WordPress 7th Year Anniversary a Smashing Success

The WordPress Homepage in December 2003

Screen shot linking from WayBack Machine WordPress December 2003

If you are superstitious you may not want to read this article about WordPress 3.0.  The superstitious part about it is it’s the thirteenth release.  On top of that I am installing it today which is Friday.  That means I am installing the thirteenth release on a Friday * Where’s Jason? In this article I’m going to share with you my immediate observations upon installation.

The developers over at WordPress are calling this release “Thelonious” named after one of the biggest influencers in American jazz. Thelonious Monk’s works included jazz compositions that simply took the entire jazz industry to new levels with out of the box wizardry.

Here are the changes that are noteworthy for the most exciting version of WordPress to date …

1) More Help & Support

If you ever need more clarity and support on using the WordPress interface I have to say it has been a little difficult to find support within the interface. Now you can see a convenient “help” tab in the upper corner of every single interface web page.

2) A Sweet New Look!

I just love the new design of the user interface. It appears so much more clean and crisp than ever before. This will be especially advantageous for new users of WordPress. It is very user friendly and few questions come to mind when trying to publish your content. See the WordPress 3.0 highlights here.

3) Change Admin Name

How many times do you remember wanting to change the administrator’s name to something other than “admin”? I know this has been a pet peeve of mine for quite some time now. Guess what? You can now change the “admin” username to anything you like.

4) Customized Post Types

Typically the past we have been able to publish posts or pages. Now we can also see on the left navigation menu areas for categories of pages and a method to add new ones. Can you spell CMS? There are mixed reviews on this new feature but I agree with kovshenin’s opinion that it’s more organizational then anything else. Since this is definitely a huge step into CMS for WordPress many users are scratching their heads saying what are custom post types? After getting my head around it … what an amazing idea for keeping your content in “buckets” and accessible!

5) Bulk Updater

Remember those red warning signs telling you there is a new version ready to install or plugins that are outdated? Then you would have to update each one independently. With this new bulk updater you can do your WordPress installation upgrades and plug in updates all at the same time. (During the updating process WordPress automatically puts your software into maintenance mode).

Select All and Upgrade.

6) Multiple User Administration (My Favorite)

WordPress multi user and WordPress have now merged to make administration to one website or hundreds possible with just one easy login (one WP installation). I love this upgrade, excellent work guys!

Warning: If you want to house many domains with this function they all will be under the root directory. That means if your site is located at example.com/blog/ all other sites you manage will need to be in example.com/blog/sitename/. I elected to relocate my main admin blog to the root of example.com. (advanced users can edit the data base)

How to add a network Create A Network or businessweek on WordPress-3-0-adds-better-customization

How To Create Super Admin

7) Default Theme Changed

I’m sure you recall the ugly WordPress theme that would load by default with the square blue rectangle as the header. The default theme now is a theme that has been selected to flex some features of WordPress 3.0. The theme is called 2010; you can read about it on Matt’s WordPress development blog.

8] Add Custom Images

Now you can add new backgrounds, headers and menus (love this one too). You can actually update the entire site with tiled or centered background images. You can even have separate image backgrounds for each post/page.

9) Custom Menu Section

Mix up your categories along with links. Use the track and drop feature in the WordPress new interface that makes creating your own special navigation as simple as dragging and dropping it there. Change the order and edit links on the fly.

10) Built In Short Link Generator

Some of the URLs that you publish in your WordPress software are too long to post in social networks such as Twitter- and Facebook-. In the past we have usually shortened are URLs using other URL shortening services such as tinyURL.com? Right at the top of your interface underneath the Permalink you will now see a new button entitled get short link.

This is by far the most significant upgrade ever to this amazing publishing software. Any concerns about scalability and CMS capabilities are now doable. Thanks for the great work from the WordPress Development team

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