With Good Reason

Like so many people, I don’t particularly like change. So, when I was faced with having to upgrade to Word Press 2.5, the latest version, I was a little nervous. Particularly because it was reported to be quite different and I am not a techie by any stretch of the imagination. Well, I can report that I have made the transition and it was relatively painless. Here is what you can expect:

(1) When you sign in, the blue background is gone and the font and design is very different. You will realize immediately that this is a newly designed space. But, relax because the changes are intuitive.

(2) If you are not careful you will miss the word Dashboard because rather than being right beside Write, you will find it in the far upper left corner, almost hidden inside a black bar.

(3) There will be a very obvious orange bar right across the screen. On the left side it will say Right Now. On the right side it will say Write a Page and Write a post. Self-explanatory.

(4) Above the orange bar is Write, Manage, Design, Comments. To the right are Settings, Plugins and Users — in slightly smaller print. Write and Manage are very similar but with major improvements. The toolbar is spectacular. You can easily change font size and you have the underline and full colour options. On the right side of Write is publish status and a Save, Publish box. It is easy to follow. Now, one major change is when you go to Manage, there is no Edit feature obvious. However, to edit, all you have to do is click on the title of the post or page.

(5) Design replaces Presentation. You have Themes, Theme Editor and Widgets as usual. But, for those bloggers who have a theme/template that is Widget ready, there are two main areas. On the left side, lined up, are the widgets that are available with the word “Add” beside them. On the right side you have a small drop down menu. If you have two sidebars, each will be identified. Then, you simply “Add” the widgets you want, first Saving Changes, then, editing them, followed again by Saving Changes.

(6) Settings replaces “Options.” All the same headings are available, General, Writing, Reading, Discussion and so on.

(7) Comment management is very similar to the previous Word Press version but somewhat streamlined. They are laid out very similar to pages and posts. On the far right there is the Unapprove, Spam and Delete functions. However, as with Posts and Pages, there is no Edit feature per se. But, all you have to do to edit is click at the bottom of each comment – which will take you directly to the comment in question. 

(8) There is a new feature called the Media Library. It is very helpful because it stores all your photos for future use. There is also no “Browse” feature under the Write a Post or Write a Page either. Instead, however, there are some little boxes above the toolbar that allow you to add photos, video and audio. Then, once you click on one of those boxes, you will end up in an area where the Browse feature is now located.

So, as I said at the start, upgrading has been relatively painless, although not without some challenges. It has turned out to be just as streamlined and user friendly as the designers said it would be.

C/P at Crux-of-the-Matter.