Blog Tipz

Today, WordPress 2.9 was released for all WordPress users, and this marks a fairly large update, which brings together contributions by more than 140 people. This update comes six months after WordPress 2.8 was released, although there were a number of updates in-between for security purposes.

A post outlining all the features of WordPress 2.9 can be found on the official blog, but I will post some of the main benefits of upgrading to the latest version below.

Please Note:

I tried WordPress 2.9 temporarily on a blog, but had to downgrade back to 2.8, due to incompatible plugins. For example, the TweetMeme Plugin, which is considered to be one of the main plugins bloggers use for re-tweeting content doesn’t work. I’ll wait a few days to see if an update is issued, otherwise I will move onto another plugin.

This blog is running WordPress 2.9 now, and everything works that worked in the last version. Still having issues with the sidebar that won’t close.

Main Features You Should Check Out

1. Easy Video Embedding – Easily embed video from nearly a dozen sites, including YouTube, Hulu, Viddler, Google Video, and Photobucket. They expect more sites to be added in the future.
2. Image Editor – While this feature may appear good, I think it may still be easier to do desktop-based editing for large sets of images. Nonetheless, it’ll let you crop, edit, rotate, flip, and scale your images to suit your blog.
3. Trash/Undo Feature – There are times where I wait before deleting a post or comment, but now you can simply move it to the “Trash.”
4. Plugin Updating and Compatibility Checking – Perhaps this feature will encourage users to update their plugins more often. It allows you to upload a batch of 10+ plugins at a time.
5. Database Optimization – Optimization and repair features have been built-in, but this still needs to be configured (quite easy).
6. Custom Theme Directories – Ideal for people who are using shared theme directories.
7. Custom Galleries – Pull attachments from any post, not just the current, and exclude or include images.
8. Plugin and Theme Editing – Editing themes and plugins is easier, as it’ll bring you back to the location you were editing.

Conclusion

I’d like to hear your thoughts on WordPress 2.9. Other than a few plugin issues and the old issues I’ve been having, it appears to be working properly for me. Have you upgraded or will you upgrade soon?