Brad Hart’s First Impression of WordPress 2.5

WordPress 2.5 My First Impressions

March 30, 2008

My first impression of WordPress 2.5 is the admin side of things looks like they simply added a new theme changing the basic layout. Is it drastic? Not really, it will take some time getting used to it no doubt, but I don’t feel at the moment the interface is anything to worry about. The ~~guinea pig~~ test blog was a pretty standard 2.3.3 WordPress install on my local PC server. I simply copies the 2.5 files into the directory loaded up the local host and boom install with no problems. I am not sure I like the new layout, but that could be out of long standing familiarity with the other one. I liken the change to going from word 2003 to 2007 without horrible file extension surprises.

First image is the Dashboard

The posting page doesn’t have any real drawbacks except the expanding tabs for all your extra fields at the bottom. Simple Plus and Minus signs open these up. Which for the casual poster who rarely uses them, this won’t mean a thing. For those of us who tag, retag, use plugins like the All in One SEO Pack this will probably get on our nerves if we can’t figure a way to keep it open.

The Manage tab is pretty much straightforward as well. For a person who is used to dealing with many browser tabs open at one, there nothing really difficult about managing WordPress

The Design Tab which used to be called Presentation might throw someone because of the name.

On the right side of the screen you have Plugins, Settings and Users which have the new style but little functionality differences that I can see immediately.
WordPress 2.5 plugins
WordPress 2.5 Settings
WordPress 2.5 User Management

All in all WordPress 2.5 works and looks pretty good, on the other hand Windows ~~WTF~~ Vista did too the first time I loaded it up. I am going to play around with this for a day or two before uploading it to a working blog. I hope to give you a full report on what this version breaks. As always backup before doing anything.