WordPress 3.1 Goes Live

WordPress 3.1, code named “Reinhardt” (in honor of guitarist, Django Reinhardt), was rolled out Wednesday and includes some handy improvements for users. Easier linking, a new site-wide admin bar for logged in admins and editors, and custom post formats are now available. BizzyWeb will be updating qualifying sites as soon as we’ve verified plugin and site design compatibility.

WordPress released a news statement on their website:

“This release features a lightning fast redesigned linking workflow which makes it easy to link to your existing posts and pages, an admin bar so you’re never more than a click away from your most-used dashboard pages, a streamlined writing interface that hides many of the seldom-used panels by default to create a simpler and less intimidating writing experience for new bloggers (visit Screen Options in the top right to get old panels back), and a refreshed blue admin scheme available for selection under your personal options.”

A favorite new feature for me is the admin bar. WordPress.com users are used to the bar at the top of their page when logged in to their account. The menu gives you quick access to creating a new blog post, various tools, and other features. It’s very handy for logged in editors and site owners to modify their content on the fly.

Mashable wrote about the new admin bar feature:

“The WordPress.org admin bar will only work when users are logged into their own sites. When they are, visiting the site will display an admin bar that will then provide easy access to comments, the dashboard and other assorted tools.”

Whether or not you are a fan of the new admin bar on WordPress, you have the option to disable the admin bar in your “user’s” panel.

Overall, the new WordPress 3.1 is very streamlined and clean. You will find new additions that will help you out immensely with your website(s) and you might find new options that you didn’t think of having. WordPress is a great tool for website management and content management in general.

You can update now to WordPress 3.1 through your dashboard and it is available for download.

Let me know what you think of the new WordPress 3.1 in the comments section below.

Until then, stay bizzy!

@bizzykendall