Writers are as different as the stories they produce, and their ideal writing environments vary no less. One thing most writers agree on, though, is that one of the toughest challenges is overcoming distraction. At WordPress we’ve always believed that when you’re using the application, the focus should be on what’s most important — your content. In the spirit of making things faster and simpler, today we are introducing a couple of changes to your dashboard that will make it easier for you to just write.
A Fresher, Faster Dashboard
The most noticeable change is that the dashboard looks a little different. Nothing drastic, just a little facelift intended to make managing your content easier. Moving the left menu up means more room if you tend to keep a couple of sections open at the same time. Fiddling with the font sizes in the header also created more vertical space, so you can make your writing window/post box bigger on the editing screens (you can drag the lower right corner if you use the Visual editor, and/or change the default height of the writing window in Settings → Writing). We’ve also replaced the icons in the Visual Editor toolbar with new ones designed by Ben Dunkle, the same person who designed the navigation icons for the dashboard, that we think are less distracting and fit better. You’ll also be saying goodbye to the “New Post” button that used to live in the header. We’ve added an “Add New” menu to the admin bar instead, for faster, easier content creation. Oh, I almost forgot — we’ve made a number of performance improvements to make everything in the Dashboard run just a little bit faster. Yay!
Goodbye, IE6
With this update, WordPress has discontinued support for Internet Explorer 6. It has required increasingly complex code trickery to make the WordPress dashboard work in the IE6 browser, which was introduced 10 years ago and does not support current web standards. Even Microsoft is counting down to IE6’s extinction! If you try to log in to your Dashboard using IE6, it will be pretty broken — but don’t worry, you’ll see a red alert box that provides a link you can use to upgrade. What do we mean by broken? This is how the new dashboard looks in modern browsers:
…and this is what it looks like in IE6:
So please, if you’re still using IE6, upgrade!
While we were at it, we started looking at other older browsers, and it makes us cringe a little when we see people using them, because the web could be so much better for them (not to mention more secure) if they would update to their favorite browser’s current version. Starting with this update, if you log in to your WordPress site using an outdated browser, an orange alert will appear on your Dashboard screen letting you know, and will provide links to the browser updates and to Browse Happy, where you can learn a little more about your options.
Approve and Reply
This is a small improvement, but it feels huge. If you’re like me, sometimes you might not want to approve a comment unless you have written a reply. It used to be that if you clicked to reply to a pending comment in your Dashboard, your reply would be published but not the original comment. I know, I know, it’s not like it is difficult to click on Approve. But! We’ve made it better anyway. 🙂 Now when you reply to a pending comment, the submit button will say “Approve and Reply,” and will perform both actions at the same time. After using this for less than a minute I was completely hooked.
Introducing Distraction-free Writing
The other big change — one that we love — is a major upgrade to the full-screen writing experience. The normal posting screen is great: you can set it up the way you want it, and you can add and edit every piece of metadata related to your post in addition to writing it. Sometimes you just want to focus on writing, though, without all the extras, right? If that’s how you feel, you may have used the full-screen writing mode in the Visual Editor before, accessible by clicking a blue screen-shaped icon in the top row of the toolbar. That full-screen mode took up the full browser screen, which was cool, but then your lines of text went all the way across, making it harder to read and edit your creations. The Visual Editor toolbar stayed up top, which was handy if you wanted to add a picture or a link, but was a little bit distracting because of the colors. And if you zoomed or resized your browser, that was not good.
Everything about this feature revamp is designed to relax you, and allow you to find your groove without distraction. There’s a lot to point out — because hey, we’re proud of it — and the new look is quiet and deceptively simple.
- It’s available for all users, whether you use the Visual Editor or HTML. Visual Editor users will notice a more laid-back icon to enter distraction-free mode, and HTML users will see a new [fullscreen] button. Click one and you’re on your way.
- Distraction-free writing mode still takes over the browser window, but the writing area is optimized for a comfortable line length and easy reading and editing. Editor styles set by themes are also supported.
- The formatting header is shown when you first arrive on the screen, to orient you, then fades away so you can focus on your writing. Move your mouse to indicate that you want access to these items and it will magically reappear.
- Only the most-used formatting and embedding icons are shown, reducing visual noise, along with a Save button in the upper right (you’ll need to go back to the regular editor to publish), and the word count in the lower left.
- Keyboard shortcuts are supported.
- You can switch beween Visual and HTML modes while in distraction-free writing mode.
- Have I mentioned how restful this screen feels when you’re writing? Well, I have now. 🙂
I never used to like full-screen mode for writing, but I love distraction-free mode. Try it, and I bet you will, too!
Tip: make your browser go full screen if you really want to be distraction-free. Press F11 on Windows, or Command+Shift+F on a Mac. To disable full screen, use the same keyboard shortcut, or move your mouse to the top of the screen to reveal the menu.
Get Featured on Freshly Pressed
We hope you’ll enjoy these updates as much as we do. As always, let us know what you think, but this time, let’s mix it up:
- If you encounter a bug, something looks weird/broken, or you need help with the new distraction-free writing feature, please let us know in the special distraction-free writing support forum instead of leaving a comment about the problem on this post. Note that we’ll be continuing to touch things up as needed based on your feedback for the next couple of weeks.
- There’s also a new distraction-free writing support page for reference.
- Leave your feedback on the design update in a comment on this post.
- To comment on the new distraction-free writing feature, go try it first! Write a post and see how it feels. Give it a “just write” tag. Then come back and tell us what you thought about the experience and give us your feedback in a comment on this post. Include a link to the first post you wrote in dfw mode so we can check you out.
I will personally read every first “just write”-tagged post that is linked in the comments within 48 hours. I will (completely subjectively) choose my five favorites posts and feature them on Freshly Pressed, and will also send the authors a WordPress swag pack (buttons, stickers, maybe a surprise or two) as a prize. Note: I am easily swayed by correct spelling and grammar, so be sure to make use of the built-in spelling and grammar checker!
Update 5/31/2011: I chose my winners! With hundreds of posts to read I couldn’t narrow it to 5, so I filled up Freshly Pressed today with my picks. Here are the winners in no particular order:
Vieques Dream House Diary — The International Language of Gardening
communicating.across.boundaries — Dull Women Have Immaculate Coffee Tables
Notes from Africa — Arts and crafts in Mozambique
Stupid Ugly Foreigner — English: Loving the Frankenstein Language
Kadampa Life — Kung Fu Panda and the Secret Ingredient
Teenage Enthusiasm — Willy Loman Inspired This
MBAdventure — Let’s Talk About…Machetes
Learn More Everyday — The Grandeur of Yosemite
Running Barefoot — Alaska to Vermont: Eloping with Edge!
WordPress.com News 
Extremely professional and smooth upgrade, I am loving how much faster everything is and how sharp everything looks. The distraction-free writing screen is inspired. It’ll take some getting used to in terms of knowing which icons do what now in that screen mode, but it sure does make everything go a bit faster when you’re just writing, nice work!
Dashboard browsing has surely got faster. This is particularly amazing for countries like India where internet speed is a problem.
Written with just write: http://anageonism.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/english-frankenstein/
It was certainly a different feel to the interface, just me and the blinking cursor. It felt a little bit more free and open. When I closed full-screen mode, I almost immediately went back to an editing frame of mind, and began hacking away rather than adding more.
Nice new features! I am however less pleased with the old browser warnings. I got one for using FireFox 3.6.17. While this is not the latest stable FireFox (that’s 4.0.1 I know) the 3.6.x branch is still supported by Mozilla and .17 is the latest of that branch. So it will get security fixes when necessary. Therefore the warning gives a false impression of insecurity.
I noticed the new dashboard just a few hours ago, while I was teaching to a total noob how to set up a site on wpdotcom. The noob in question did not even know how to copy/paste! Such people do exist and even they do want to have a personal site. But after several hours of hard work and a lot of explanations on my side she “got” it and now is blogging happily. Sure the newly corrected and simplified dashboard did help a lot in that occasion. Thanx for your efforts and keep up the good work.
This is totally user-friendly.
even for noobs like me
Hiya, Jane. I personally love the new ‘just write’ feature. I’m not an easily distracted person, but I did use to write all my lengthier posts in Word because I felt I could concentrate better. Also, I’ve never been particularly keen on the small post window and all the scrolling up and down it requires, so this change is more than welcome. I tried it and it felt almost surreal at first. No sidebars, no colours, no lines. It was like my words were floating on the page on their own accord. Better than Word or anything else by miles. Writing my post was more enjoyable than ever 🙂 So here it is, I hope you’ll enjoy it, too:
Never new blogging will be so exciting. I have so much to learn.
Wordpress you rock 🙂 thanks
This is a great experience! Here’s my feedback:
i) In full-screen mode, the icons and menu (such as “save”) are in English, contrary to my language setting which is French;
ii) Can I modify the height and the length of the box in full-screen mode? Sometimes it feels too narrow when I have to insert long formulas. (For example give options of wide, narrow, two columns book-wise environment)
Anyways this is a great update and one more reason why I love WordPress.
This really helps! It inspired a very early morning post. Does it still count as early if you’ve been up all night? Thanks WordPress!
i just shocked when first time in the morning open my blog……….
what an amazing performance and freshy look of my dashboard
thanks a lot WP ……………… you are the best …………….
this is really make blogging here more fun……………..
best regards
As with every “upgrade,” WordPress has once again downgraded. The full screen editing page is now WORTHLESS. You don’t have constant access to the editing tools, which means you’re playing the equivalent of a video game with a mouse to make the damn things appear and stay there long enough for you to do what you need to do before they disappear again.
Plus the links are no longer colored in the new editor, so that adds more time to screwing around trying to create a post and work on it. Fortunately I know better than to write the piece initially in WP (I use Word and transfer), but the new style is very bad for anybody who would actually create a piece in WP.
I’ve used WP extensively for over a year and this “upgrade” is probably going to cause me to take my site somewhere else. Maybe a child will like the new “look,” and typists might manage with it, but it’s hard for me to believe serious writers aren’t pissed off.
Sarah!
As ever, onward and upward.
I prefer incremental changes like this.
Well done
Really enjoyed using the interface, much crisper and cleaner than before, especially when used in total full screen. Only problem I have is the restricted column width, I inserted a hyper link which was wider than the width and got a nasty slide bar at the bottom of the screen. Other than that, I was brilliant.
i love wordpress, now i mloving much more 😀
i really like your post, and i m happy for IE6, bye bye bye, internet explorer was good, but still needs tweaking, now as for WP, i think its the best blogging platform and not only, even at wp.com you have abilities to expand like domain, no advertise etc, i have made all my blogs in wordpress, and at work all my sites are builded with WordPress 😀
really really nice upgrde that’s why WP is the best 😀
Hmm. I read your post and wasn’t quite convinced, but was tempted to try it because of the chance of being Freshly Pressed (finally! What’s a girl to do to get some attention round here?).
Here’s how it went:
F11
Started writing – no distractions like emails coming in (via Googlemail) – great!
Hang on: need to refer to another page
F11
Refer to other page
F11
Just write
Now to proof read: open preview in new page (I usually have a lot of windows open so it’s easier to have them at the top)
Proof read
Fix errors
Schedule publication
My conclusion: it is a useful tool if you’re easily distracted, but not perfect. I’ll try it again when I don’t need to refer to another page.
And even the wonderful WordPress techies can’t do anything about the Incredimail Butler wandering across my screen to announce I have mail.
No link this time because I’m not publishing my test post until later – now the schedule button is a feature I truly adore! – I read the rules; is it okay for me to comment once more on my different experience?
great upgrades, folks. keep up the good work!
I posted earlier that I didn’t “get it”. Got it! 🙂 Like it! 🙂 Lots! Just takes me a few extra hours to figure out “buttons”. Don’t judge me.
Really like the new, clean look of the dashboard and the distraction-free mode is genius. Here’s the thing what I wrote with it: http://swatt.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/my-brilliant-fantasy-career/.
Thank you WordPress for the new dashboard “just write” features! Too bad these new features won’t help me with all the other “distractions” I have in life and writing! Maybe WordPress can work on that sometime… (just kidding)
http://lifeandwrite.com/2011/05/20/beautiful-distractions/
Another superb addition to WordPress.com. Nothing can quite match the beauty of a blank screen, a canvas if you will, being filled up with words and images. So simple, but so lovely too… and relaxing!
Looked great when I tired it out for my latest post, a review of Mad Men: The Illustrated World by Dyna Moe:
I love the fresh, clean new look. I’m a sucker for distraction-free writing environments, and you guys have a done a great job at integrating it into the Dashboard. For the first time, I’m happy about using the built-in WordPress tools instead of Marsedit!
Here are the fruits of my labour… http://excusesandhalftruths.com/2011/05/20/its-the-end-of-the-world-again-almost-definitely-this-time-really-honest/
You may want to add a little more width to the sidebar. I’m Danish, and my Upgrades section in the sidebar is named Opdateringer, a name that doesn’t offer space for the cog igon and therefore is forced to do a line break. I’m furthermore a perfectionist, and I become mentally unstable when having to deal with that kind of design mistakes.
This is brilliant!
I preferred it when the old blog title bar was up on top. Please make it an option to bring back later on. 😉
You guys rock! I am thankful to have a place to write. But, to have such great tools to exist with the process is a true blessing. Thank you!
While I love the changes, there’s one little fellow I really do miss. –
That is – the drop-down menue on the upper bar that gave you access to New Post, New Page, Drafts etc.
Now, to access my drafts, I have to click on POSTS in the left nav-bar, then click All Posts, then choose the appropriate section – Drafts (0) – Pending (0) – Posts (0) etc from the list above the huge list of All Posts.
Then I can chose the article that’s awaiting me or my editors.
Sure, I can access New post or New Page, Media, Links, User from the new ‘Add New’ drop down menue, but not access Drafts and my favourite, which was never on the older drop-down, Pendings. And I never knew why is was never included as most editors would be placing items pending publishing in there before final work just prior to publishing – right?
We do a lot of articles, have several writers working on the site from around the globe, and 3 editors doing their little bit and getting stuff ready for me to do my bit, then publish.
The older drop-down was a breeze to access ‘Drafts’, where our writers would leave their work (sadly it never had Pending 😦 perhaps it could be included in the new drop-down along with access to WIP (works in progress) like Drafts and Pending.
I would then jump straight into Pendings once my editor checked it all out, add art, images, vids etc, then publish, all without having to dig into the left nav-bar, and drill down to get to the appropriate section, several clicks away.
While all that is still possible, it now incurs several MORE steps than it did before the change in order to do the same thing.
Could we at least have access to Drafts and especially Pending from the new drop-down ‘Add New’ – please? It would allow quick access for multiple writers into their works that is in progress, or awaiting having art or final work done before publishing . . . ?
They should have kept the undo and redo buttons in full screen. They’re really quite important, since some goofs can be serious: for example, botched cut-and-pastes in which instead of cutting you end up replacing highlighted material with the letter “c”, or automatically-extended highlighting that leads to bigger deletions than intended. It’s bad enough when that happens in emails.
Also, margins for quoted material are too large – creates an excessively thin column (or is that a Google Chrome issue?)
Loving the new design. Everything seems well thought out and great improvements all round.
I just tried it and like it, I tend to write mainly photo blogs of at least photo-heavy posts, but I’m chiefly inserting the HTML for my photos hosted elsewhere on the ‘net (Flickr), so I don’t need all the formatting stuff much at all. However, even in the standard New Post window, with the one line of formatting stuff (on HTLM setting) it’s great to be able to select a large writing box. I’ve set mine to 20 lines as the default.
Here’s my post for today: http://swanscot.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/early-summer-in-the-caledonian-pinewoods/
My thoughts on it: http://detested.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/distraction-free-writing/
Overall, the new dashboard and “distraction-free mode” is pretty amazing.
Jane, I love these new features! WordPress just gets better and better. My Just Write post fit in perfectly with my recent topics: http://lisarivero.com/2011/05/20/making-hay/
Just published my first post in DFW mode, coincidentally the post was in part about David Foster Wallace, DFW. I enjoy writing in the new full screen interface, this is a very nice addition. Very clean, easy on the eyes, and focused. I was going to suggest making the feature truly full screen so that it filled the screen entirely covering over my browser tabs, etc. But I did notice while writing that if I am focused on the text, the tabs are out of my field of vision just enough. I appreciated being able to easily bring up the formatting tools and having them fade away when unneeded.
Nice done all around.
Here is a link to the post, Teaching What It Feels Like To Be Alive: http://thefrailestthing.com/2011/05/20/teaching-what-it-feels-like-to-be-alive/
Cheers,
Mike
The new layout definitely feels fresher and faster. Love it!
Thanks so much for the upgrade!
Sooooo that’s what’s different. I thought I was only imagining things today ;D
Hi there!
I like the new layout! Looks like clean-desk-policy for your desktop. Love it! I have noticed one thing though *sorry*: the emoticons no longer get converted to pics. I did verify if it was me (as that’s not an unlikely possibility!), but the box that needs to be checked was still checked.
Still: overall, I think it’s great! And I used it to write my latest post: http://ilikeboyswhowearglasses.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/countdown-you-have-only-154-days-left/
Keep up the good work!
I don’t like the new full screen. It doesn’t have all the options like it used to and I also don’t like how the toolbar hides itself.
Very nice!
I have just used the new wider distraction free browsing window for for my new post and I have to say it kept me focused. My eyes weren’t all over the place. Thanks WP! Link to my latest entry: http://wp.me/p1lujJ-2a
Wrote a post this morning using the new format and thoroughly enjoyed it. I like to see a blank canvas there for me to work with. Here’s the post I wrote, celebrating me and my wife’s 5 year anniversary today. http://sportsjim81.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/day-3236-a-look-back-at-day-1/
Congratulations!
First of all, I love this update – as a participant in postaday2011, I’m happy to lap up whatever tips and tricks WordPress can implement to help me along the way. I’m so glad to add this to the list of helpers.
Second – what a challenge you’ve brought on yourself in reading all the posts within 48 hours of this – good luck! Here’s mine:
Thanks again!
Great! I’ve just log in and see a big different, thanks for making my dashboard looks very neat. Moreover, it match with firefox; browser i usually use for blogging. 🙂
Well, since my comment was still awaiting moderation, I thought I’d take the opportunity to correct a couple of errors, because I’m neurotic that way:
Just published my first post in DFW mode, coincidentally the post was in part about David Foster Wallace, DFW. I enjoyed writing in the new full screen interface, this is a very nice addition. Very clean, easy on the eyes, and focused. I was going to suggest making the feature truly full screen so that it filled the screen entirely covering over my browser tabs, etc. But I did notice while writing that if I am focused on the text, the tabs are out of my field of vision just enough. I appreciated being able to easily bring up the formatting tools and having them fade away when unneeded.
Nicely done all around.
Here is a link to the post, Teaching What It Feels Like To Be Alive: http://thefrailestthing.com/2011/05/20/teaching-what-it-feels-like-to-be-alive/
Cheers,
Mike
Very cool. I dig the new interface.
OMG!
I also need two more permanent icons on the “just write” page toolbar: custom characters and indent.
My concern is this: How am I going to make all the changes on what I’ve written in the teeny-weeny box on the Edit Post page when I’m so accustomed to doing all I have to do as I write on the Fullscreen page?
Ay, caramba! This discomforting disequilibrium is not good. I could adapting being worthwhile if The Change was good but not if it hampers my writing.
Did I read in your post that I can enlarge the writing box on the Edit Post page? I’ll have to go back and reread to find out, I guess. But that’d be my best bet to feeling comfortable about embracing The Change. Staying on that page to do all I need to do, I mean.
Thanks for your continued quality of development! I have some feedback as I just used the “just write” fullscreen mode.
1) My large pictures do not fully show up. Not a problem, it is entirely cosmetic, but the right side of my 1024×768 pictures are “cut off” in fullscreen viewing, giving me the impression that the display is not a true representation of how the page will show up. Still looks fantastic though
2) It appears the text-align buttons have gone missing? Or have I just not been able to find them?
Love the ‘save’ button!! And the html view! Thanks! Here’s my tagged entry, and what a perfect day to do it. We had our first break in the storms in eight days. http://aultparksunrise.com/2011/05/20/sunrise-35-ault-alms-park-foggy-streets-clear-skies-neenah-foundry-and-more-murdock-fountains/
Now I don’t have to write in Word and paste my post! I liked it and found it super easy once i got used to it. Thanks for the forward progress.
It was also much easier to see how I wanted to insert my photos, and to imagine how they would look once i previewed it. Now, please join me for a colonoscopy…
http://walkingpapers.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/the-cold-turkey-colonoscopy/
Best,
Suzanne
Hmm. As I previously posted, something is up with the images. All mine are cut off on the right side, just like the preview, even though they have ?w=1024 appended to them. I’m not sure if it is the formatting or not, the html looks fine.
Also somehow my alt=”” tags were removed from the html of the images (I parse the html myself with a script I wrote) so the alt-tags now don’t show the original message of “click for higher quality”. Not sure whats going on but I can’t fix it. Suggestions?
Post in question: http://aultparksunrise.com/2011/05/20/sunrise-35-ault-alms-park-foggy-streets-clear-skies-neenah-foundry-and-more-murdock-fountains/
Ahhh I figured out. Ignore the “alt=” issue that may have been my fault (added them to the img tag, not the a tag).
It appears that my images that I manually specify are “centered” get cut off now. If I “align left” they show up just fine. Interesting.
1 word – YES YES YES YES YES YES !!!!! 😀 THANKS
This was a very cool experience. I have been blogging with WordPress seriously since November and love it anyway, but the new just write setup is wonderful. I had somehow missed the icon, or gone to the old full-screen and dismissed it immediately, because my brain was unaware of its existence. I gave it a try and after the initial disorientation of having no boundaries, I loved it. I felt like I was writing rather than blogging, if that makes sense. And having the mouse over bar at the top is brilliant.
My first writing with this is at: http://margoroby.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/friday-freeforall-poetry-prompts-to-tempt-you/
I just tried this and was more impressed than I expected! The space is very simple and neat, no jazzy distractions, buttons, links etc – just me and a nice blank page. I liked the way that the format bar reappeared when I needed it without having to scroll up, and the fact that the display is almost WYSIWYG. Using the normal posting screen now feels like typing through a letterbox!
Here’s the post I produced: http://landscapelover.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/nature-under-totalitarian-rule/
Sorry for filling up the comments. The true problem is that the \class=”alignleft” \ gets removed from img tags sometimes (this hasn’t happened before). When I clicked “left align” it just turned out that it was inserting it into the img tag for me. Not sure where these are getting removed, but i think it has to do with switching between full screen and not full screen? Hope this helps! I’ve got it all figured out on my end now, though.
I love blogging at WordPress because you guys just keep on improving our systems and processes. Thank you so much! 🙂
I share V.H. Belvadi’s sentiments exactly, so I won’t get redundant and repeat the same thing in different words.
So in a nutshell, thumbs up! … and I’m off to give the ‘distraction-free’ feature a try.
very goood
http://software2012.wordpress.com/
I noticed a subtle change in the dashboard appearance yesterday (before reading this post) and thought I was having an off day. Nice changes and will give the new options a try!
i love the idea,thanks people!
Thanks for the update! I just finished posting a new entry, produced using the new dashboard. I had a little trouble placing the photos just where I wanted them, but I think that was me. Here is my post: http://learnmoreeveryday.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/the-grandeur-of-yosemite/
This is absolutely awesome. The change to the left navigation is subtle but does save a lot of scrolling. The muted interface for the text editor is very elegant and it overall feels more efficient and breathing.
I like the full screen writing mode and haven’t encountered any bug. The formatting header refused to show up a few times but then it came back and worked fine.
I wrote a drabble (story of exactly 100 words) in full screen and will definitely adopt it for my longer stories as well.
I love the new look! I’ll write most of my posts using the full screen view from now on. 🙂
Hi, I’m a new arrival at WP and I’m loving it and planning on staying! Posting my stories was a breeze, it only took a few minutes to upload two monstrous stories, 26 and 28 chapters plus there isn’t any tedious h-ref’ing to link all the chapters together *weeps with joy* so unlike dear, dear LIveJournal which makes everything frustratingly long winded and impossible. Thanks WP.
i am a new blogger on wordpress (just 2posts old!) but the one thing i like abt wp is that it makes writing a blog so simple-i never imagined blogging was this easy being so used to a notebk and a pen! and its addictive!!- now writing means logging into my wp account.
Loved the DFW feature! Here’s my first DFW post (which I consider a personal success.. 😀 ) http://pencilgirlblogs.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/random-ramblings-i-think/
I also love the new Dashboard.. It’s very refreshing and tidy. 😀 As for the other improvements, I guess I will eventually figure out how to use them. I’m still learning.. 🙂 🙂
I have had a quick run round my new dashboard. The new unclutterd look is great. I also understand what you mean by gentle on the eyes. I think the up grade to a simpler look was worth the trouble. Gets my vote and a pat on the back.WELL DONE!
For many of us over forty or over fifty folks, making the font much smaller isn’t a help. Some with making the icons so soft they look slightly blurry around the edges. This change has certainly “reduced visual noise”…but it’s a strain now trying to easily see the tiny and pale font and the pale icons. I get what WP was after with this change but, for some of us, it’s not an improvement at all. Sorry…and yes I have the latest browsers…and reading glasses!
I noticed there are no Science Fiction type setups. That would be really cool with some planets and galaxies maybe. Just a thought.
Cool feature. Love it. Here’s my post about it:
http://nishitak.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/awesome-just-write-feature-from-wordpress-com/
Here is my “Just Write” post: http://gogreygirl.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/ipad-2-a-six-day-journey/
Everything about the new writing application worked just fine. Good work, WordPress!
I dont like the change. If it aint broke then dont fix it! I am kinda tired of all this more speed and less thinking. Spiffiness and no logical thinking. Thats whats making this world upside down. I can’t stand the way the web is controled by the nazi types. Even though I don’t use MSIE, though when I have to IE 6 is the best browser for that browser. I don’t like the Mozilla ripoffs in the newer versions. Horrible. And whats not wrong of having things that are 10 years old? Oh right, because most of these bloggers (and developers) are that retarded 20somethings that like everything futuristic and hate history or anything “old” for that manner.
Sorry for my rants, I just hate how the web has to evolve all the time.
The new Dashboard looks fresh, more stylish, and easier to blog. Keep it up, WordPress! You are doing great! 🙂
I’m loving the newness of WordPress! Only thing is, I can’t access Freshly Pressed. Actually, I haven’t been able to for the last couple of days. Does this have anything to do with the update?
Love full screen mode on the iPad!
Hi there!
I like the new layout! Looks like clean-desk-policy for your desktop. Love it! I have noticed one thing though *sorry*: the emoticons no longer get converted to pics. I did verify if it was me (as that’s not an unlikely possibility!), but the box that needs to be checked was still checked.
Still: overall, I think it’s great! And I used it to write my latest post: http://ilikeboyswhowearglasses.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/countdown-you-have-only-154-days-left/
Keep up the good work!
Very good, I’m impressed! Only remaining “Hot ToDo” is to get a decent working WordPress-app for iPod & Palm Pre out! The current one on my iPod is quite buggy (yes, I’ve got the latest) and for Palm there’s none afaik. Bummer…
But – I’m still happy…. 98%
O’ Word Press,
Just Write… I totally just did.
The new full screen mode is amazing. Especially because I am one of those people that overuses italics. I am working on that. But this Just Write feature might destroy all my reform efforts because the drop down formatting bar is way too handy. Thanks WordPress!
Sincerely,
Haley
http://bobcatcountry.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/study-space/
You know, it’s really great. It feels good. I’m very happy with all the changes and enjoy them very much. Thanks for your hard work!
my browser ~> IE8
i can’t open ”top blogs”,”tops posts” and ”latest” 😦
The DFW reminds me of a feature in Scrivener, where they just have a whiteboard screen for free typing. That experience really helped me during NaNoWriMo, when I just wanted to free write and get the words out.
I enjoyed using this feature today, and probably wrote a longer blog post than I previously would have, but I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing 🙂
Here’s the link: http://lizakane.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/leveraging-my-strengths/
Hi Jane,
I love the new dashboard, and I love the way WordPress continues to improve our blogging experience.
Your message about the post got me thinking. As I am a Caricaturist (or a twisted-out-of-shape artist) who has got a Caricature Blog, I decided to do a caricature of Matt Mullenweg. (I know that you know him – but did you know that he loves his cowboy suit so much that he still wears it occasionally?)
So, I took your advice, tried out the new dashboard, and made a post with Matt Mullenweg’s Caricature 🙂 You can view it at: http://shafali.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/caricature-matt-mullenweg-the-founding-developer-of-wordpress/
About my experience with the New Dashboard Avatar:
It looks better 🙂 Less clutter, better organization!
I am not really missing IE6 support as I use FireFox. However, the FireFox too throws open an orange box on the Dashboard telling me to upgrade. As everything looks fine in my version of FireFox, I think I’ll just live with my version of FireFox for a while.
I should say that I am really enjoying the full-screen mode. It makes my work a lot easier (I have to do a fair bit of formatting.) I loved the magic header, which appears only when I want it too. Are you going to call it the magic header?
Thanks again for a lovely blogging experience.
Warm Regards,
Shafali
OMG. That is the best. thing. ever!
Glad you like the improvements. One thing to remember with non-current browsers is that in addition to potential security issues, you may be missing out on new features or little touches that get added as browser technology keeps improving, and you wouldn’t even know because we try to achieve graceful degradation when it comes to features not working in older browsers.
I very much appreciate this new UI change. I especially love the new distraction-free writing feature. I focused more on writing and not browsing other things on the web.
I have a small quip, however: when adding a photograph, I have to pop out of full screen mode to upload a photograph. I can easily link to media already on the web, but there’s no such feature to upload directly from the hard drive. I suppose that may defeat the point of distraction free writing but it would be nice to be able to upload without having to switch views.
Also, here is my first post written in DFW mode. I hope you enjoy.
Hm, that doesn’t sound right. In both Visual and HTML distraction-free mode, you should see an icon in the header (the one that shows up when you move your mouse) that looks like a camera and a musical note (the same icon as Media in the left-hand navigation). Click that, and your normal media uploader should appear. If that’s not the case, please report it in the forums or contact support. Thanks!
Esta muy bueno! realmente me encantan las cosas minimalistas, y por supuesto es el futuro, la velocidad y sencillez ante todo, lo mejor es que mantiene todas las funciones de wordpress 🙂 un aplauso!
Gracias! Me alegro de que te gusta el nuevo diseño y características.
good idea, good job. thank you so much!
Very nice! I have been copying and pasting from Word, but this new Distraction-Free Mode is so smooth and handy–and definitely easy on the eyes. I especially like how the button-bar fades away and easily comes back with a mouse-over–no more scrolling to find it! Good job, WordPress! Thank you…and here’s my post: Hasten Home This Week. 🙂
This is just the thing I need! Here’s my blog post:
well done. Thanks for your writing style. All you do is a help.
i loved the distraction-free writing. I do a flash fiction post once a week and it was perfect. It gave me a nice, clear page to work from, and the wordcount at the bottom was very helpful, since I was actually aiming for a certain range. Thanks for the great upgrade.
Here’s the post I used it for:
I must admit at first I was a bit confused where was that cool ‘fullscreen’ tab lol ▬ then I found it and wrote one of my longest pieces with the DFW and now am posting it here ▬ http://obsidianfactory.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/lenses/
It was a great experience, needed some tinkering around a bit ▬ I noticed it is sensitive to the movement of the mouse (at least the visual editor is) ▬ umm one thing: can you make the DFW have the whole visual editor’s ‘kitchen sink’? I just thought that’d be more helpful.
Other than that I’m really proud of WP you guys are becoming great innovators in the blogosphere ^_^
Love the new Dashboard look, but not crazy about “Fullscreen” now becoming “Distraction Free” mode with a tiny box. Went to the forum and posted a comment on this.
Oh, I guess I should have linked to the post I did in “Distraction Free” mode. http://lindakruschke.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/easy-barbeque-chicken-strips/ . It was frustrating, however, to have to go back to the Dashboard to insert the 1/2 symbol for 1/2 cup of barbeque sauce.
Hi Jane! Thank ypu for the excellent article! WordPress has proven its awesome usability and friendship. As a blogger, I value all the upgrades it’s got, whether they are functional or just fashionable. Inspiration counts. At the moment I trying to find the best solution my psd’s to get published to WordPress. Any suggestions how to convert psd to WordPress?
I love the new dashboard. Thanks for updating
Thank you very much. So wonderful!
I have to say I really enjoyed writing in distraction-free mode. I don’t think I realized how distracted I actually was before. It’s nice to have a completely blank slate and watch it fill up with your words. I’ve also never used a tag in my posts, but today I did! I know you said you’d read every first post written distraction-free so I have to apologize for the length of mine. Apparently today I was just in a ‘chatty’ mood. I’ve had a lot of people tell me that my posts read like how I talk. Which makes sense. I’ve written enough academic papers to hate that kind of writing. It has its merits, but not on my blog.
Here’s the link to my post: http://hollyjb.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/no-distractions-except-for-kids-and-cameras-and-teddy-bears/
Have fun ^_^
Holly
Thank you so much!
I tried out the distraction-free feature. To be honest, I didn’t think it would be that great at first, but it was quite peaceful! You don’t know how busy your screen actually is until it’s… no longer there!
Here’s the post I wrote without distractions:
http://psychopoeia.com/2011/05/20/the-resume-of-the-future/
You know what I love? The font change. I love font changes. It makes me feel like it’s all new and fresh again. God I love WordPress. I’m so glad I started blogging here from the start. I can’t imagine ever leaving!
The new distraction free writing window worked well. I had a little issue with the hidden bar at the top not wanting to become visible right away. Like the hover-over was sort of clunky, but I bet this was just a function of my laptop or OS than the site. I like it because the size of the window is more natural than the constricted window we were using before. I think I’ll probably use it for longer posts. Here’s my shot at the prize, so to speak:
Good luck to me, and everyone else. I’m new to blogging, but it is pretty fun. As you’ll see from the post if you read it, it’s the frustration of feeling like the only person reading me is me – but you really do just have to do it for you – in the end.