Wordpress 2.6 just came out not long ago. Now, many people may be wondering whether or not to upgrade as upgrading can be very troublesome. Personally, I did an upgrade just now and did not encounter any problem be it plugin or WP bugs.

Changes in WP 2.6

You can actually read the changes for 2.6 at this link & this link. But I will just highlight some of the features which seems useful to me and should be useful to you guys.

1. Google Gear Support

Google Gear support in Wordpress 2.6 will cache all static files from the admin interface in the local drives making the admin interface load quicker than ever. So, if your server is slow, this function will speed it your admin interface from mildly to significantly. (Info from here.)

2. Shift-Click Selection of Multiple Checkboxes in WP-Admin

This function makes it easier for us to select multiple checkbox much like the Window shift click function. Just click on any checkbox that you have as the start and then holding shift click on the the end of the checkbox that you want to select. The checkboxes in between will automatically be selected for you.

3. Integrated Theme Viewer

This function was available on wordpress.com since last year i think. Now, It is available for the rest of us. Usually, when we click on a theme, it will be activated immediatly. However, this time there will be a popup that will let you preview the theme before you activate it.

4. Plugin Management

This function add checkboxes to every plugin you have. So you can select which plugin you want to activate rather than ‘Activate all plugin’ or ‘De-activate all plugin’. You will have much more flexibility when using the new plugin mangement.

There are many more new/improved functions that Wordpress 2.6 holds. It up to you to decide whether you want to upgrade or not. But as wordpress 2.6 doesn’t change drastically as compared to 2.5, most of the plugins still works without having you to upgrade it. If you want to check the list of compatible plugins you can check it out here for 2.6 and here for 2.5. Like as I said, most of the plugin suitable for 2.5 will be able to work for 2.6.

So if you decided to upgrade, read on.

Upgrading from 2.5 to 2.6

For upgrading, this site has a wonderful 5 mins guide to follow. But if you want to DIY and follow the official guide, please click here.

For me, I took the easy way out by using the instant upgrade plugin. On a sidenote, my copy of wordpress was installed via fantastico provided by my host. *You will know why i mention this if you decide to use the instant upgrade plugin.

Heres the steps that I took for the upgrade.

1. First backup the database. For the backup, I use lesterchan DB plugin. You can get it here.

2. Download a copy of the blog directory to your HDD. Well, as my content folder is still quite small, download doesn’t take a long time.

3. Throw the instant upgrade plugin into the plugin folder. I’m sure all of you know where the plugin folder is already right?

4. Activate the plugin, follow the steps. For me, I choose FTP upgrade and created a seperate ftp account for the upgrade.

5. Let it upgrade while i sip on my tea.

6. For me, there was a problem with the last step as i did not test whether the FTP account have permission to overwrite the files or not. Hence, the plugin asked me to click on a link it provided and upgrade it manually. But the link doesn’t work so instead I click on my blog main link which brings me to the upgrade page.

7. Once the upgrade is complete, I’m presented with WP 2.6.

Heres a video on how to upgrade using the instant upgrade plugin. The video upgrade is from a very older version of wordpress to a older version of wordpress thou. But the steps are similar.

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