What’s New in WordPress 3.0?
Posted on 05. Apr, 2010 by Martin PWPH in WordPress
Hype always surrounds major releases of WordPress and this May will be no different with the release of WordPress 3.0. This post will give you a quick glimpse at some of the new features and changes that will be in version 3.0.
New Default Theme: WordPress 3.0 is being shipped with a new default theme known as Twenty Ten. From this year, WordPress is to have a new default theme every year. Below is a screenshot of the theme Twenty Ten plus the developer blog for Twenty Ten can also be seen here.
Twenty Ten
Twenty Ten
Merge of WordPress with WordPress MU: WordPress MU allows users to run multiple sites under one installation. In WordPress 3.0 WordPress MU will be merged into the WordPress Core so from now on you will have the option of being able to run more than one blog from a single installation of WordPress.
Setting up WordPress MU requires the following function call to be added to your wp-config.php file, after that is done access can be made to the MU settings.
define('WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true);
Below are some screenshots showing the MultiUser settings within the WordPress 3.0 Beta:
WordPress 3.0 MU Settings
WordPress 3.0 MU Settings
Better Navigation Management: Custom Woo Navigation will be included to the core of 3.0 to allow for better navigation menu management. This feature will allow users to create a strong navigation system within their website. Users will be able to create navigation menus that include pages, categories and custom links all within the same menu.
Below is a screenshot showing some of the navigation options:
Menus
More information about the Custom Woo Navigation can be found here.
Username and Password Installation Options: Unlike previous versions of WordPress, 3.0 allows users installing WordPress to choose their own username and passwords. Actually, I like the current password that is decided for you because most people use weak passwords. Being able to change the username is a long needed feature and better for your own site’s security. Way too many people use the standed username “admin”.
Below is a screenshot of the new WordPress installation screen:
Installation Screen
Custom Background Support: Support will be added to allow changing background images within your blog. While this feature does make it easy for quick theme background changes, I would still prefer to just edit the style.css to make these types of changes.
For this feature to work you will need to add the following function code to your functions.php template file:
add_custom_background();
Below is a screenshot of the Custom Background panel:
Custom Background Panel
Author Specific Templates: For WordPress sites with multiple post authors or even portfolio type sites. In WordPress 3.0 you will now be able to create specific templates for each author.
get_author_template();
More information about author templates will be released later down the track.
Custom Post Types: The Custom Post Types feature was set for a 2.9 release but was pushed back due to some technical problems. WordPress 3.0 will now introduce custom post types that allows the quick creation of the following types of posts: Photo Posts, Quotes, Chats, Audio, Podcasts and Video Posts.
Template Editor File List: For a long time I have thought the theme template file list has been cluttered but now the template list has been tidied up and looks a whole lot neater. There is still no sign of a better template file editor with built in line count and code syntax highlighting features.
Below is a screenshot of the new template file list:
Template Files
Dashboard Header and Footer: Some graphical changes have been made to the WordPress Dashboard Header and Footer. Both of these now look a lot sleeker and blends in with the rest of the Administrative panel. No more grey or blue colours…
Below is a screenshot of the header:
Dashboard Header
Welcome Guide: This feature in my opinion has been long overdue because the Welcome Guide is designed to make it easy for new WordPress users to get started. No further information has been released about the guide at this current stage of time.
Advanced Export Features: Some new Export options will be added in WordPress 3.0 and the exporting options will allow users to export just one category (or all of them), export a certain month or even export a just posts or pages. Quite a few good options will be included as seen in the screenshot below:
Export Panel
6 Responses to “What’s New in WordPress 3.0?”
Leave a Reply
Use Mozilla Firefox
interesting. i might have to go back to playing around with it when 3 comes out.
Some WP devoted blogs are saying to not upgrade to WordPress 3.0. They are saying to stick with WP 2.9.2 until the first WP 3.0 patch comes out, any thoughts on that?????
Are you talking about articles like the one below?
http://ottopress.com/2010/my-recommendation-for-wordpress-3-0/
I think Otto is right in many ways in the article above. WordPress 3.0 is a very big update and more bugs will probably show up when 3.0 final goes public. I remember all the problems that appeared when WordPress 2.8 came out, we will probably see a few bugs appear for for this version also.
and WordPress 3.0 v. interesting too… imo new mobile me by the way WordPress 3.0 is out Joomla 1.6 is in Beta3 Drupal 7 at Alpha5 (Beta coming soon) exciting days for open source php CMSs yuppiii
How can i enabled code syntax highlight for WP 3.0 ?
Please advice..
For syntax highlighting use a plugin like WP-Syntax:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-syntax/