After months of development and beta testing, WordPress version 3.5 has been released. Here’s a quick look at what’s new:
New default theme – “TwentyTwelve”
While most users don’t stay on the default theme, that theme is getting a nice new look. It’ll support a variety of new post formats (such as “quote” and “status”) and will have a widgetized home page template. 
Enhanced media manager
The media upload and management screens have all been redone. Uploads are easier, image management has been refined, and you can finally pick and choose elements to include in any “galleries” that you create. Here is a quick video showing you how these new features work:
New oEmbeds
WordPress has included some handy “oEmbed” features in the last few versions for sites like YouTube (example) and Vimeo, and they’re expanding that functionality to include SoundCloud, SlideShare and Instagram.
“Retina”-ready admin area
For those of you using high-def displays, the admin area (and TwentyTwelve) both have full support for those.
No more Links Manager
If you use the links manager on your current site it’s not going anywhere, but new WordPress installations won’t have it. If you need it for some reason, you can always download it as a separate plug-in.
“Favorite” plug-ins
When setting up a new site you’ll be able to log into the plugin repository, find a list of your favorite plug-ins, and quickly install them. This will be a nice time-saver for people that install WordPress fairly often. 
New “Welcome” screen
The Welcome screen on WordPress had become a bit chaotic, so it’s been streamlined and made much easier to use in 3.5. 
It’s a great update, which includes all of the above features along with quite a few other performance improvements. If you’re a GreenMellen client, we’ll be backing up and updating your site in the next day or two. If you’re not, we certainly suggest you take a look at version 3.5 and upgrade as soon as you’re able to.
