. This post will highlight WordPress 2.7 at its current stage of development. Please keep this in mind as you read through the post and make comments. Also, click on any of the thumbnails to see the full size of the image.
Back End User Interface:
Right from the get go, you’ll notice that just about every facet of the dashboard has been changed. There is now a left hand side navigational column. This column is displayed no matter which part of the administration panel you are viewing. From what I have read on the WP-Hackers mailing list, the decision to go with a side column for navigation was to cut down on the amount of vertical scrolling. This will also allow plugin authors more room to use the top navigation column. After using this version of WordPress, I have noticed that I don’t scroll up or down as much as I used to. One thing worthy of noting is that, when a navigational item contains child elements, clicking on the parent initiates a smooth drop down animation. While this means some elements of the administration area will require an extra mouse click, I don’t find it to be that big of a deal. I imagine if people raise a ruckus about this, the team may decide to initiate the drop down effect during a mouse over.
Although this feature was not available in this prototype, each content block within the dashboard contains an edit link. I’m not sure if these will be drag and drop-able like Widgets but at least you’ll be able to edit their contents or configure them. Speaking of the dashboard, you’ll notice in the screenshot that there is a new block labeled QuickPress. QuickPress is a quick and easy way to publish posts. Although in this iteration, it does not give you the chance to attach a category. So far, it seems to me as though QuickPress could serve to be a quick and easy draft manager/creator.
On the left hand side, we have a box labeled InBox. Again, I am not sure what the plans are for this area of the dashboard. Any details for this feature are speculative at this point. However, I think it would be pretty cool if it served as a private messaging area. A simple way to contact other WordPress site administrators. Sure, we could use email or IM to accomplish this goal, but doing it from within WordPress sounds pretty good to me.
As an aside, the black headers for the various blocks in the dashboard appear more stylish to me versus the light blue colored ones in the current implementation.
Before we move on, we need to acknowledge the WordPress admin bar at the top of the administration area. This bar looks and works similar to the way in which the WordPress.com admin bar works. My Account acts as a profile link as it takes you directly to your account profile. New Post takes you straight to the Write Panel and of course, you can see how many new comments you have in the moderation queue which will take you to the comment management panel when clicked on.
Last but not least, it is important to notice that some of the naming conventions have changed in terms of navigation. For example, Templates have taken the place of Design. There is also a brand new menu item called Utilities. So far, this link houses the following items: InBox, Tags, Categories, Link Categories, Users, Import, and Export. This addition seems pretty logical to me. Instead of clicking on the Management tab where you would then gain access to manage content, there is now a parent navigational menu item called Content. Underneath of this element you’ll find links for Posts, Comments, Media Library, Links, and Pages.
I’ve had discussions with a few people already about why the change from Design to Template has taken place as I don’t understand why it has changed. Templates seem like they would be a good fit underneath Design. Now, we have the possibility of Themes showing up underneath Templates.
The Write Panel:
The Write Panel in WordPress 2.7 has gone through an overhaul as well. I think you’ll really enjoy the fact that drag and drop elements are back. You can now drag elements to the sidebar or to the bottom of the panel. I am thoroughly excited for this element alone. We can now configure the write panel so it is best suited for our needs instead of using a static configuration. There is a cool new tab on the right-hand sidebar called settings.
If you click on this tab, you’ll be able to select which elements are displayed and which ones are hidden. An extra bonus in terms of configuring the write panel! Not only can you configure the layout to your liking, you can even exclude the non used items from showing up. With todays average monitor resolutions being as big as they are, these two changes to the write panel may end the need for vertical scrolling. This was a major complaint with the WordPress 2.5 write panel.
Here is what the Write Panel looks like with all of the settings turned off:
One last thing about the write panel that I noticed. Instead of the add media buttons that are present within todays WordPress write panel, this version showcases a single Add Media button. For now, this only supports the addition of images into posts but I imagine the other media functionality will be added before its release.
Another item worthy of mentioning is that the Publish tab now includes an additional option that will allow you to stick a post to the front page. Subsequent posts will be published underneath of this sticky post until the sticky option item is unchecked.
Even More Plugin Goodness:
Browsing and installing plugins from the respository looks to become even more convenient now that you can do both from the WordPress back end.
WordPress 2.7 essentially brings all of the features of the plugin repository and makes them accessible in the back end. The plugin installation area presents you with a myriad of different ways in which to search the respository for plugins. For example, you can search by Term, Tag, or Author. I tested the search function by selecting Term and then looking for WP Ajax Edit Comments which is a plugin written by our own Ronald Huereca. The search was fast but didn’t show the plugin I searched for as the first result. In fact, the plugin was listed on page four at the bottom. This is a good example as to why the Plugin repository search needs to be improved. There is no reason why a plugin should not be listed as the first result if you type in its exact name into the search field.
Each search result provides a version number, rating, description and an install link. When I clicked on the install link, the detailed plugin information page opened in a Lightbox sort of fashion providing me with a button from which to install from. Clicking the install link from the detailed information page will initiate the download of the plugin. The plugin will automatically be unpacked and installed into WordPress. This is what a successful plugin installation screen looks like in 2.7.
If the plugin was installed successfully, the only thing you’ll have left to do is activate and then configure it.
Although this is great for end users, plugin authors will be pleased to know that they will be able to upload plugins to the repository from the WordPress back end. The Upload Plugin feature in the backend will allow the uploading of plugin archives to your own site while installing them directly from the zip file. This feature was not present in the prototype version but it appears as though the uploading will utilize SwfUpload if available and will unzip .zip packages.
The whole idea of being able to install and upgrade plugins automatically from within WordPress is cool but to see it become a reality is awesome. We can thank the team for building a quality plugin repository API for allowing much of this to happen. I have a feeling that the theme repository and the back end of WordPress will end up going down a similar route with a future version of WordPress.
More Image Settings:
Within the Miscellaneous section of settings, there are now a few more options for customizing the display of images within posts. You can now configure a large image size, default image size, default image alignment, and default image links. Very nice, time saving options.
Plugin Users/Authors:
If you happen to test WordPress 2.7 either on a live site or a local install, please check to see which plugins you have installed work or break with the new version. Then, add your results to the WordPress 2.7 Plugin Compatibility page within the Codex. Note to contributors: Please include the version number of the plugin you tested. This will help both WordPress users and plugin developers determine what needs to be addressed.
Make This The Best Release Ever:
There are a number of ways in which you can help make this the best release of WordPress thus far. First, there are the mailing lists which you can subscribe and participate in.
WP-Testers Mailing List – You can download the pre-releases of WordPress and test them, so that the WordPress developers can fix problems before the new version is made available to the public. If you would like to get involved in this effort, join this mailing list, where new releases are announced and discussed.
WP-Hackers Mailing List – All contributions, ideas and suggestions are welcome at the mailing list. Sometimes, requests are also made on the list asking for the help of volunteers to assist in the improvement and development of specific functionality.
Occasionally there are also bug days on the #wordpress-bugs IRC channel. You can read about what happens in a bug day in WordPress Bug Hunts, and subscribe to either the wp-hackers or wp-testers mailing list to find out when they happen.
Also, bookmark this Codex page dedicated to WordPress 2.7. It will be updated as the day of release gets closer.
Conclusion:
Considering WordPress 2.5 was released not too long ago, seeing another User Interface design in the administration panel frustrated me a little at first. I was just beginning to get used to the way the 2.5 admin area looks and feels. However, I must admit that the more I use this new design, the more I enjoy using it. There might be a few users who are upset with the left hand navigation column being displayed on every page. I know I was, especially on the Write panel where I felt squeezed in. However, after using the test version for a little while, I am actually starting to appreciate the vertical navigational column as I don’t need to scroll my mouse wheel up and down as much as I used to. The re-introduction of drag and drop elements within the Write panel is a huge sigh of relief.
Overall, I really like what I’ve seen thus far in this very, very early build of WordPress 2.7. There is still a lot of time before 2.7 is released. Things can and probably will change from now until then but as of right now, things are looking really good.
2.7 looks like a pretty nice update. If the admin interface isn’t up to our tastes, though, there’s always another admin theme out there 🙂
Dear wordpress,
Stop moving the cheese, the mice are getting fed up.
Love,
Adrian.
Hahaha! Very true! Especially wordpress updates spanning every few months, we’ve already seen so many admin panels and dashboard designs!
This is looking great, there are some really neat features planned for this release!
Wow, 2.7 seems to have a lot of new features that helps the admins. I can’t wait for the release.
Ugh .. another new admin interface!? Are they going to redo the admin everytime they release a new version of WordPress, because that could get pretty old real quick.
However, it does look nice and of course, like everyone else, I’ll no doubt download and try it out. Though I wish they’d just get a design and stay with it for a while …
This particular issue has been discussed in the WP-Hackers Mailing list. Based on what I’ve read, this interface change is just a continuation of improving the user interface. 2.5 provided a fresh framework from which to build upon and the 2.7 design is a result of user feedback and UI testing. To them, this is more like a series of improvements rather than a straight up, redesign.
You’re not the only one that feels this way 🙂
Look guys, we really appreciate the effort, and most of the times we enjoy your sollutions so much that we wonder how we managed without them in the first place.
That said. Hold the redesigns. Wait until at least WordPress 3.0 before giving us an admin area overhaul. That would feel natural.
We appreciate your hard work, but most of aren’t techies, and there is a risk that we could get confused with too much changes.
I am a techie, but I do agree. Something like an admin area overhaul seems like something more suited for 3.0 rather than 2.7…
Just my 2 cents.
Either way, thanks for the hard work.
Regards,
Frank
Everyone needs to stop crying about interface changes. It takes an hour to re-learn everything – big deal, change is good. We are lucky to have a team that cares enough about the product that they take on re-designs when they are needed instead of putting them off for a year.
I appreciate all the hard work that goes into WordPress and I say bring on the changes! The WP knows what they are doing, and they add great new features every time they update. Keep it up!
As I mentioned in a different comment, the user interface redesign in WordPress 2.5 appears to have set the stage for follow up redesigns/reworkings. With the sandbox build of Crazyhorse being used for UI testing, I expect that this will not be the last time things are changed in the administration panel. Granted, I wouldn’t want to see a new UI Design each time a new version is released.
Thanks for the preview of the current status on 2.7. Sounds like it has some great new features lined up.
I like the changes slated for the admin panel, not least of which is the ability to edit it and move things around, as well as the concept of the new write panel. I also like the integration of greater plugin management.
Looking forward to it!
Wow, looks like the UI has been much improved over WP 2.5.
Once WP2.7 is out, I shall officially retire my WP-Sticky plugin.
BTW, I notice the images are in /b2-img/, old school!
Hey Lester. I didn’t see the B2 link in the image url. That is pretty funny. Good catch. Do you feel somewhat relieved that you’ll be able to retire one of your plugins?
To be honest, I am quite relieved. Less 1 plugin to update =D
🙂 Hey LC, You do have some cool plugins that make our work so much easier.
Well, since its one lesser plugin to manage, we could expect a new one from you eh? 🙂
Hi Jeff! Great post about WP 2.7 – you community superstar you wahaha.
Thanks. See you on the farm!
How do I let the devlopers and designers know that I want a better interface for images. I currently select 10-12 images per post and hate having to open up images, select from the drop down, sort through libraries, search 1-3 pages of images… and then start all over again 10-12 times.
Absolutley love wordpress, just have this one thing on the wish list.
Thanks!
I re-wrote the media library gallery options for 2.7.x. The patch has yet to be committed, but I have a preview up on my site here: http://bugssite.org/blog/2008/.....the-items/
The new dashboard looks good…although it might make more sense to wait until 3.0 to release another redesign (as Naseer mentioned). That said…if the WordPress team want’s to redesign the dashboard for every dot release…feel free…if that’s the price to pay for a great product like WordPress, I’ll gladly pay it. 🙂
You might feel this way, but in my opinion, if they really released a new back end redesign with each release, thousands/millions of WordPress users would become extremely frustrated. With that said, I think the 2.7 interface has a real good chance of sticking around for while.
the resolution on the admin interface appears to be wider than 1024×768 … which wouldn’t be good for browsers like mine and i’m not going to adopt the mentality — well, you’re a techie so upgrade to a wider screen, and that’s like me telling my customers the same thing. i like it but at the same time, it’s too drastic….and is it just me or does it remind people of Drupal???????
The 2.7 admin interface scales perfectly well and is quite usable at 1024 wide. I wouldn’t want to use it at 800 wide, mind you, but it does scale down that far without issues.
I like the new look, but I have to wonder what it is going to do to people with smaller monitors. When you start using three columns, especially in the writing interface, you start losing people with small monitors. I can see the guy with the 15 inch monitor (yes, people still have them) having a wysiwyg that is 150 pixels wide. Lots of fun. But other than that it looks good.
Looks like a great release is coming! I can’t wait to try it out!
I really loved the left hand side navigational column… WidePress.
Another feature that made it into the last few trunk builds is the ability to reply to comments from the Admin’s “Comments” page as well as the “Write” page since the comments associated with any given post when loaded into WP editor (if commenting is allowed for that particular post) are currently listed below the write field. I’m not too sure how that’s going to work with a long list of comments (scrollable window?) but the feature works pretty slick as it is.
Lets not forget that the reply-to comments feature is itself new too. You can even display nested/threaded comments, although it does require some extensive theme changes to make it work.
Whoops, my bad, those changes have not gone into 2.7 yet. But they will: http://trac.wordpress.org/ticket/7635
That’s such a great change in the UI. I think it’s on the positive side. Can’t wait to be on board.
–Jeff Chandler
The uselessness of WordPress’s search function has always been abysmal. Same goes for WordPress.org’s site search.
Yeah, the search function is useless. I always end up using Google to search for plugins.
I agree. There has been talk about this particular issue on the WP Hackers Mailing list but I am unsure as to whether or not a resolution will be implemented to improve the search. The Codex is another example of bad search.
I toyed with the idea of making a spider to crawl just my site and spit the results into a separate database (there are lots of great open source search engines out there) but I just never have gotten around to doing it. A big benefit of a home-grown spider versus the de facto search is that it would return the results in order of rank versus order of date posted. Like you mentioned, Jeff, the built-in search engine can take an input of exactly the text of the article title (or plugin title in your case) and still list it on the fourth page, simply because that’s when it was posted. And I don’t think this is a hurdle that will be easy to overcome with the built-in search engine.
I agree with you Jeff, on this new admin interface. I like it ALOT better so far over the 2.5 interface. I know one of the things thats bothered me since 2.5 was released, is the fact that on the current dashboard, the “write page” and “write post” links are too close together, so when I create a new post, I accidentally press “write page” instead almost 99.9% of the time, which drives me nutts, because once you publish a page, you can’t convert it to a post without hacking into toe mysql database, which is what I had to end up doing a couple of times. I too like the quickpost feature, for I’ll probably use that quite a bit. Even if it only posts it as a draft, a draft can be converted to a published post at least, which will help a great deal when I have a quick thought about a link I want to jot down and make into a full blown post later on. I also like the new navigation alot better, for the current navigation is too confusing, thats why I end up using the “write post” button on the dashboard because its hard to find it in the drop downs half the time. This new navigation looks alot easier to find stuff, the old one of 2.5 just sucks I’ve never liked it. I hope they go with that navigation in those screenshots, I really like that alot better 🙂
The more I use it, the more I like it. Seems much more tidy than all of those top level navigational elements which were also mixed in which plugin settings links.
It looks like a nice update, but I agree with other posters on changing the interface to many times in a row.
Looks great, just when I was getting used to the current admin panel, they go and change it.
Excitedly waiting for the release.
Crazy cool. I love it. I’ll just have to give it a spin and see for myself.
This looks like an amazing update…I can’t wait…..hope nothing goes wrong.
I do like the new admin interface much more than the one in 2.5.
There are so many inconsistencies in the UI that make it more complicated for me to use than the older version
(like forgetting to assign categories when writing a new post because they are placed out of sight in the write panel).
I am just wondering why it is being altered again after all this “hype” about the new 2.5 version when WordPress officials
have been saying that this had ‘addressed long-standing usability and design issues with WordPress’
(Matt quoted on the Happy Cog webpage) and that there was a big usability research for this design.
If there is a need to change it again this quickly I assume the Happy Cog work was not such a
success, or? And is Happy Cog involved this time?
Good question. From what I know, a special build of WordPress was created called Crazyhorse which was used in special User Interface testing facilities. This branch was tested quite alot and the positive effects from this testing made it into WordPress 2.7. Still, if WordPRess 2.5 was suppose to fix these usability issues, why then do we need a major overhaul?
Jeff, slight correction to your post:
The upload plugin functionality will not allow you to upload your plugin to the WordPress.org repository. It is for uploading a plugin archive to your own site and installing it directory from the zip file. It is not for plugin authors as so much for those who wish to download plugins from the Plugin Extend site and reupload them.
For some people the Plugin Installer will not work for them for some reason or another. Or simply, the plugin they found was not on the Plugin Extend, so they couldn’t directly install it from there.
Thanks Jacob, I’ve corrected the post.
I’ll say that it looks like it’s got more promise for the admin and write panels than 2.5 ever did. I still don’t see why it had to be changed from the 2.3.3 layout. That worked just fine. Maybe it needed tweaking but it’s basics worked and didn’t need changing.
Is the admin panel so complicated that we need a horde of people complaining about it every time it gets changed? Seriously guys – it takes about an hour, at most, to re-learn everything. Throw your undies in the clothes drier and move on.
Thanks for your post, this version looks very good.
Finally, a plug-in upload. Something Joomla/Mambo has been doing for ages now. Thank you! Can’t wait (drooling all over the place)…
Although I must admit, that old, pre-2.5, writing panel somehow inspired me better. With simple interface I didn’t poke around to see what features available 🙂
Looks good.
Will there be tighter intergration with Google Gears? I. e. will it be possible to use G Gears to write posts while offline?
I have no idea. Will have to research that question and get back with you on that.
While I’m not a fan of *another* major update to the WordPress admin panel… I really didn’t warm up to the 2.5 interface, so I’m really hoping this one turns out to be a bit more user friendly.
In particular, the way you add images to posts in the the current version continues to confound the less technical users I’ve setup WordPress sites for and requires constant explanation and reminders.
I never did warm up to the 2.5 back end as well. I was in the camp of “Why Change from 2.3” as I’ve come to grow and love that way of writing articles in WordPress. Although it seems to me, 2.7 will have the best of what 2.3 provided with a number of additional enhancements.
Looking good, the admin interface looks cleaner. I hope that writing posts is stabilised a bit, I find that it’s not very WYSIWYH, particularly with aligning images, though that may just be K2’s fault?
Hurry up with it already!
WordPress, keep it up!! This changes are great! I have been looking for this features since 2.5 update. I love to see this much work put into WP. Hopefully next update we can have a stronger gallery feature as well as easy to move widgets.
What do you mean by a stronger gallery feature?
I don’t understand what everyone is complaining about. If you don’t want a redesigned interface, don’t upgrade, no one is forcing you to. I’ve never heard so many people complain about software being updated too frequently. They are trying to make their product better.
I am sure everything will be just good and better than it is 🙂 WordPress owns great team – and I cant wait to get my hands on it!
@Jeff Chandler: No problem. Not even committed tot he trunk yet.
I would really rather they concentrate more on security and bug issues with the new releases instead of these unnecessary cosmetic changes every other two weeks. I run more than one blog and it takes me the better part of a whole work day to update them to the latest version each time. It’s getting ridiculous.
It does seem that some people have a tough time adjusting to change. I think the new admin area will be very easy to get used to. Hey, if they want to change it every month that would work for me too…as long as the auto updater still works!
Again, there are only two things i want to see implemented on whatever version of WordPress.
1. ability to mass delete posts in just one click. and not go to each and every damn blog post and open it in order to delete it.
2. and reply to comments via the comments admin dashboard.
That’s it. No Fancy updates pls. those 2 mentioned are a MUST for any supposed simple blogging platform really..so many updates from wp lately, not much real functionality used by most bloggers out there..i mean who uses multibloggers, press it, etc..of say 1 million wp users, i would say 100 only who uses them..most are individual bloggers, i would say 90%..and those 2 i mentioned are a must ..thanks
You CAN mass delete posts with one click if you are on 2.6 or 2.6.1…….check the Manage Posts page – see those little checkboxes? Just check the ones you want to delete and click on the button that says “Delete”…….
I totally agree about reply to comments from the comments dashboard…..should definitely be included in any future versions….
hi trisha,
thanks for your reply.
i always update to the latest wordpress. that said, there is no mass delete option as what i have stated. you have to go into a blogpost, open it and then delete it.
i tried what you said, as i do everytime actually, i check manage posts, and the little checkboxes are each ticked, those posts i want to delete, and when i hit the delete button/menu, all hell breaks loose. it says error on wordpress, result: none deleted. it has happened since i have moved to wordpress from wp 2.3 to now, wp 2.6.1..you cannot mass delete. i also looked through the wp forums, everyone is reporting the same.
i will not be complaining here of that issue if i had not tried it first.
thank you
And one thing more, if you’ll indulge me, WP should not be toooo concerned with the admin eyecandy look. that is not what most WP users are concerned about. MOST want functionality and usefulness.
Hmmm……sorry to hear about that problem – I’ve not had the same problem and have been able to delete multiple posts at one time using the checkbox, but everyone’s server/MySQL/PHP setup is different, so maybe I’m just lucky. I totally agree with you on the eyecandy vs. functionality issue – functionality rules. I do want to be able to move modules around so that my admin interface appears the way I want/need it to, not someone else’s idea of how it should look. Hopefully they will fix the mass delete problems in 2.7
2.7 is looking like a massive update! Can’t wait for the release date now. It looks like WP has been listening to its fan base for ideas on future updates.
Keep up with the good work WP!
Agreed with auto uploader still working hehe, hmmm should be an interesting release
This is wondeful, love the new features that are coming, the design thats an easy one… to learn, people just love to complain, ITS FREE and premium, I won’t complain, I often wonder with these one click plugin installs, and updates, it must put a strain on the wordpress server guys, will this lead to charges to the end user at some stage or a different premium version of wp? Or am I talking BS (as usual)
I was a big critic of the 2.5 release, but from what I’ve seen/read of 2.7, it does appear they are making useful changes. The question for me will be plugin compatibility and, of course, how much larger/smaller the new build is.
I think the new look is great. I just hope it doesn’t muck up my Easy Admin Color Schemes plugin too much. It would suck if I had to redo everything because of the new interface layout. Not so much an issue with the plugin itself I guess but maybe more so for my For the Love of 2.3 scheme. With this new layout I’m probably going to have to rework it all.
Oh well. The new interface looks good anyway. Also, some of the new features look nice. Good work WordPress team.
Well, based on my use of the interface, I liken it to a combination of what made the 2.3 user interface so great to use with the style of colors that 2.5 provided. Not sure if that makes sense.
Well the 2.7 interface looks a whole lot nicer than the 2.5/2.6 admin console, that’s for sure! I just wish you guys would revamp your default font selections and color schemes too. Choices would be ideal– Traditional vs. Sans-Serif style fonts, and a few different color palettes would be nice.
I’ll be waiting for 2.7 version. Perhaps it’s more than before. Thanks
1 got several blogs and frequency of updates great but painful – include a disable the ‘nag’ to upgrade option? on some occasion upgrade trash database, perhaps something corrupt
2 dont like the sound of 2 columns in admin page when using iphone or asus eee update.
scrolling with scroll wheel is easier than sideways scrolling. how about a plugin or theme for admin to remove / or change layout or use mobile admin theme if it is stable.
I am going to hold off my judgement until I see the beta release. However I will advocate moving towards incorporating the current plugins that available for download which are either popular downloads, allows the administrator to monitor their site, or enhnaces the functionality of Word Press. Once the current plugins are incorporated then limit the number of plugins available, and ensure that there is not a duplication of plugin features.
Any news on whether there will be a standardised Options link for all plugins as it’s such a nightmare trying to figure where the config page for a plug in is.
Praise to the likes of WP Super Cache who include a link to the config page in the plugin description.
I have to say, I hate this new redesign. While the theory behind it is good, I’m not a fan of the actual look. I much prefer this possible design: http://konstruktors.com/exampl.....hboard/01/
Man those colors are ugly…
Ugh. Fixed width is the tool of the devil!
I have 1680 pixels across, and any interface better use all of them! 🙂
I believe the author said it’s fixed width only for the mockup and would be fluid for the actual design.
I’ve just taught my mom how to use WP 2.6 back End interface and now there is the new one coming up. Hopefully, this time WP will stick with the new Interface for a while… .
I like it. It seems better suited to widescreen, and every update has been better and better.
Like all user interface changes, they can be frustrating at first. If it were up to some users, they’d still be using the WordPress 0.71 interface (yuck!) because they hate change.
You can’t please everyone, but I’ve been playing around with the 2.7 interface for a month or two now and it’s very good, especially once the final kinks are worked out.
Everyone hated the 2.5 interface at first but yet now there are very, very few people who don’t like it.
I thought web 2.0 was moving away from the typical column layout? Though that said, it does look pretty good, but was it necessary?
Any news on the possible release date?
The admin interface will be changed again? 🙁
Looks nice 🙂
reminds me of the fluency admin plugin that is very smooth
Any thing else other than interface improvement
any thing real in new version like full ajax support ,some cool new blog backup features , any thing to make user experience better is included or not
?????????
There is much AJAX’y goodness in the new interface. Which just means that it will break on a lot more hosts, will be my guess. 🙁
looks great. can’t wait to implement it…i’ve been waiting for the plugin uploader forEVER.
Great looking interface! Can’t wait for 2.7 to be official. The image settings appeal to me the most. Cheers for the entry!
I really like the permanently move of WP and would like to find out what is the best time after a new relaunch to jump on the new train. I’m always thinking… never change a running system because I’m using a lot of plugins.
I’m jealous though, when I posted the review about 2.7 on my blog the interface was totally the same as in 2.6
Now I wonder why I’m always the unfortunate to experience the fresh changes. Argh.
I am having a good sense about WordPress 2.7 – Review
Nice improved posting funcionalities, and I like the “inbox” on dashboard. But, man… another major change on admin interface… so unnecessary.
Amazing that only 1 week after writing a post about how people should not complain about the frequency of WordPress update because they are “months apart” here comes our first look at 2.7.
What you only upgraded to 2.6.1 last week? oh my friend, it’s already old news.
What you’re a plug in developer who’s only jut got his plugin fixed for 2.6.1? oh well, here’s 2.7 and its moving goalposts for you to hit.
Yes, the new interface changes so quickly is not easy to get used to, but the new interface looks interesting. Keep up the good work.
Frank
IMHO, the WP 2.5 dashboard and the new-post page wasn’t really all that good. Though I like the new design of the WP-2.7, I would only be echoing all the voices who have said that we have been given too much to eat even though we were not hungry. 🙁 Having said that, the design has a few great features and like someone (sorry cannot remember name. 🙁 ) said, has the potential to stick around for a long time. 🙂
I was a very big critic of the 2.5 release which for me, and many other bloggers, was a big step back in terms of functionality and usability. So I’m pleased to see that our discussions about reverting the Write Screen seem to have helped: at least now I can have the choice to arrange it how it best suits me. There are some nice new features here too: the default image sizes will be very useful for a start.
The changes to the interface certainly seem to show some understanding that the 2.5/2.6; interface was a screw-up; I wait with bated breath to see how the 2.7 ‘upgrade’ will be spun!
On another note, I do wonder about where WordPress is headed. There appears to be no single-minded direction; no overall view, other than “Keep adding more features.” And the continual updates that seem to break plugins and themes with every new release is very annoying to the extended community who support WordPress and have to keep updating their stuff every few months.
Surely it must be possible to improve the software in a way that doesn’t keep alienating plugin and theme authors?
The plugin stuff is kinda unfair since it only searches their own plugin repository, which only allows GPL licensed plugins.
Plugins are derivatives of WordPress. They must be GPL licensed, or GPL-Compatible. That can be worked around by using a generic interface and writing a script that ties it in to WordPress (like Bad Behavior, to pick an example), but almost all plugins that are not GPL-Compatible are in violation of the license.
I wonder how many plugins that will not work….but then again I will probably be one of the first to upgrade……
Thanks for the great review. Can’t wait to test this out sometime in the weekend.
Yes, the constant UI change is a problem when you have a couple of thousand users that needs to relearn every few months. I’m a techie, so I don’t care. But my users needs consistency.
Every new wordpress release is bloody awesome same goes for this one ! waiting….. 🙂
I love tests!
Where can I get to download 2.7 nightly builds?
Great! I am waiting for this release for quite a long time now. Thanks for sharing this. Tinh
I’m not against upgrades at all. In fact, I love the WordPress upgrades in general.
Here’s the catch for me though (and many others in the same boat)…
I teach people how to use WordPress…using online video. With every change to the WordPress backend, I have to redo all the videos.
Not only that, with every change to the WordPress backend, I get lots of people asking ME why WordPress has changed it again.
I see myself as helping the WordPress cause, by teaching more people how to use it. But if it keeps on changing like this, it really makes my job impossible – and it frustrates the hell out of anyone I’m teaching about this stuff.
There has been more than 45,000 views of my videos showing people how to use the 2.5 interface. I reckon they’d all be pissed if I tell them there is a new one coming up very soon…
Maybe hang on to the current interface for a bit longer? Like maybe for a year at least?
Can’t wait for 2.7. Seems like a lot of great features. I know this was supposed to be a November release, but is this date being pushed back now? November’s almost over. Or are they going to be releasing it in the next few days?
Woah! That’s great, thank you. Have you heard about the RC1 being released yesterday? I’m really looking forward to upgrading, but WordPress keeps yelling for 2.6.5 :)) I’m running 2.6.3 and pretty stable…
Fantastic release, I’ve just started upgrading my blogs to use it. Nice clean and easy to use interface.
I upgraded to 2.7 about a week ago. Took a few days to get used to the User Interface but I now love the speed and convenience of 2.7
There are so many new releases of WordPress that it is hard to keep up. I can say that now with WordPress 2.8 (which is the latest as of today) it has improved on many of the features discussed here. There is still one built in feature that I wish it had…more control over the donotfollow function which is on by default! I hate it.
Dennis F.