I decided to update a few of my sites to the latest WordPress 2.7 beta so I could see all the new changes. This post will cover some of the changes/details that are beyond the new look and feel of the WordPress Admin. WordPress 2.7 is scheduled to be released in the next few days. I will write more posts on WordPress 2.7 and the more technical changes in the next few days-weeks.

The Customizable Screen Options

There is now a handy tab “Screen Options” at the top of the admin window (right under Turbo/Logout) that allows you to customize each screen very easily.
Here is an example of how you can easily customize the Dashboard screen:

If you click on the “Screen Options” tab on the post page, you will get completely different options:

This is very handy if you want to trim down the admin area or just remove items you do not use.

Media

WordPress users are adding more media to their posts/pages than ever before.

I always felt that WordPress handled Media a little clunky and hard to explain to people that were not tech savy (what do you mean media is post specific…what if I want to use it in multiple posts…) – and I am happy to see the addition of the “Media” menu item so you can add media outside of a post. This will make adding media much easier for WordPress users who were often confused about the media management.

(You could edit media previously outside of a post (Media Library) but having a “Media” menu item is a great addition.

Appearance Menu

Where to put “Themes”, “Widgets” and “Editor” was always a big mystery.

No title quite fit for all of them (Design menu in WordPress < 2.7). I think the folks responsible for this latest update finally got it right this time (with the help of some community feedback). Now users will have a better chance at finding widgets and themes with a more logical title for the grouping.

(Notice how the icon next to the menu title (Appearance) has a color hover state – another nice touch.

Time/Date Stamp

Overall – I think the 2.7 update really makes an impact for users that are not as comfortable with technical settings as us developers.

This nice touch really shows how WordPress is great for non-technical people while not dumbing down the interface so much (they still leave an option in place for anyone comfortable with PHP to format the time and date as they please).

While options like this may seem small and something you can overlook – I know my clients will appreciate them.

Word Count

There are a number of really nice touches to WordPress 2.7 and I am happy to see this be one of them. A number of my clients are very word count conscious and this will make them all very happy.