We usually put ultimate tips and tricks whenever a new product is released, however we did not do it this time, and we have a very good reason for it. One of our past Techie Buzz authors and blog colleague Karthik has already put up a really good list which every user must read to make the move to WordPress 2.7 as smooth as possible.

The list of tips and tricks include:

• Links to tips and tricks to learn what’s new in WordPress 2.7
• Handy instructions and tips to tricks to upgrade to WordPress 2.7.
• Advanced resources and tips and tricks for using WordPress 2.7.
• Know which plugins are compatible with WordPress 2.7

The tips include several things you should know, including some of the best features in WordPress 2.7, part of which we had covered in our WordPress 2.7 review, notes on making your themes compatible with WordPress 2.7 among other things.

So head out to Shankrila and read the Top WordPress 2.7 tips, hacks, plugins & resources.

WordPress 2.7 has been released and its time to start making use of the new features, in our WordPress 2.7 review we had told you about one of the new features available was inbuilt support for threaded and paged comments, however this feature will require you to make changes to your theme.

Here is a simple tutorial you can use to change your current theme to use the inbuilt threaded comments and paged comments feature in WordPress 2.7.

Step 1: Backup your comments.php file, so that if anything goes wrong you can easily revert back to the older version.

Step 2: Download this comments.php file and replace it with your theme’s current PHP file. You may want to modify and replace the code for displaying your comments form and styling the comments itself.

Step 3: Test if the comments are showing up properly, if they are not revert back to the original backed up copy of comments.php.

For more detailed instructions on making use of the latest comment features in WordPress 2.7 check out this handy WordPress 2.7 comments enhancement article by Otto.

A few days ago we told you about WordPress folks announcing the release of WordPress2.7, however the release to self hosted WordPress users was delayed for some reason. That said the WordPress team has finally released WordPress 2.7 to users today and you can download and use it immediately.

If you are unaware of the features available in WordPress 2.7, do take a look at our WP 2.7 hands-on review, that walks you through some of the best features available.

Sadly this is the last time many of you will be using WPAU to automatically upgrade your blog, so it is time to finally say Adios to WPAU, Rest in Peace.

Update: I was able to update my personal blog to WordPress 2.7 using WPAU, so there should be no issues there while doing the final upgrade :-)

Download WordPress 2.7

WordPress 2.7 is finally slated to be released today yesterday and many people including me are excited about this, this release brings in a new era for the WordPress platform, adding in several new exciting features, which were available as plugins earlier on.

Should you upgrade to WordPress 2.7? Well we did a WordPress 2.7 hands-on review that tours some of the most exciting features in WordPress 2.7, take a look at it and decide for yourself.

The most notable features in WordPress 2.7 release include:

• Automatic Upgrade of WordPress (Which users could earlier do with our own plugin WPAU :-)).
• Reply To Comments from Admin Dashboard (Which again was possible with our own plugin Better Comments Manager).
• Improvised Dashboard.
• Keyboard Shortcuts for Comments.
• Comments API to manage comments remotely.
• Threaded Comments and Auto-Close of comments.
• Install and Search New Plugins without leaving Admin Dashboard.
• Enhanced Write Panel.

There are many more exciting features, which make this release possibly one of the best one till date. So are you excited about WordPress 2.7?

WPAU And Other Updates

As for WPAU it has served the community for quite a long time and people would still use it to upgrade to WordPress 2.7 :-), I have earlier officially retired WPAU development and with the release of WordPress 2.7 would want to finally say goodbye to it, this means that there will be no support for users who are using WordPress 2.7 and above, however I will continue supporting users using other versions which do not have inbuilt  support for automatically upgrading WordPress for a brief period.

I hope that WPAU has helped many of you and it has been a handy companion for all of you using WordPress as a blogging platform.

However the future is good as I have several plugins which are coded but not ready for release yet, and which I should be releasing in near future, so look forward to some more exciting plugins from me. On the other hand I am also working on releasing a new exclusive Techie Buzz theme which should be released sometime next week, so keep tuned as I am sure many of your will love it.

If you have any question or want to say any good or bad things about WPAU :-), please feel free to leave your comments, am looking forward to them.

Image Credit: Ayuda WordPress

The WordPress team announced the availability of WordPress 2.7 beta 1, and I was pretty excited to give it a whirl, so I installed it on my local PC and was more than amazed at what is in store for users with WordPress 2.7.

Here are my impressions on WordPress 2.7, remember this is just a beta version, so do not install it on your main blog yet.

Improvised Dashboard

The first thing I noticed after logging in was a improvised dashboard which was way much better than any earlier versions of WordPress.

The new dashboard has easy navigation links in the left hand side, which is a change from the regular top menu navigation the earlier versions had. The dashboard widgets have been rearranged and look pretty in WordPress 2.7.

(Click to enlarge)

The dashboard also includes Quick Press a easy way to write short posts from the dashboard without having to invoke the full write panel. This is definitely useful when you want to write quick announcement posts, and can be compared to the micro blogging service Tumblr.

The write panel can now be accessed through any page from the top menu, and you can easily add a new post or page without having to go to the manage menu first.

Show On Screen Options

WordPress 2.7 now has a easy configuration menu to allow users to only see items they want on any admin page. This can be easily controlled by clicking on the Screen Options link in the top of the page.

Once you click on the link, a menu will be shown where you can choose the items you want to display on the page, this can be controlled for every admin page, including the write page etc.

Enhanced Comments Management and Reply To Comments From Dashboard

WordPress 2.7 has a pretty good comments manager, and now you can edit the comments without having to leave the page, and also reply to them from the admin dashboard, this feature is similar to what I did with the Better Comments Manager plugin.

In addition to that you can also filter comments based on posts, there are also keyboard shortcuts using which you can approve, edit, delete the comments.

Automatic Upgrading of WordPress

WordPress 2.7 has a in-built function to automatically upgrade your version of WordPress, this feature is definitely a must have and I had tried to tackle this issue with the WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin.

With the in-built upgrader you will have to backup the files and database yourself.

Threaded Comments and Auto Close of Comments

WordPress 2.7 now allows the ability to have threaded comments where users can reply to any other comment, in addition to that you can also automatically close the comments after a certain period has elapsed, this option is available under Settings > Discussion.

You can also display comments in a paginated format, so that the page load time increases if there are a lot of comments on a post.

Install New Plugins From The Admin Panel

Installing plugins was always a pain with WordPress as you had to download the files to your local machine, unzip the files, open your FTP software and upload the files, before finally going to the admin panel to activate the plugins.

With WordPress 2.7 you can breathe some relief since can now search for the plugins in WordPress extend gallery and directly install them without having to download it to your local PC.

If you want to install a plugin that does not exist in WordPress extend you can upload the zipped archive from your local PC to be installed as a plugin.

Enhanced Write Panel

WordPress 2.7 has a enhanced write panel which loads much faster and is more cleaner than the earlier versions, you also have the option to create a sticky post which will always show on the home page by ticking the Stick to front page check box.

I use Windows Live Writer to post content to the blog, so cannot elaborate much about granular changes made in this section.

Summarizing

Overall WordPress 2.7 looks like a good upgrade and it should be available to users by end of this month after the initial beta bugs are reported and fixed.

What do you think of WordPress 2.7, let us know through your comments.