WordPress 3.8 Released

The newest version of WordPress has been released. WordPress is Bizzyweb’s favorite content management system and the majority of the sites we have put together are powered by WordPress. Created in 2003 as a blogging tool, WordPress has become a popular tool for creating websites and it’s popularity continues to grow. All versions of WordPress are nicknamed honoring Jazz musicians. WordPress 3.8 is named ‘Parker’, honoring Charlie Parker.

The biggest change with this newest release of WordPress is the visual look and feel of the admin area, which is now fully mobile responsive and has a lot more “pop.” The first thing you’ll notice when you log into the dashboard is more color. The left column of the tabs is dark grey with the highlighted tab a blue color. You can choose from eight color schemes for your WordPress admin screen. Just go to your profile and click on each one to see what it looks like and choose the one you like. The admin area is fully mobile responsive which will allow for better usability from a phone or tablet. Depending on the size of your screen you may have up to four columns on the Home Dashboard screen. On the plugins screen you will notice the use of colors to denote whether a plugin is Activated (blue) or has an update available (red).

Changes were also made to the Themes screen to allow easier management of all of your themes. The Manage Themes and Install Themes tabs have been removed and replaced with the number of themes installed, Add New button and a search box. If you hover over a theme you can click for theme information, activate the theme, or get a live preview of the theme. If you click on a theme it will bring up a new window with a larger screenshot and the theme’s information. From here you can also click through each theme with forward and back arrows.

A big change has been made to the Widgets screen. When you click on an Available Widget a drop-down menu will appear displaying each of the Widget areas. Just select the area you want to add the widget to and click Add Widget. You can still use the drag and drop method.

Overall this update seems very promising and is a welcome upgrade for those of us who’ve been working in WordPress for a long time. By adding a darker color scheme and an Open Sans font it really makes the admin area easier to read, and with the admin area’s mobile responsiveness, it’s much easier to work on your site on a mobile device.