If you already run WordPress, then you’ve probably seen the other announcements in your Dashboard about the release of WordPress 2.5. There are plenty of details in the Development Blog posting, so I won’t rehash the feature list here. I’ll just point out a few important details.
First of all, in my post about Release Candidate 1, I mentioned that I had problems with the plugin updater. Since that time, I have been able to upgrade complex plugins with out a problem. I didn’t do extensive testing, but I feel like this is probably safer now. Other folks on the wp-testers mailing list have reported observed improvements similar to mine.
Next, I’ll point out that since the introduction of the WYSIWYG editor back in version 2.0, I have always stuck to the “Code” editor. And on top of that, I have disabled the auto-formatting (wptexturize and wpautop) filters. I’ve always entered every bit of HTML within my posts by hand. Starting with version 2.5, I’m going to relax my grip and hand the reigns back over to the system. I’ve disabled my “untexturize” plugin, and switched to the “Visual” editor as my default. The Visual editor should be just fine for most of the posts that I write. And on those occassions when I need to do something advanced (like <code>, <ins> or <del> tags, my standard “pull-quote” div for images, etc), I can seamlessly switch to the HTML view and back, without worrying about the Visual editor messing with my manual edits later.
And for those of you who might wonder, but haven’t seen it mentioned, the new improvements will be filtering into WordPress.com and the WordPress-MU codebase very soon.
14 Comments
This piece of software is brilliant. I got a chance to use the plugin upgrade feature. One question though. How do you prevent malicious plugins from being installed? Is there a trust rating for plugins?
Hello,
Great work, just now i upgraded my copy, it is nice and fast. thanks for great effort.
This is great news! I can’t wait to try it out. I haven’t heard of it yet. I learned all about HTML whenever I first learned how to create websites, but I kinda quit doing it for awhile, so I’m sort of ‘out of the loop’ of it all. I’m going to check this one out.
Thanks! Christine
Expanding the visual editor to full screen is something I didn’t anticipate being a big deal, but I think it’ll make me a bit more efficient. I also read this version of the visual editor is less likely to tamper with custom code and what not - hopefully dealing with obscure embedded video or snippets things will be a bit easier and more reliable with 2.5 onwards. The photo gallery feature is nice, but pretty basic. I’d like to customize the vertical white space and what’s up with the single vertical column of thumbnail images in RSS readers? We gotta get that fixed.
Re visual editor vs. code: I prefer the visual, but have to switch to code if, for example, I’m pasting in “embed this video” code (like from YouTube). I’d really like it if the Write Post / Write Page submenus would let me turn the visual editor off or on, if only before I start using the visual editor. As it is in 2.1.3, I have to go to Users, Your Profile, (un)click, and Update, then back to writing.
A very small point, and maybe one only I feel annoyed about…
I love the new tweaks. Incredible. Well worth the wait.
I didn’t try out RC1. The .zip and .tar.gz files were broken and I didn’t feel like using SVN (especially since I wasn’t sure if I was going to stick with WordPress or not; I know, I’ve been saying that for over a year).
I’m not even sure what the plugin updater is. I guess I’ll see in the future.
I like writing the HTML myself. I like a feeling of control. But then again, I don’t use the built-in editor at all.
Man those are some sexy curly quotes.
I installed Wordpress 2.5 on my blog today and the only problem I encountered was that the Plugin Updater would not install the update to CFORMS II. I had to do a manual update instead. I also have 8 people who contribute to my blog and having their access set to Contributor, 2.5 would not let them upload images to their posts like they could on Wordpress 2.3.3. Resetting their access to Author solved the problem.
WordPress 2.5 looks great!, but think I will hold off upgrading for a bit and let all the early adopters expose any bugs and vulnerabilities (if any) first.
Sounds like some improvements have been made to the built-in editor. I haven’t even looked at it since I installed and started using Windows Live Writer about a year ago. Perhaps I should check it out, but I don’t have much confidence that it will convince me to switch from WLW.
WowdPwess 2.5 fweakin’ wocks! Wuv de new impwovements. Sweet pwugins. Gweat wowk.
Updated without problems.
All my plugins as well as the theme seems to work fine.
Thank you.
Very useful post. Im already used ur advices 4 my blog.
gj
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