WordPress 3.2 is coming soon. And Today, WordPress 3.2 Beta 1 RC3was announced. Time to check what WordPress 3.2 is bringing with it now. This release will bring with it some major design changes to Admin Area, a new default theme and performance improvements. WordPress team will also make sure that from now on the release cycles will be shorter so expect next major release sooner than you would expect. Listed below are the changes that you will see in WordPress 3.2
System Requirements
WordPress 3.2 will be supporting PHP 5.2.4+ and MySQL 5.0+. So this is the time you should check with your webhosting and ask them to upgrade their servers if they haven’t done so. WordPress will also stop supporting IE 6 starting with this release and will ask you to upgrade your browsers if it detects you using an outdated browser.
New Default Theme
I have already talked about the new default theme shipping with WordPress 3.2 – Twenty Eleven. It has a magazine style layout and is based on the Duster theme by Auttomattic. This theme comes with its own options panel and comes with Two color schemes – Default white and a dark one. You can also change content layout options and the link color. This theme also ships with rotating headers which have got bigger in size. This theme ships with a special Showcase template. You can see its preview in the screenshot above.
Distraction Free Writing
WordPress 3.2 ships with a brand new Ajax styled Full Screen Writing interface which trims everything to the basic and when you are writing, everything vanishes and you are left only with the text. Even the textboxes become invisible. I simply love this new interface and it makes the writing so much easy and fun without anything to distract you. You can switch to Visual or HTML mode from the full screen only and toolbar shows only the basic buttons.
Showing Minmal Toolbar
Toolbar disappears when you start writing
Administration UI Change
WordPress 3.2 has made some big changes to admin panel’s design and its css. Personally I didn’t quiet like the change because it makes it look like a design from the past. Check Some screenshots of the Admin panel:
All Posts Menu
Check Twenty Eleven Options Page
New Post Page
All Posts Menu
Check Twenty Eleven Options Page
New Post Page
Faster BackEnd
WordPress 3.2 promises faster performance on the backend as well as the frontend for your blog.
If you want to test WordPress 3.2 out for yourself, go ahead and download the Beta RC1 now. And don’t use it on your live site as of now. Wait for the stable version which is expected to be out by the end of June.