There’s lots of things I like about WordPress 2.5, but the admin panel has taken some getting used to – I’ve felt quite disoriented often because things aren’t where I was used to them being.
I thought I’d give it a bit of time before writing about my thoughts.
I think that for new WordPress users, things are much better organized in general than they used to be but some things leave my scratching my head. Why is “Design” put before “Comments” in the top menu? Why is “Comments” in the main menu when it’s really a part of “Manage”? Why are Settings, Plugins and Users so hard for me to get used to being in the top right?
One general thing that has caused problems for some clients who are seasoned WordPress users: moving categories, post author and other meta information below the post box, rather than to the right and having draft posts listed up the top of pages, rather than hunting for them. Also, it allows the post box to be wider if you have a wide screen, rather than limiting it.
A massive thanks to Judy from Persistent Illusion for providing a WordPress 2.5 admin hack to solve this problem. As usual, use at your own risk and back up your files to be sure but I have found this invaluable already.
Check this screenshot of how the admin panel will look after applying her hack versus how it would look beforehand. Make sure you show your support for this change to be a part of WordPress 2.6 if you find it useful!
