Wordpress, now in its seventh year, launched their thirteenth major release last week with the introduction of Wordpress 3.0 Thelonious—named after American jazz
great Theolonious Monk. This major update has 1,217 bug fixes and feature enhancements, and is the work of 218 contributors. So, what’s new with Wordpress and when should you upgrade? Here’s a quick rundown.
The look
Wordpress has jazzed up the entire look and feel of the administration panel. The
all new admin interface color scheme is lighter and more focused, and gives users
the ability to change the background image of Wordpress with a single click.
The default Wordpress theme has also changed. Known as Twenty Ten, the minimalistic new
theme offers more customization options and a custom header.
Under the hood
Wordpress has done a complete overhaul of everything under the hood, too. New features
include:
- New custom menus
- Help file links on each page
- Support for short links
- Multiple site management capability between Wordpress and Wordpress MU
- Custom header
- Background APIs
- Ability to add administrative usernames and passwords during installation
- Funnyordie.com embed support
- A cleaner edit media screen
- Support for different file type extensions
- New features for ordering link categories
- Tabbed interface for theme management and installation
- Plugins can now be upgraded in bulk
- Removed Turbo menu
- Automatic generation of security keys during installation
Steps to take before upgrading
Wordpress 3.0 is well worth the upgrade and if you care about the security of your
website, you already have plans to move to the new mature version. To guarantee
a smooth upgrade, be sure to take the following steps:
- Check the current minimum server requirements for Wordpress
- Contact the designer of your custom theme and make sure it’s compatible with 3.0
- Double check to be sure all of your plugins work with the new version of Wordpress
-
Backup your current Wordpress installation
- Disable all plugins
How to upgrade Wordpress
Wordpress can be updated in one of two ways: manually or automatically. If you have
server management experience, you may wish to download the new Wordpress files
and upload them to your web server yourself. If your webhost offers a control panel,
such as CPanel, you can perform an automatic upgrade from within your administration
control panel.
Once installed, reactive your plugins and test each one to be sure they work with
the new version of Wordpress. After that, take another website backup and enjoy!