John Ryan’s Blog

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Wordpress 2.5 is about to be released shortly, and in a correctly cautions fashion – wordpress has released a beta version for public testing before the final version is released. In an unusual move MT – Movable Type has added a little fuel to the blogging platform fight, by passing a few remarks. Personally, I think companies who try to market themselves by saying their better than their competitors are generally not, or there is a compromise involved.

Anyway Wordpress 2.5 has some exciting features, the much criticised admin interface which previously sported an outdated look has a completely new design, I thought I would love this, however having tried out the beta, I am a little cautious, and will wait for the final release before forming an opinion. The layout is much simpler with many of the options complied into an easy to use manner, this means beginners are not bombarded by all the options, but they are all still there. The dashboard is also customizable, something I have not really fooled about with.

Interestingly this version includes a galleries section, which is a very nice and useful touch to the wordpress platform, the interface for uploading these is very pretty. I also notice that you are supposed to be able to install plugins from the admin panel, which does not seem to be in the version I downloaded, so I can’t test that, but it would be one of the best timesavers.

For the comments section - there is a little bubble that tells you if there is a number of comments waiting for approval, which saves you clicking on the link, as you can see how many comments there are.

The frontend design is the same, I was hoping for a more modern default template, but I would imagine that this will come in future versions. For now, the backend has been re-mastered and it’s all looking very promising.

I would strongly recommend if people plan on upgrading to wait for the final release unless they know what there doing, and to also check plugin compatibility first.