WordPress 3.5 - Review

WordPress is a very popular free website and blog building content management system (CMS) that was first released in May 2003 and was followed by several versions most of which were named after famous musicians. In accordance with this trend the latest version, i.e. WordPress 3.5 which was released in December 2011, has been code-named “Elvin” as a tribute to the famed Jazz drummer, Elvin Ray Jones. WordPress 3.5 has made some changes to the administration panel for common users which have made it more user friendly.

 

Some of the features presented by “Elvin” are as follows:

Clutter-free welcome screen - The new version of WordPress has a welcome screen which is tidier with fewer links and texts. It takes the users through the initial steps of setting up a blog making it easier for beginner. TinyMCE has been restructured and supports HTML5 tags also. Three new hooks which display extra branding and directions to the customers have been added to the edit screen.

Retina friendly (HiDPI) screen – The entire WordPress control panel has been made retina ready to include high-resolution that would provide excellent picture quality in iPhones, iPads, Macbooks, etc. New theme selections – The default theme for “Elvin” bloggers is “Twenty Twelve”, which is a simple and elegant theme with the most recent features. Twenty Twelve has a very approachable architecture and unlike the older themes does not have a header picture. The user can alter some things with the theme customizer.

Concealed links manager – In keeping with its policy of removing all non-essential features from the main screen, WordPress has removed the links manager from the main interface. However, those who cannot do without the links manager can avail of the service via plugin from the WordPress directory.

Improved media manager and media library – With the upgraded media library it is very easy to manage photographs. Drag-and-drop allows the user to upload photographs very easily.

Easy to use gallery manager- The upgraded version of the gallery has simplified the process of adding multiple images to a gallery and inserting it into a web page. It also allows users to edit images on edit screen, by altering the size of the pictures, title, text, alignment, etc. One can also add new articles in the “Attachment Page Content” box. Multiple images can be added with Ctrl/Shift + click and an image that has been uploaded once can be included in many galleries. Imagick, the default engine for manipulating the pictures gives resized images better picture quality.

oEmbeds – While the oEmbeds of WordPress 3.4 allowed the user to insert a URL from services supported by the developers like Flickr, Twitter, Vimeo, YouTube, etc. WordPress 3.5 has added Soundcloud, Instagram and Slideshare. oEmbed is a default setting and it will capture the media content and insert it on the user’s page automatically without the use of any code. However the size of the inserted media will be determined by the user’s cascading style sheet (CSS).

The basic files like jQuery UI, jQuery, TinyMCE, and SimplePie have all been modernized to the most up-to-date versions.

XML-RPC - This protocol is always enabled as it allows the users to link one’s site to the developer’s services and mobile applications such as the “Official WordPress iOS App”. XML-RPC can be disabled from the “functions.php” file.

All in all, WordPress 3.5 is an excellent revision of the best “content management system” that has been around since a long time. The alterations that “Elvin” has brought about to WordPress will help to minimize the time spent by non tech-savvy bloggers in building a web site which in turn will give them more time to write. The simple theme and the well scripted welcome screen will allow the user to build her/his blog site effortlessly.

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