WordPress 3.6 Released

Last night, the latest version of WordPress (3.6) was released to the public.  Besides a lot of bug and security fixes, the update comes with a few much anticipated updates.  Let’s take a look before you backup and upgrade to WordPress 3.6.

New Default Theme, “Twenty Thirteen”

The new default theme puts focus on your content with a colorful, single-column design made for media-rich blogging.

Inspired by modern art, Twenty Thirteen features quirky details, beautiful typography, and bold, high-contrast colors — all with a flexible layout that looks great on any device, big or small.

Overhauled Revision Control

From the first word you write, WordPress saves every change. Each revision is always at your fingertips. Text is highlighted as you scroll through revisions at lightning speed, so you can see what changes have been made along the way.

It’s easy to compare two revisions from any point in time, and to restore a revision and go back to writing. Now you can be confident that no mistake is permanent.

Improved Autosaves

The autosave feature used to be a neucance and cause more trouble than it was worth.  Totally re-visited, autosaving works seamlessly; whether your power goes out, your browser crashes, or you lose your internet connection, your content is safe.

Better Post Locking

This got a lot better in version 3.5, but there were still some bugs.  Now you’ll always know who’s editing with live updates that appear in the list of posts. And if someone leaves for lunch with a post open, you can take over where they left off.  Pretty cool.

Backup THEN Update

I can’t stress this enough.  You need to backup your installation before you update.  A WordPress core update is a one way road.  You can’t revert backward if your theme or plugin(s) are not compatible with the new version.  Here’s how to backup your install.