Published by deborah.woehr on 22 Apr 2008 at 09:33 pm
First Impression of WordPress 2.5
I’ve been debating whether or not to upgrade my blogs to WordPress 2.5 for a couple of weeks now, but held off mainly because I was busy and I wanted to read about any bugs that needed fixing first. Ever since 2.0 came out, I’ve been cautious about jumping for the upgrades. Tonight, I decided to upgrade the blog on DeborahWoehr.com.
Upgrading was a snap, thanks to Fantastico. But once I saw the interface, I thought, “Ick.”
I liked having the navigation bar at the top, where I can gain easy access to any aspect of my blog. I’m reminded of the time my mother-in-law decided to organize my bedroom years and years ago. She organized everything so well that I couldn’t find anything. That’s what this layout feels like.
The first thing I did was try to upload an image with the new media interface. It gave me an error message, although it uploaded the image just fine. I had to copy and paste the URL into my post. Trying to make a private post proved fruitless as well; the post showed up anyway.
I hate the way they shave down the Settings so all you get is the general page. You can still access your user profile and your plugins, though. After five minutes, I still haven’t been able to find my blogroll or theme editor.
So far, my first impression of WordPress 2.5 is not good. While the media widgets are a cool feature, the interface is not user friendly. It will take some time and tweaking in order to get used to this upgrade. Not recommended.
John (Syntagma) on 23 Apr 2008 at 1:19 am #
Deb, the filosofo upload plugin works fine on 2.5. You’ll find the blogroll under Links under Manage, and the theme editor under Design.
I agree it’s a bit confusing at first — moderation is a small nightmare — but you’ll find everything is there, usually renamed and hidden away somewhere.
Jim on 23 Apr 2008 at 6:31 am #
I had the opposite reaction to WP 2.5 - I really, really like it. The only complaint I have is the AJAX Media Uploader has some major issues, but I use the Flexible Upload plugin, which bypasses most of the problematic AJAX, so that’s a reasonable solution.
Here are a few plugins that for 2.5 that I consider to be essentials that will probably take care of most of your navigation frustrations:
Remove Max Width - forces the dashboard to use the whole screen, instead of boxing down to the set width
Ozh’ Absolute Comments - makes moderating comments and replying to comments from the dashboard a breeze
Ozh’ Admin Dropdown Menu - rearranges the dashboard navigation into a really slick dropdown menu system that puts all your dashboard links within easy reach
Ozh’ Better Plugin Page - cleans up the plugins page and makes it more space-efficient
I’ve a handful of others that I consider essentials, but these should address most of the complaints you mentioned here. Hope they help.
Shamus Writes on 23 Apr 2008 at 11:22 am #
Essential Plugins for WordPress 2.5…
With every new version of WordPress, I update my list of plugins that I consider to be essentials. That is, these are the group of plugins that I install in almost every instance of WordPress that I run on my site. In the last couple of wee…
deborah.woehr on 23 Apr 2008 at 4:58 pm #
John: I found my blogroll when I went to the Plugins screen. Very odd setup.
Jim: Thanks a bunch.
I uploaded the Admin Dropdown Menu Plugin as well as the Flexible Upload. I haven’t tried out the latter yet, but dropdown plugin works beautifully. I feel like I have my old WordPress back.
Scot on 09 May 2008 at 9:03 pm #
Ever since I had my nightmare when Blogger made the switchover to their new platform, I have been considering the possibility of making the switch to WordPress. But I’m finding the process a little more complicated than Blogger and I’m not sure if I’ll ever get to work the way I want. I like how you have your sidebar set up. Like your blog by the way. Always have good insights pertaining to blogging and writing.
deborah.woehr on 10 May 2008 at 5:43 am #
Thank you, Scot.
There is a bit of a learning curve with WordPress, if you want to customize it. For the sidebar, I installed a widget plugin that allowed me to collapse my archives, which helped me free up more space. If you decide to make the switch and need help, let me know.