WordPress 2.7: SVN has been updated with new screens

Just to whet your appetite on the upcoming WordPress version 2.7, I’m posting a couple of screen shots of the new look and feel. Some pretty good usability features are going to the next version. The new version is replacing the top menu with some nice looking icons on the left side.

The change will maximize the screen area for tasks like editing or creating a post. This should be a welcome feature with the increased popularity of netbooks which offer less screen area.

If you move your mouse over the icons, you’ll see them expand into menus. You can permanently expand the icons on the left to full menus by clicking on small arrows above the different icon groups.

You’ll also notice the addition of a “quick edit” function in several places. For instance, you can click on the “quick edit” function of a given post to be able to do a fast edit of the publish/unpublish status — no need to go to the full edit post page just to do it. Quick Edit also allows you to change the title, categories, tags and other meta data.

That’s it for now. If you want to see some of the other exciting features, you can access the latest and greatest from the WordPress SVN repository. The “Installing/Updating WordPress with Subversion” page at wordpress.org provides some instructions. I strongly recommend that you DON’T overwrite your live blog and use a test environment instead.