Need a quick introduction to the new features in WordPress 2.9- watch the video:
For the first time, I didn’t need to use viper007bond Viper’s Video Quicktags plugin to post this, since embedding is covered for a number of video sites. However- it’s still not as easy peasy as they say- I had to switch to HTML view to paste the “embed” code- to get it to work. The little filmstrip button which is supposed to “embed” media- still asks for the user to figure out what type of file they are embedding.
Somehow, even with Automattic (the publishers of WordPress) having a UX person on staff- the user interface is still more complex than it needs to be. I’m still looking at the four “Upload/Insert” buttons- and wondering why they need four buttons for the same controls (I thought I’d written a post about this- but, couldn’t find it).
Other cool features are the ability to crop and rotate images, update and compatibility check all plugins, and a few other cool little fixes. We’ve installed it on our sites- without problem so far (5 days). We’ll report any changes on that as we find them.
If there has been one glaring problem with WordPress for new users- it’s been the posting of pictures- from, like, day 1. While the tools have gotten better, there are still way too many steps and choices involved in “insert picture here” – 2.9 hopefully is going to solve some of those problems:
Images now feel more at home in the publishing process, thanks to the integration of image editing.
For example, you’ll now find a built in image editor. To edit your images, head to your media library, choose the image you want to change, and click on the new “Edit Image” button. There’s a crop tool… which you can also set the aspect ratio for… in addition to image rotation, and horizontal and vertical image flipping.
Media embedding has also undergone a major makeover. Support for the oEmbed standard makes copying and pasting video URLs right into your post super-simple.
Now all you need to do is paste the URL onto a line of its own… Use the new embed shortcode if you don’t want to separate it onto it’s own line… Or “Add Video From URL” from the visual editor icon. And you’re good to go.
By default you’ll find that there’s support for YouTube, Daily Motion, Blip.tv, Flickr, Hulu, Viddler, Qik, Revision3, Scribd, Google Video, Photobucket, PollDaddy, & WordPress.tv, with more on the way.
No more plugins to insert videos, editing of pictures including cropping and manipulation of image position. Now, let’s hope there is only one “Media” button instead of four to click. Simplification is key if you really live the WordPress developers Automattic’s tagline “code is poetry.”