WordPress 2.7 goes gold

It’s out! The much anticipated 2.7 release of WordPress is officially released into the wild.

Just want to give a quick and very heartfelt thanks to Matt for this statement on the WordPress Blog announcement of 2.7:

The Future

Those of you following along at home might have noticed this was our second major redesign of WordPress this year. Whoa nelly! While that wasn’t ideal, and I especially sympathize with those of you creating books or tutorials around WordPress, there’s good news. The changes to WordPress in 2.5 and 2.7 were necessary for us to break free of much of the legacy cruft and interface bloat that had built up over the years (gradually) and more importantly provide us with a UI framework and interface language we can use at the foundation to build tomorrow’s WordPress on, to express ideas we haven’t been able to before. So at the end of 2009 I expect, interface-wise, WordPress to look largely the same as it does now.

I cannot even begin to express the tingle in my toes and the utter warmth in my heart when I read that statement.  Not simply because he sympathizes – but to hear the rationale behind such a WHOPPER of a release to to know it’s for the greater good.  All those chocolate chip cookies… all that nail biting… all the fretting and the itty bitty little nips of scotch (seriously, itty bitty) while writing the 2nd Edition of WordPress For Dummies .. all of the stress washed away by that paragraph….well, that, and because I actually finished the book yesterday.  I know for a fact that Wiley Publishing will be supremely happy to read that!

I recently did an interview on Jeff’s WordPress Weekly (audio of the show available at the link)  show and was asked two interesting questions:

1. Which is my alltime favorite version of WordPress?
2. Have I tried 2.7 and what do I like the most about it?

Fun questions, really!  My answers:

1. My favorite all-time version of WordPress has to be version 1.0. This was surprising for some – but I had to wax nostalgic for a moment, because it was with version 1.0 that I first discovered the wonderful world of WordPress.  My how it’s grown!  I migrated off Movable Type onto WordPress version 1.0 and haven’t looked back since.  It’s been a wonderful ride.
2. Have I tried 2.7 and what do I like most? Yes, I’ve tried it.  I’ve been using 2.7 for about a month on this blog and on another test bed site I run for testing purposes only.  I’ve been religiously updating the nightly builds as they come and dutifully ‘oooooohing’ and ‘ahhhhhhing’ over every new feature and design upgrade.  If I had to abandon my nostalgia from question #1, I would have to say that 2.7 is my favorite version release thus far!If you never thought that WordPress devs really, really, really listened to community input – your doubts will be put to rest when you try 2.7 – – it is SO crazy user focused!  My favorite features, in this order:
   • The design – I adore it! I’ve mentioned a couple of times that while I was updating the WordPress For Dummies book to include the 2.7 updates – I routinely removed at least 2-3 steps in the ‘step-by-step’ instructions on how to do this, or that.  I found that navigating around the dashboard and admin interface, as a whole, has way fewer clicks than before – – and anyone that can reduce the amount of licks  it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop….er…wait – – if anyone can reduce the amount of clicks it takes to get me where I need to be in order to do what I need to do has got my vote, repeatedly.
   • My second favorite feature is what they’ve done to the Plugins! In 2.6, we welcomed the wonderful ability to receive notification when plugins needed to be upgraded – – as well as the ability to upgrade those plugins from within the WP administration panel.  With 2.7 – now we can search for, find, install, activate AND upgrade plugins.  No more downloading zip files!  No more uploading files via FTP!  Color me extremely grateful for this update!  If the plugin exists in the official WordPress Plugin Directory… then you can search it out, find it, install it and activate it on your blog without ever leaving your WP administration panel.  Loves it!
   • My third favorite features is the ability to upgrade the WordPress core files without ever leaving the WP administration panel.  Yep!  The necessary disclaimer applies:  as long as your host supports this feature, you will be able to use it.  Under Tools in the navigation menu, you find an Upgrade link.  Click it and you’re off and running at upgrading your own WordPress installation.

I have several other favorites when it comes to the new 2.7 release – – like QuickPress and the configurable Dashboard modules – – but my three points above are the ones I heart the most.  Oh – and in terms of the design – I like the Blue color version the best (in your Profile – – under ‘Your Profile’ in the Users menu) – you can select the Gray color scheme or the Blue color scheme.  I prefer the blue…it’s less dreary.

Also, the inclusion of the post_class(); template tag totally rocks.  See the post I made about it: post_class(); … Take advantage of the new “Sticky Post” feature in WordPress 2.7 it discusses the sticky post feature, as well as the markup that now gets inserted into your posts (as long as you have that particular tag in your template(s))  so that you can create special styles, using CSS, for different categories and tags, too!

Thanks, WordPress, for a phenomenal release!

Have you upgraded yet?  If yes – what do you love/hate?  If no – why not?  Get WordPress 2.7 now!