Finally updated
I updated all of my blogs to WordPress 2.5 last night. I have some mixed feelings about the upgrade. The upgrade process itself went more easily than I had anticipated, and even though I still need to update my theme with new “features” (avatars, etc.), it’s not bad.
I’m still getting used to the new WP Admin layout, while it loads MUCH faster than the previous layout, I’m a little displeased with a few changes they made. For starters, in the write post pages, the categories listing has been moved down towards the bottom of the page. While, it’s not a huge deal, as I have to scroll down anyways to edit my tags, it’s still an annoyance. I personally enjoyed having them sitting right beside my composition box.
I have noticed that the tags, excerpt, etc. boxes aren’t ajax’d, so I can’t rearrange them. It isn’t big deal, but I’m particular about my setups and preferences. :mrgreen:
I know … big shocker there.
Something else I’m seriously missing is the “Save and continue” button. One of the developers mentioned that it was unnecessary considering WordPress now auto-saves .. but honestly, I would find myself using that button often — especially after any large additions to a post, or during storms (when a power outage is feared the most!) — times like those I do not like sitting and waiting around for WordPress to save. It would be nice to adjust the auto-save timing.
I want to speed mine up!
Much ado about widgets
They’ve also overhauled the widgets admin layout as well. It took me a bit to figure out where was what. I really like that text widgets now display the title (if set), so you can tell which ones are which. (That was WAY overdue, IMO) But one complaint I have there is that if you have more than one sidebar, you cannot edit them at the same time. You are forced to switch back and forth between them. Also, the way you add text, rss, etc. widgets has also changed from a drop-down menu to a text link — you cannot add them in bulk anymore, and must add one at a time.
Most users will not miss that feature, but it sure makes things easier for those of us widgetizing old themes!
Visually appealing
I’ve read that the visual editor has improved, but I have not yet tried it myself. If it works as well as everything I’ve been reading, I may just switch to it from the old text editor. We’ll see how that goes…
Plug it in, plug it in
I haven’t had any problems with plugins yet. WordPress now has the ability to automatically update your plugins for you. It downloads the updated version, removes the older version in your plugins directory, copies over the new files, and if it was already activated, it will attempt to reactivate it. This is a great feature for those who are not very tech savvy and often need help updating plugins.
However, those like me who fiddle with plugin code, this is no help. I have a handful of plugins that I have modified to fit my theme and/or fix things, and will still need to download the updated versions to compare line by line and make the needed changes accordingly.
Overall
All in all, I guess I can’t complain too much. It does seem to load faster, and I think overall that these were great improvements for WordPress.
Now to start testing its security …
Jo
I will miss the save and continue also (period never work in this comment window no matter how much I try!)
I will also not like the categories being at the “bottom” of the page either. (There, now they work – go figure)
I won’t update until my hosting service provides it … also I don’t have a back up plug-in installed for some reason; was there before the last upgrade and now disappeared?!?
TY!
Jo’s last blog post: Diabetes in the News
Devilish Southern Belle
I, too, found this the easiest upgrade I have done since using WP. I am not sure I like the color selections of the new admin panels (surely someone techy will get bored and dish up some other options at some point in the future?), but I think I can get used to the lay of land without too much trouble. I didn’t have any trouble at all other than having to get replace a few of the default smilies with my customs.
What I wish I they would have included is the ability to automatically upgrade WP without having to download and re-ftp everything. I had heard there was a plugin that would do that, but I have yet to try to use it and don’t know anyone who has.
Devilish Southern Belle’s last blog post: Oh, what a night!
Nicki
Jo: I remember that one! I’m not entirely sure why it was removed. I know at some point, the original author stopped updating it and someone else took over it, but don’t remember seeing anything printed about it. It’s one of those things where I’m surprised it’s not a built-in feature!
DSB: I remember hearing something about streamlined WP upgrades, but figure that’s a long ways off.
Re: the upgrade plugin – yeah, neither have I. That’s actually one thing I need to look into for a friend of mine so she can upgrade her own blog.
Beth
I thought I read that with 2.5, any further WP upgrades can be done with one click. ???
Or did I read that as milestones for a later release?
I haven’t upgraded my blog yet; I did do my test d/b, and I REALLY don’t want to do it on my real blog. I’m not thrilled with it. I hate the admin interface (although I suppose I’ll get used to it), and there are just too many little changes that annoy me, like the categories thing.
Is Bad Behaviour working with 2.5 now? When I upgraded the test blog, it still wasn’t working properly–or rather, WP 2.5 wasn’t playing well with BB. I absolutely will not upgrade without that working okay!
:sigh: I was hoping you’d like it, ’cause I figured if you liked it, I’d get over my irritability about it soon enough.
Beth’s last blog post: A 2 year old imitates a democrat
Nicki
Hrm, I haven’t heard of or noticed my BB acting up. What’s it doing on yours? (or not doing?)
The more I use the interface, the more I’m getting used to it. It’s not arranged the way I would like, but I DO like that they put a Write a New Page link on the Dashboard. That’s one thing about the old interface that I hated … too many damned clicks just to get to writing and managing my pages!