UIT-AT is currently working on upgrading our WordPress 2.8 installation to WordPress 3.

Here are the highlights of what the new version will bring:

Highlights

  • WordPress and WordPress MU have merged, allowing the management of multiple sites (called Multisite) from one WordPress installation.
  • New default theme “Twenty Ten” takes full advantage of the current features of WordPress.
  • New Custom Menu Management feature, allows creation of custom menus combining posts, pages, categories, tags, and links for use in theme menus or widgets.
  • Custom Header and Custom Background APIs.
  • Contextual help text accessed under the Help tab of every screen in the WordPress administration.
  • Ability to set the admin username and password during installation.
  • Bulk updating of themes with an automatic maintenance mode during the process.
  • Support for Shortlinks.
  • Improved Custom Post Types and Custom Taxonomies including hierarchical (category-style) support. (Try the Custom Post Type UI or GD Custom Posts And Taxonomies Tools plugins to see the possibilities.)
  • A lighter admin color scheme to increase accessibility and put the focus more squarely on your content.

User Features

General

  • Check required php and mysql versions in the update and notify if the server environment does not meet those requirements
  • New wp_login_form() provides a simple login form for use anywhere
  • New WordPress logo for admin header
  • Place “Search Engines Blocked” mini-alert in the wp-admin header to prevent people from accidentally delisting themselves
  • Remove ‘Turbo’ link from admin header and remove Turbo section from the Tools->Tools panel
  • Renamed various menu items, for example Posts->Edit becomes Posts->Posts, and Links->Edit becomes Links->Links, and so on
  • Revised administration menu icons
  • Revised Gray Admin Color Scheme
  • Revised information in readme.html file
  • Show login form upon email-sent for recover/reset passwords

Dashboard

  • Add link so user can visit Dashboard after core upgrade
  • Move Tools->Upgrade menu option to Dashboard->Updates and overhaul of user interface so themes, plugins, and core upgrades under one panel
  • New menu management (navigation) via Menus option under Appearances Menu (#11817)
  • Password nag for newly registered users
  • Split Right Now widget into Content | Discussion

Posts

  • Allow for removing all tags in quick edit
  • Allow themes to style the visual editor with editor-style.css file, using add_editor_style() function
  • Enable custom taxonomy UI for pages as well as for posts
  • Improved revision comparison user interface
  • Shortlinks enabled, but still requires a plugin or theme support to fully realize this feature
  • Added capital_P_dangit() filter to change ‘WordPress‘ to ‘WordPress‘.

Media

  • Add FunnyOrDie.com oEmbed support
  • Allow Deletion of Media Alt text
  • Change Media UI labels from “Post Thumbnails” to “Featured Image”
  • Cleanup of the edit media screen
  • Don’t let “Crunching” overlap image name while uploading
  • Optimize scan for lost attachments
  • Support for additional file type extensions (Changesets 12581 and 13349)

Links

  • Order link categories by name, not count, on Add New/Edit Link page

Comments

  • Add additional columns to the Posts Comments view
  • Allow configuration of number of comments to display Recent Comments dashboard module
  • Block comments for future posts and password protected posts (when password not provided)
  • Change to comments UI to show when a comment is replying to another, and link to the parent comment