Wordpress 2.7 - Here we go again!

It’s only been a few weeks since the launch of Wordpress 2.6, and there’s still bugs being worked out such as the podcast issue, but already talk of a Wordpress 2.7 release is around the corner, and this one might actually blow your socks off - at least the new features seem a lot more likely to impress me than the ones from 2.5 to 2.6.

Here’s a quick overview of what you can expect with Wordpress 2.7:

• Comment Moderation Keyboard Shortcuts - being a good blogger is about popping out blogs fast, and doing all our other tasks as fast as we can so we can be on to the next blog post. This feature will help with moderating comments, now you can use a key combination like ctrl+s to spam a comment, or some other similar scenario. I can definitely see myself using this feature and think it’ll be a boon to the new wordpress.
• API for Comment Management - This is one of the best features, it’ll be a mechanism to allow offline integration of comments management, users will be able to use desktop and 3rd party web clients to moderate, edit, reply, delete, spam, or unspam comments. This would be a good tool for programs like scribefire to implement.
• Easy One Click Plugin Installer - Installing a plugin will now be a lot easier with the new One Click Plugin installs. This feature is available in two plugins namely the one click plugin installer, and my favorite is the one click plugin updater. This is definitely a feature they should have had a long time ago.
• API for Theme Updates - Wordpress 2.5+ has made huge strides in plugin management, you automatically receive notices of new updates and can upgrade without having to ftp into your server, now they are looking to do the same with Themes, so that users will be able to easily update their themes.
• Easy Update to the Wordpress core - Core updates is a feature that will be similar to the Wordpress Automatic Upgrade plugin, or the Instant Upgrade of Wordpress plugin. What it does is updates the core wordpress files easily and fast without having to do it manually via ftp. For the non-techies this will be an easy way to transition from upgrade to upgrade.
• Comment Replies via Admin Panel - This plugin aids administrators ability to reply to comments from the admin panel, there are a few plugins that do this now, but of course having it built in should make it run more smoothly than using the plugins. Here are some similar plugins if you’d like this feature for 2.6 or below: WP AJax Edit Comments, Better Comments Manager and Absolute Comments.
• Default Google XML Sitemaps - This is a feature that I’m surprised took so long for wordpress to implement. This will include a default sitemap generator, which will create a Google compliant XML sitemap for your blog. If you don’t have a sitemap for your blog now - I highly recommend downloading the Google XML Sitemaps Generator plugin which is what I use currently, cause who knows how long it will take for Wordpress 2.7 to be released?
• Threaded Comments - This feature allows user to reply to other comments in a threaded manner, replies to comments will show below the original commen, kind of like a threaded forum. Again this is possible via plugins and Brian’s Threaded Comments is a really good one.
• Option to Subscribe to Comments - The team at WordPress is planning an option to let commenters subscribe to comments that they’d like to follow up on so they can remain in the conversation. This one is actually not a definite addition, it’s still on the burner so to speak - but I currently use the Subscribe to Comments plugin which does the same thing, I would like to see it built into the wordpress Architecture personally.
• Movable Widgets in Dashboard / Write Pages - This will use ajax and allow the ability to rearrange the write page to your own liking, this could be a cool plugin if implemented right.
• Batch Editing of Posts - this feature does what it says and allows batch editing of posts and pages, there’s not much more info on it, but I’m wondering if it’s similar to the Manageable plugin.

At any cost these are some great plugins, that will be even better as built in features of wordpress. It will make the plugin section less cluttered as I have almost all of these plugins installed, and more. I’m sure also having them part of the wordpress core will make them work more smoothly with each other, and run a lot faster.

I’m excited for the new Wordpress 2.7 and can’t wait to give it a try. You can find out more about the great features by visiting the , and I’d like to thank QuickOnlineTips and WebLog Tools Collection for the heads up on the new features.

Blog Poll: What is your favorite new feature coming out in 2.7?

Word out on the street is that there’s a new Wordpress ready to launch.

This is all grand and wonderful, but there are some setbacks.

Don’t get me wrong the new design is somewhat sleek - however, I had grown accustomed to the advanced admin menu plugin which essentially turns the menu into dropdown menu’s. Sometimes wordpress is really slow and this makes pretty much all navigation one-click.

I think, with all the new javascript based technologies out there today, such as ajax, jquery, etc - it wouldn’t be too much of an issue for them to include a drop down-like menu standard in Wordpress.

Another plugin that lacks functionality in Wordpress 2.5 is the Gregarious plugin, which I was using for social bookmarking / diggs etc.

I’m also not sure I like the way they redid the side-bar in the new post area.

But it does look a lot better in other ways, and I can see it being a lot easier to navigate for newbies. My beef is probably just the fact that I’m so used to the older styles look, that the new change will take some time to get used to.

Have you tried the new Wordpress? Let me know your thoughts.

Everyone is probably aware of the new Wordpress update coming soon.

I’m pretty excited, the feature that looks the most promising to me is the automatic plug-in upgrading. To be honest I am getting so tired of upgrading plugins. Of course the One Click Plugin Updater has been a great blessing to help in upgading, but the new autoupgrade feature will be pretty cool.

Technosailor wrote a nice overview of the new Wordpress. You really need to check it out, this isn’t a small overhaul, this is a huge change to what we’re used to.

Some other good features include:

• New dashboard focused on comments, posts, and incoming links.
• New beefed up Navigation Menu designed to make life easier, especially for beginners.
• Apparently there will be fewer options on Write page, and will use ‘extra options’ more extensively.
• Better management interface, for posts, comments, and pages.
• An updated time-stamping mechanism.
• Flash Video Uploader (Who needs Youtube now?)
• Improved Visual Editor.
• Also a change to the widget functions has been discussed.

Of course the best way to see the new software is check it out on your own. You can download it here: Wordpress 2.5
(Sources: BloggingPro, WordPress Development Blog: 2.5 Sneak Peek, BlogHerald, Mashable, WeblogToolsCollection, DailyBlogTips)