WordPress 2.7 will be arriving today at 8pm Eastern. This is a good thing for most people, yet bad for some. Why? Milwaukee Web media and Jane Wells from WordPress.com gives us the lowdown here:
Navigation
The first thing you’ll notice when you’ve logged in is that the navigation has moved and changed. Now located on the left side on the screen, the new navigation menu is meant to be more intuitive and flexible as well as saving you a few steps here and there.
Section Labels: Instead of all your content objects (posts, pages, links, etc.) being grouped under Write and Manage, they get their own top-level sections, making it easier to go directly to the screens you need. Clicking on a section label will take you to the first screen in that section (just as it used to do in 2.6).
Expand/Collapse Sections: You can see which screens are in each each section by clicking on the arrow that appears when you hover over the menu. Click the arrow again to close the section. If you leave a section open, your browser will remember your setup and leave it that way until you close it. It might be helpful for you to take a moment when you first log in to the new interface and click each section open and closed, so you can see how things are organized.
Minimize Menu Column: You can also minimize the menu column to increase your working space, which can be especially useful if your computer has a a small screen or low resolution. In the menu column, you’ll see that the sections are grouped, with gray separator lines between them that have small arrows-in-circles on the end. Clicking on these arrows-in-circles will minimize the menu to a thin column of icons. Hovering over these icons when the menu is minimized will display pop-up menus, so even with the menu minimized, you are still only one click away from most screens. Clicking on an icon when the menu is minimized will take you to the first screen in that section, just as the text labels would do if the menu were open.
Shortcuts: In the upper right corner of your screen, there’s a new button/menu of shortcuts. You can click the button to start a new post, or you can hover over the arrow to reveal other screens accessible from this menu. Click to go to your Drafts, start a new page, upload media files, or manage your comments.
Customizable Display
There are several new ways to customize the appearance of your administration screens. These selections, like the menu, will be remembered by your browser, so you only need to set up your ideal screen once on any given browser.
Drag and Drop: You can rearrange the modules on the Dashboard and Add New Post screens to your liking using drag and drop. Click on the title bar of a module and drag it to the location you prefer.
Open/Close: You can minimize modules on the Dashboard and Add New Post screens by clicking on the title bar. Clicking again will re-open the module.
Hide/Show: On a number of screens, you will see a Screen Options tab in the upper right. Clicking this tab reveals a layer that lists screen elements and allows you to decide which elements to show on screen using checkbox controls. If you hide a module or column using the Screen Options, you can use the same method to return the element to the screen.
Dashboard (Used to be tab above blog title)
There are two entirely new Dashboard modules, and one that has new features.
QuickPress: QuickPress, by default in the upper right portion of the screen, is a mini-post editor that allows instant content creation from the Dashboard. You can include a title, body text, media files, and tags in the post, and have the option of saving it as a draft or publishing immediately. For additional options such as adding categories or setting a future publish date, you should use the Add New Post screen.
Drafts: This module is just below the QuickPress module by default and displays links to your most recent drafts, allowing one-click access from the Dashboard. If you create drafts using QuickPress, they will appear in the Recent Drafts module immediately.
Recent Comments: The Recent Comments module, located in the left column by default, now includes comment moderation options so you can moderate recent comments from the Dashboard. You can Approve/Unapprove, Mark as Spam, Delete, or Reply to a Comment within the module itself, while the Edit link takes you to the screen for that comment for additional options. >>>MORE
