This week, the Wordpress core developers released WordPress Version 3.1.This release took a little longer than CMS Report had first anticipated, but we see it as a sign that today's WordPress is much more complex than it used to be when it was considered only a tool for blogging.
In fact, Matt Mullenweg in his Wordpress 3.1. announcement seemed to recognize this continued evolution of WordPress as a content management system.
With the 3.1 release, WordPress is more of a CMS than ever before. The only limit to what you can build is your imagination.
New features in WordPress 3.1 that would be of interest to content authors and site managers include:
- A "lightning fasy" 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 intended to improve the user experience for new bloggers.
- A refreshed blue admin scheme available for selection under your personal options
For WordPress developers, additional new features that may interest them in this latest version of WordPress include:
- A new Post Formats support which makes it easy for themes to create portable tumblelogs with different styling for different types of posts
- New CMS capabilities:
- archive pages for custom content types
- a new Network Admin
- an overhaul of the import and export system
- the ability to perform advanced taxonomy and custom fields queries
WordPress 3.1 is available for download from WordPress.org or you can update from within the dashboard within your current version of WordPress.