Developing For .NET

This morning I the site upgraded to WordPress 2.5, and I am very impressed! I know it is not .Net, but I think there are plenty of you who might be interested. So here is my list of top 7 cool new WP features:

1. Permalink editing: you can now preview and edit the Permalink of a blog post. Previously, it was always based on the title, which can be annoying and not always SEO friendly.
2. Improved Dashboard: a better layout, more relevant information, easier navigation.
3. “Top Post” information added to the Dashboard.
4. The WordPress Blog feed has been downsized and moved.
5. A Plugin feed has been added to the Dashboard.
6. Integrated Stats (may require Stats plug-in) on the Dashboard.
7. Improved WYSIWYG editor and interface.

They say that the new interface no longer messes with your code in posts, but we’ll see the next time I post some samples. They also say you are supposed to be able to configure the Dashboard yourself, but I haven’t found that feature yet.

I will say they made a couple of changes I don’t care for, mostly on the “Write Post” screen. They moved most of the advanced features below the post instead of in the right hand sidebar, so even to select a Category I have to scroll down now (which was not previously the case). I’m not sure what the benefit is: the right sidebar is still present, so there is no increased posting space, you simply have fewer options in the sidebar. Actually, it makes the page seem a little lopsided. For most of the features this is not an issue, but selecting a category is pretty important and should have been left where it was.

But I’m nitpicking. Otherwise it looks as though the team at WP has done another fantastic job.