What’s new in Wordpress 2.5

Wordpress version 2.5.1 is out.  Why should you care?

The new version of Wordpress is out and it has tons of updates designed to make your life easier. This article is directed to current clients using 1.5, 2.0 or other older version of Wordpress. If you’re new to Wordpress, be sure to also read our upcoming blog, “What is a Content Management System?”

Menu

The menu structure is much clearer now.  Blogroll, which is really just a feature to manage links, is now appropriately renamed as Links.  And instead of Links being their own menu, it makes sense to include them under the New and Manage main menus.  So, for example, under Manage, you’ll find Links, along with other items that you can manage: Post, Page, Media Library, and Tags. This structure makes more sense because it is organized by actions verbs.

“Manage Post” from version 2.3.			The same menu, but from version 2.5  Notice how much cleaner this much.

Tagging

Tagging is now built into Wordpress.  So can easily apply tags to posts and pages.  Although Wordpress guru Lorelle argues in a blog that tags and categories serve different purposes, I’m going to suggest that tags and categories are very similar tools used to organize and label content.  With Wordpress 2.5.1, my recommendation would be to work with just tags since search engines may be weighing tags with more authority than categories.

Media

Wordpress handles media (pictures, audio and video) 1000 times better in this version.  From the Manage > Media Library menu, you can easily manage your uploaded media and even see where in your website the item is placed.  When using the Visual Editor, there is a nice pop-up window that guides you in uploading, labeling, and inserting new media.

Visual Editor

Besides tons of security and “under the hood” stuff, the most impressive update in Wordpress 2.5 has been to the Visual Editor.  This is good news because most of your time is spent working with the editor.  Most importantly, the Visual Editor has more options while being easier to use.  The edit window better reflects your formatting while being much better at not “wrecking” your content when you save the changes.  Finally, the Visual Editor is now compatible with the most common browsers.

Clients who have subscribed to the Website Maintenance and Marketing service will have this update installed on their site automatically.  If you have not subscribed to this service, you can contact us for an estimate on upgrading your site.