On December 1st, since I saw that a new version of WordPress was coming out this month, I’ve been following WordPress on Twitter and staying on top of everything. I heard about the new features of WordPress first from the Warrior Forum on this post : WordPress 3.3 Is Coming by ZaphodBeebleBrox . Yesterday at the time of the release I was at my day job, and I logged in to my cPanel and immediately installed it on a sub directory of an existing blog. I couldn’t get too in depth, since I was at work. But as soon as I got home I started playing with it. I’m such a WordPress geek! I suppose I was also expecting a new default theme but I suppose that it technically still is 2011, so the Twenty Eleven theme is still the default.
My favorite part about the new update is the Responsive Design feature that is supposed to work better with tablets and mobile devices. So if there is a 2 column WordPress site, the second column will actually move to the bottom of the first one on a smaller screen. I do a lot of WordPress sites and I think that making them mobile-friendly without adding plug-ins or custom themes is awesome. It saves time and a lot of trouble having it work right out of the box. WordPress is huge and only getting bigger there have been 65 million downloads, that is huge!
I also think that the help tabs are nice, they would have been helpful when I first started to use WordPress because I had no idea what to do first, how to configure it and make it safe. I suppose if someone is brand new to WordPress it is good to have that section available now. Having jQuery build in now is also a good plus. Playing with it kinda does remind me of the previous versions, with that “feels like the first time” look. I am still checking this out, and playing with the codex. Here is a summary of all of the new features of WordPress 3.3 AKA Sonny- ” in honor of the great jazz saxophonist Sonny Stitt”
WordPress 3.3 New Features list
*Easier Uploading
File Type Detection
Drag-and-Drop Media Uploader
More File Formats
*Dashboard Design
Flyout Menus
Header + Admin Bar = Toolbar
*Feels Like the First Time
New Feature Pointers
Post-update Changelog
Dashboard Welcome
*Content Tools
Better Co-Editing
Tumblr Importer
Widget Improvements
*Under The Hood
Flexible Permalinks
Post Slugs: Less Funky
jQuery and jQuery U
WP_Screen API
Editor API Overhaul