If you’re running a blog, chances are it is probably running on a version of WordPress. However, did you know that there’s a major new revision (3.0) due for release soon?
WordPress 3.0 is currently in Beta testing, and the full release is due on May 1st.
But what can you expect in this new release? Well here’s a quick run down of the new features.
Multi Site
This is quite a major change to the core functionality of WordPress, however it’s a feature which has been used for some time on the WordPress.com site for hosting multiple sites.
Version 3.0 merges this functionality so that anyone can host multiple WordPress blogs on their own machine.
New Theme
There’s a new default theme called twenty ten. This new theme, along with menu and post changes (see later) show how WordPress is become more of an all-round CMS tool rather than just a blogging platform. It’ll be interesting to see how these changes alter the CMS marketplace share of Joomla and Drupal.
WordPress also have a Twenty Ten Template Demo site up and running which you can play around with to see how the template works.
Improved Navigation Menus
The New version of WordPress will now include Woo Navigation menus as default. You can see how these are used in the sample twenty ten demo site mentioned above.
And here’s a demo which shows just how easy it is to add predefined pages and categories using Woo Navigation.
Custom Post Types
Another change which positions WordPress as a CMS is the inclusion of custom post types such as move, album, quote.
Instead of going into the details in this post – here is a good article which discusses custom post types in wordpress 3.0.
Change to Default Username
A simple change, but one which will harden the security on future WordPress sites. By default, on older installations of WordPress, the administrative account was always created as “admin”.
Although it’s possible to change this, many installs keep the default which makes hacking the site easier.
Now when installing WordPress you’re prompted to choose a name.
Summary
Well to me it looks like WordPress really wants to establish itself as a full blown CMS to compete with the likes of Joomla and Drupal.
I like the WordPress interface and how it can be customised, so I’m looking forward to implementing some test sites using 3.0.
I think this will bring the world of CMS development to many more people which can only be a good thing.
Bring on May 1st!
Further Screenshots of WordPress 3.0 are available at www.wpbeginner.com