WordPress 2.6 Released Early

WordPress 2.6 has been released almost a month ahead of schedule. The latest release is not a major overhaul and has not addressed some of the issues that many had called for following the release of version 2.5 – it does however have a few nice changes.

For blogs with multiple authors, the latest release allows for the tracking of changes made to content.  Other changes include a toolbar feature that will allow you to insert content directly into a post. Compatible sites include Flock, FriendFeed, Facebook, Tumblr, and Delicious.

Other changes include:

• Word count! Never guess how many words are in your post anymore.
• Image captions, so you can add sweet captions like Political Ticker does under your images.
• Bulk management of plugins.
• A completely revamped image control to allow for easier inserting, floating, and resizing. It’s now fully integrated with the WYSIWYG.
• Drag-and-drop reordering of Galleries.
• Plugin update notification bubble.
• Customizable default avatars.
• You can now upload media when in full-screen mode.
• Remote publishing via XML-RPC and APP is now secure (off) by default, but you can turn it on easily through the options screen.
• Full SSL support in the core, and the ability to force SSL for security.
• You can now have many thousands of pages or categories with no interface issues.
• Ability to move your wp-config file and wp-content directories to a custom location, for “clean” SVN checkouts.
• Select a range of checkboxes with “shift-click.”
• You can toggle between the Flash uploader and the classic one.
• A number of proactive security enhancements, including cookies and database interactions.
• Stronger better faster versions of TinyMCE, jQuery, and jQuery UI.
• Version 2.6 fixes approximately 194 bugs.

Updating is quick and smooth with no problems. One of the smarter aids is the plugin balloon that lets you know when plugins need upgrading. Plugins generally require upgrading due to security issues or bugs so it always a good idea to upgrade them as soon as possible.

WordPress 2.6 continues to grow and evolve – is it getting better!