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 
Thanks for the great work! This is really helpful 😀
So it wasn’t too bad at all!
My link http://bridgesburning.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/my-son-my-speech/
I really enjoyed your information, and Thank you for making blogging easier for us all!!
Greatest and of course positive change I experienced during blogging with WP. This design is great, more space for writing and reading. And for people, that don´t like any change: “Everything is changing every second and nothing is still”. Everyone needs change and this is another great change from WP team! Thanks
This is absolutely the BEST upgrade – ever! I am so glad I subscribe to all the blog posts. 🙂
I have shared with all my readers and I hope any other WordPress users try it, and non-users switch (heh!).
http://youthinkyoucanblog.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/just-write-just-post-just-try-it/
You guys are the best!
Sadly, I don’t like the distract free mode. Rather, it made typing full-width pages with images all the way across incredibly difficult now. I really want the full-screen mode back. I don’t know how I am ever going to type full width pages again.
The fullscreen and distract free should be 2 different modes.
Unfortunately, many people had problems with the old full-screen mode, so I don’t anticipate its return. Most people dn’t enjoy typing at fullwidth becauso the line length makes it harder to read. You can, however, wake the writing area wider in distraction-free mode. On a Mac Ctrl + +/- (increase/decrease width), and on Windows Alt + +/-.
I’ve actually posted a couple times today. I LOVE the new interface. For this lover of words, it was a wonderful writing experience and so fun!
Thanks, WordPress, for making writing more about the words and less about the distractions!
My other post, I used several thumbnail pics of the kids and a new post icon – and it was so smooth integrating it all! Here is this newest post of mine:
Keep up the great work!
Katrina
nice feature! Thank you so much.
Lovely post! I really like the changes the WP team made. Keep it up! Anyway, here is my post – http://totallyhorsecrazyandhorsestories.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/are-you-excited-i-am/ I used the just write feature to write it, and I love it! Btw, this post is about a giveaway, and I would love a lot of entrants that only FP can bring. Thanks again!!!!
I loved it!
This is my first post through dfw: http://anasshafqat.wordpress.com/2011/05/21/tales-of-diplo-weve-come-in-the-garden-to-pick-your-rose/
That was FANTASTIC! Thank you so much, I tagged the entry, so I look forward to seeing you 🙂
It is a step forward so we can give a try.
I hope you’ve had a Starbucks venti latte because it looks like you have a lot of reading. I love the new upgrade. It is distraction free, which is a good thing as I have the attention span of a 3-year-old lately. Oh, and thanks for the reminder to upgrade…I’m a newbie at this blogging thing so I need all the tips I can get. 🙂
http://youngamericanwisdom.com/2011/05/20/the-hot-dog/
I don’t drink coffee, but yes, I will have a lot of reading to do this weekend!
Thanks, the distraction free writing works well, although I did struggle a bit adding my sketches to the paragraphs: http://blog.wildyorkshire.co.uk/2011/05/everyday-sketchbook/
Look I love wordpress so don’t get me wrong, but distraction free? Who are these people being distracted by “colours” at the top of their dash? The same people being distracted by butterflies and smells and “oh, what’s that – air coming into my mouth?”
Hmm. Okay again don’t get me wrong… I like the new look, but really I don’t understand why you’ve removed most of the editing buttons from FULL SCREEN. It just makes it harder. If I want to justify or spell check I have to remember the codes. Grr and this DISTRACTS me from my writing. If anything it’s harder.
you guys are just awesome! I love the addition of Edit to the admin. bar, it saves steps. Any chance of a more showy:-) Blog Stats widget?
What did you have in mind?
I posted feedback on using the DFW feature on this blog
Nice! I used to use WriteRoom to keep distractions to a minimum, so I quite like this. I only had two issues with it. One, the page just grayed out and froze up when I tried to use the feature to add a link from existing content–this could be because I’m away from home and have to use my dinky old macbook, though. I was using Safari 5. Two, I found it kind of bothersome that, because the page scrolled down past the title, I had to swipe my cursor to the left or right before the menu would pop back up. On a touchpad, this gets really old really fast. Sometimes the cursor would move too slowly and it would take multiple tries. Tweaking it so that no matter how far into the post you’ve scrolled, you can access the menu from the top-center of the screen would make it much better. Still, overall I think it’s a very nice change. I can’t wait to use this when I’m at home on my regular computer!
The dashboard changes I’m not as fond of. The spacing of the text particularly on my list of drafts seems too big (I’ll fiddle with it later), and again because I’m using a touchpad, it’s harder to use the drop-down menu at the top (which has always annoyed me, and made me go to the wrong page by accident fairly often), so I doubt I’ll ever be using that Add New button. I might when I get home because then it’s less of an issue, but I’m used to clicking on it from the menu to the left anyway.
Here’s the post I wrote in dfw mode: http://grasexuality.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/questions-from-google/
LOVE the new features. Thanks for always thinking of new ways to make blogging easier. Here’s my first distraction-free post: http://runninginthedark.wordpress.com/2011/05/19/the-enchanted-forest/ I’ll never go back to the old way!
The updates look very nice and make the dashboard much nicer. They are definitely major improvements.
Here is my attempt to get on the Freshly Pressed page.
http://blogbyts.com/2011/05/20/ie6-needs-to-die/
I didn’t write the blog post about the new features, but I loved and used them! 🙂 Definately an upgrade! http://barbiedollxo.wordpress.com
I hadn’t used full screen mode until now so I can’t compare the update to the old version, but I really enjoyed writing in this full screen, distraction free mode. It was much easier to concentrate on my topic and to “just write”. It also made the writing experience much more pleasant. I think it’s great and I will absolutely be using it for all my future posts.
Here is the post I wrote using dfw mode: http://themusiccube.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/expand-your-music-collection-and-your-musical-taste-for-free/
Melikes!
I’ll be honest, brutally honest. This is me first blog. Ever. As in. Ever since ’79.
It seems easy, and the quality and quantity of options avaliable is simply making it… v.ery ”homemade typo experience”.
Let’s keep it this way 😀
Oh, hello by the way!
Kris
I really liked the feature. I write from home and I’m so easily distracted as it is. I found with my husband watching tv and all that stuff around my post that it was getting hard to focus. Then I went full-screen and I finished up really fast! I didn’t think I really had problems writing in normal mode, but I do tend to wander off to look at other stuff (like facebook). This really helped me focus and get the job done.
Thanks for the new feature! Here’s my new post: http://eightoseven.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/write-a-blog/
Hm, sorry, I don’t really like it. Well I guess mostly I do but I prefer to have all of the editing functions, like choosing different colours, et cetera, in the toolbar while I’m in full screen mode – I hate having to go back to little screen mode and make those changes and then flick back to full screen to see what it looks like. Really do wish we could have all of those back if we wanted to.
Great idea! If we could customize the background color on the “just write” feature, it’d be even cooler. Happy colors make happy writers. ^^
At any rate, here’s my stab at something vaguely interesting: http://sparrowsong.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/epic-bubble-of-doom
I do like the layout changes. But I think I prefer to stick with my usual word processing tool since I tend to preview a lot because I rely on images to provide visual cues often and also want to add lots of links.
You can add images and links in dfw mode… just click the icons that appear in the header when you move your mouse. I hear you about the preview… I’ll think about how we might incorporate that in a future update. Thanks for the feedback!
I love the update. It helps a lot being able to write without the clutter of the original page.
I wrote my latest post using the new interface and it went quite smoothly. Thanks!
what happened to easy access to Drafts from the writing page?
can you add a link on the sidebar from Posts > Drafts > Scheduled
also would really like to see the Search option on every page even dashboard/stats pages
thanks & keep up the quality features
Search is currently limited to one content type at a time, which is why it’s not on the main Dashboard screen(not an actual content section. At some point we’d like to a unified search, but it might take a couple of updates before we get to it, since are some things that are higher priority we want to address first.
This is the best day ever! This makes things so much easier. Thanks everyone.
The new sidebar is much better, but I’m not too into the Arial font. It makes things feel…cold. The new post editor buttons feel much more professional, though the spell-check button is still in color and sticks out like a sore thumb!
I made a post with the new editor: http://krysjez.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/c-noob-note-to-self-no-1/
I definitely love it and will be making much use of it. It would be even better if the “tool bar” didn’t appear at every slight jiggle of the mouse anywhere on the page.
Here’s my super-long feature that I wrote using distraction free http://nishitak.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/movies-i-watched-over-the-weekend/
I love this feature, let’s see if my blog readers agree 😀
Love the new DFW! Just cranked out a post without going to facebook or my email one time! New WORLD record 😀
Check it out: http://bihidden.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/dating-a-girl-makes-me-as-straight-as-dating-a-guy-makes-me-gay/#more-72
Nice. It’s a broader canvas. The dotted lines kept disappearing and reappearing at first, until they finally left, leaving me a blank page. Thanks.
love the new features, really does help, thanks
I just wrote a post using the new distraction free writing, and I like it. It reminds me of some of the distraction-free text editors I use, like WriteRoom. It’s great to have this feature on the dashboard, and I’m sure I’ll be writing more posts from within my browser now instead of copy-and-pasting from a separate text editor.
Here’s the post I wrote with it: http://shawnmihalik.com/2011/05/20/lack-of-intilectual-integrity-and-the-reported-dangers-of-a-high-fat-diet/
WOW! I loved using the Just Write feature. I did not realize how distracted I had been when writing until I was writing without all those distractions around me. I am so glad that we have this option now.
Thanks!
http://surviving-unemployment.com/2011/05/19/shopping-sprees-and-heavenly-answers/
Thanks so much for adding this distraction-free option! I’m reviving my WordPress blog and think we could all use some distraction free writing time! Very easy to use and definitely makes you focus more on the writing!
Here’s my first post with dfm:
The Worst Dinner
http://thecatwei.wordpress.com/2011/05/21/the-worst-dinner/
I’ve never used fullscreen before, but this is BEAUTIFUL! Thank you!
Great job! Thanks so much!!
Nope, sorry, I don’t like it. I like the old full screen mode 100% better.
Loved it, really was distraction free!
Jane – do I get a prize for pointing out the very tiny (and forgivable) spelling mistake? Sorry to do this but you do say you are swayed by correct spelling 🙂
“I know, I know, it’s not like it is difficult to click an Approve. “
I noticed this after I was on the road to WordCamp Raleigh, and wasn’t able to fix it until this morning. So, no prize, but a hat tip for catching it before I was able to edit it. Good eye!
I’ve tried it twice. I can see why many bloggers will love it, but it’s not for me.
I like to add links, check spellings and meanings of words, look up facts. While a photo uploads, rather than look at a screen I can’t use, I go and read another blog. I don’t have time to waste.
And for me, writing is such fun that I am hardly ever distracted.
So thanks WordPress: I love that you constantly upgrade to give us a great experience, but you can’t please all of the people, all of the time.
I’m sure you won’t hold my lack of enthusiasm against me, so here’s my link: http://thelaughinghousewife.wordpress.com/2011/05/21/weekly-photo-challenge-tiny/
You’re right, we won’t hold it against you (I never hold anything against anyone except maybe a fluffy kitten now and then), and thanks for giving it a try! The missing spellcheck button was an accident, though, and is already being rectified, so it should turn up next week. And you can add links — the link button is the same as in the regular editor. In a future update we’ll be changing the way the media uploader works to be inline rather than a popup, but that’s a while off. Anyway, you earned some fluffy kittens!
It is a pretty cool feature… Initially I thought it would be a hassle because the tool bar vanished but then an abbreviated one reappears when you pause. It had a high tech feel to it and I was glad the exit link/button was easy to find. Lots of nice little touches on the new dashboard and this is definitely one of them. I almost forgot to do this. Always flying with WP! TY! 🙂
My post: http://eof737.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/life-full-of-surprises/
Tried and loved it. Thanks for evolving “)
The changes to the dashboard etc are very good but I have two suggestions:
In the Add New Post, the Move to Trash option, although in red, is very close to the Publish button. Can it be pushed far away where it cannot be pressed accidentally while I am moving the cursor?
In the Copy a Post option, which has been recently added and is very useful, could you make it possible to copy a post from another blog (of mine)? This would greatly enhance the utility of the Copy option. For example I have a blog in English and a parallel blog in Marathi with similar content. It would be so easy if I could copy a post from my English blog to my Marathi blog and make minimal changes to convert it to a Marathi post.
Please consider the above suggestions.
great ! thanks … merci 🙂
Oh great! 😀
http://shockandawesome10.wordpress.com/2011/05/21/gravity-your-guardian-angel/
Here’s a link to my first post in DFW mode – I’m very happy about it. Recently I’ve been blogging a lot less because of distractions but now it’s a whole lot easier and smoother – I hope I win – thanks 🙂
The “just write” distraction-free writing feature is so very much appreciated!! It is especially convenient to use with a small screen.
The changes to the dashboard are also great improvements.
I hope you enjoy my first post written in dfw mode: http://chezcestchic.wordpress.com/2011/05/21/life-advice-learned-from-social-media-on-the-web/
Interesting updates but I don’t have them on my dashboard,why is that? By the way am using Google chrome,do I need to update it?
You should already have them. Try clearing your browser cache?
I like it, it is so clear. Thanks!
Thank you for these upgrades! This is going to make blogging my experiences a lot easier. ^.^
I like the distraction free writing. In the beginning, the formatting header was appearing and disappearing while I didn’t touch my pc. Luckily, it stopped while I was writing. I also like the new ‘Add New’ button on the admin bar.
The new design is a little bit… colourless. I like the simplified menu on the left, but I miss some colour in the new design. However, I think I’ll get used to it.
And here’s my “just write” post. 🙂
http://wp.me/p1tcqU-6Z
I wrote a pretty detailed review here:
http://icanhasopinions.wordpress.com/2011/05/21/just-write-wordpress-feature-review/
WP is rock’s…. This updates is awesome and really cool
Thanks.
I love the blank page! Thanks!
http://wifeincaptivity.com/2011/05/21/summer-project/ #justwrite
Thank you! These updates are “just write”!!
Write on! Love the new updates.
Oh, and: http://doodlesonanotebook.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/friday-night-fun/
Thanks for your mail and I hope the changes that have been incorporated gives the bloggers an enjoyable writing experience.Lets write best,creative and life!
I have to say that I have gotten used to my tool bar at the top of the screen, all the tabs and whatnot that I have open. But it was nice to write w/o all that stuff getting in the way once I got used to it.
I like the “command/shift/F” shortcut.
I really liked how when you run your mouse over the top of the screen just a little bit pops up so I can access what I have open in FF.
I REALLY like how it looks in “preview”. So big and beautiful w/o all the distractions.
Thanks for all your hard work.
Here’s my first post using the new format:
http://hugskissesandsnot.wordpress.com/2011/05/21/devotion-through-literature/
I do miss the toolbar, but I like the lack of other distractions quite a bit.
http://wp.me/p1lmv2-is This is a post I wrote in the new white space feature. It is scheduled for release on Monday, as I’m doing a series on Becoming Your Own Counselor and don’t post on weekends.
Thanks for continuing to innovate!
I love upgrades, theyre always useful (at least I think)
I really LOVE the new upgrades!
Nice look BUT to cut out the logout button and put it into a dropdownmenu that I have to click first to logout doesn’t work at all.
Serious. No. That’s two steps forward with the new look and one back because of that.
It wouldn’t hurt anyone putting a logout button next to “Hello, %username%”, would it?
When you’re so into comforting your users, you should reconsider that (stupid) decision and fix it..
I suggest the function to have a preview button on the full screen.
I used the full screen today and absolutely love the new style, but the need for me to preview has break my ‘Just Write’ flow. Cause I have to exit my full screen then press the preview button and go back to full screen again just to write again(i really like writing in full screen even before the change). Frankly its quite a hassle and disrupting.
So that’s my suggestion. Thanks!
A few people have suggested it, and we’re working on it. Thanks!
thanks 😉
Just moved to wordpress i really have to say it is fantastic. Our work with the Svenska Kungabloggen have been massive and it is so fun that it finally pays of.
Thank you wp 🙂
I love how wordpress is always evolving and changing!
Fun. 🙂
Here’ mine: http://rapturedheart.wordpress.com/2011/05/21/in-the-twinkling-of-an-eye/
I really like these new features. I saw how the dashboard looked before reading this, but I instantly got along with it without a problem. Thank you!
Here’s my first post after the changes: http://howalt.wordpress.com/2011/05/21/ten-questions-about-writing/ (It may be too late; not sure of the timezones, but anyway – there it is. :))
I tried the distraction free writing tool and needless to say – it worked wonders. I was able to complete my article with more focus on content. Thanks for Just Write features and updates.
Following is the link for my article that I wrote using distraction free writing –
Hi Jane
Thanks for the update, smooth writing and editing experience love the full screen.
Here is a link to the post I wrote using the updated version http://wp.me/p1uZc7-2B
Oonagh
I love these changes! And the full-screen writing space is totally awesome! I’ve been waiting for this! Thanks!
Some nice, new changes. Everything looks much better.
Jane, the update is absolutely great. I’ve blogged every day for the last 110+ days about our zany and often frustrating experiences renovating a derelict house on the tiny Caribbean island of Vieques. WordPress is a pleasure to use, and the update makes it even better! http//viequesdreamhousediary.wordpress.com
Ooh, I’ve been wanting to go to Vieques for a long time because I’ve heard the snorkeling is incredible. You guys are so lucky to live in paradise! I can’t complain, though… I live in Tybee Island, GA, and though we don’t have a coral reef like you do, our beach is a sea turtle nesting site. I’m a member of the volunteer “dawn patrol” with the sea turtle project at the Tybee Marine Science Center, and this morning as I walked the beach at 6am looking for turtle crawls (the trails left by the mama turtles when they come up the beach to lay their eggs), a pod of dolphins swam alongside us about 30 feet from shore for about a half mile while the sun rose over the horizon. Not a bad way to start the day!
I like the new dashboard layout — it seems cleaner, somehow. And I love the full-screen mode — it really does cut down on distractions. The only suggestion I would make would be to add a “Preview” button in full-screen mode; I tend to edit in html mode and preview fairly frequently, and it would be a little more convenient if I could do that without toggling in and out of full-screen mode.
My first distraction-free post: Too Much of a Good Thing.
Yes, thinking about to incorporate a preview. Thanks for the feedback!
The fullscreen edit mode is a thing of beauty. Thank you!
Found a small oddity: if you click “update” to save from fullscreen then exit fullscreen, the editor thinks it’s still “dirty” (needing an update) — so if you try to leave the page it nags you to save (‘are you sure you want to leave this page?’). When you return all is well; the save went through fine.
Thanks for the new features.
I don’t like it — I love it! Thank you, thank you, thank you! 🙂
I commented last night and tagged my article with Just Write, but now I see that most people are leaving a link here as well. Just in case I misunderstood and needed to leave a link in my comment, here it is: http://readgreatfiction.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/living-life-distraction-free/ The title of the post is: Living Life Distraction Free
Thank You so much! But did anybody knows why I can’t see the icons? I use Google Chrome, here is screenshot: http://i52.tinypic.com/2qcgnzb.jpg
Greetings from Croatia!
I love this new layout! Just wrote a blog. Whew. 🙂
Great how bout making it so stats aren’t such a joke?
The transition was so seamless, I didn’t really notice until I read your post. That’s the way it should be.
http://tangerineflorida.com/2011/05/21/renningers/
The more I learn
the more I want to know.
Thanks for all that you do with WP!!
I LOVE the distraction-free writing.
Do you think, you could come to my house
and set it up so that my eleven year old would operate
within these type guidelines? … you know, not try to distract me while I’m blogging!
OH! OH! And my favorite change?
You hold our blog headers in the media library
if we want to return and use them again. Wow.
That ROCKS!!
-|<@ren
Oh right, I forgot about that one because I think of it in association with the Twenty Eleven theme. I’ll have to do a follow-up post, thanks for reminding me!
Ya know, Jane, I tagged mine …. but JUST IN CASE
here’s my link, as well:
http://waistingaway.wordpress.com/2011/05/21/no-matter-the-medium/
😀
-|<@ren
Hmmm, I like the arrow showing what’s the active page, but now the color and size of the various items in the left column are pretty uniform so the “header” vs “subjective” are not as easily distinguishable.
“In a future update we’ll be changing the way the media uploader works to be inline rather than a popup, but that’s a while off. Anyway, you earned some fluffy kittens!”
Thank GOODNESS! I’ve hated the overlay since it appeared after version 2.7. I kept my one blog at 2.7 for the longest time specifically because I hated the overlay media manager. (You can’t adjust the cursor position where the image insert will happen while you’re working with images!) I’m glad Automattic has seen the better of this and decided to go back.
Can you please explain me on which basis you choose the blogs for the Featured posts list? Please reply, since from the last year I’ve trying to get in but I’m never successful.
THE FUNKY WRITER: nickiesblog.wordpress.com
Check out Five Ways to Get Featured on Freshly Pressed for some tips.
Here’s my blog on the subject, although I think I’m late with linking it here…
http://cyberhomewrecker.com/2011/05/19/just-write-the-first-step/
http://postadaychallenge2011.com/
It’s so awesome, fresh, easy, clutter free, that my blogging experience is much faster and more equipt.
love it
What about the old machines, can’t use IE9 and Firefox 4? There are lot of people liking to wordpress, but using some old computers they just want to keep, or can’t afford a new one…
How can I move to the new dashboard, and any other fresh feature mentioned in this article?
At first I didn’t know what difference the “Just Write” feature would make, but after blogging a first post, it felt awesome! I loved seeing absolutely nothing but the words you type appear on the screen. Thanks for being so fantastic, WP! 😀
The post is this: http://myrtlesandpinetrees.wordpress.com/2011/05/22/a-family-affair/
thanks for the tips! i may be a little late, but here is my ‘just write’ post:
http://wordfodder.wordpress.com/2011/05/22/me-vs-me-the-battle-to-self-motivate/
hopefully it helps some other perennial procrastinators out there!!!
Nice. Would have liked it even more if Quick Edit would allow to toggle between Asides and Posts.
Also, sorting on Types of posts would be welcome.
Hm…. add post formats to quick edit. I’ll put that on the list to discuss for the next version.