Step 1. Backup your current version using the plugin “WP DB backup”
Step 2. Click the “Please update Now” at the top of your dashboard
Step 3. Watch this video to see what 2.9 can do for you …
WordPress version 2.9 “Carmen” has been released and is named in honor of amazing jazz vocalist Carmen McRae.
As is now common practice with new WordPress releases you can now upgrade easily right from within your WordPress Admin Dashboard just by going to Tools and then click on Upgrade. And of course you can still do the upgrade the “old-fashioned” manual way by downloading WordPress 2.9 from the WordPress.org website.
As the version number suggests (2.9) this is a major release of WordPress and because of this the guys at wordpress.org have created a VIDEO featuring the new stuff so you can see what the new version does without actually having to read all about it!
Watch the video above or read the summary below 
In summary the major fetures of this WordPress 2.9 release are as follows and the list below is in the same order as the video presentation above:
Batch Plugin Updates (with Compatibility Checker)
This now means you can easily update 10 plugins all at the same time instead of clicking on each one by one In addition it comess with a new compatibility checker which checks the plugin data to let you know if your plugins are actually compatible with the release of WordPress.
A Built-In Image Editor (at last!)
This is really supr cool and finally we all get what we have been missing for years (why did it take so long?) This new image editor will let you to edit (obviously), crop, flip, rotate and even scale your images so you can now basically do what you want with them! And apparently more and better media handling features are on the way…
Video Embedding by URL (at last again!)
Video embeds just got a ton easier and less error prone! You can now just paste a video URL on a seperate line in a post or page and it will automatcially pull in the correct embed code for you. This comes with support for all the major video sites with more to be added later.
Trash Can Feature
No real trash can icon to speak of but at least now you can recover from accidental deletions you might make for both posts, pages and comments and they have also got rid of those annoying little “are you really really sure” messages that came with deletions previously.
FULL DETAILS
To get the full low down and everything that’s in the new release just go over to the WordPress blog and read this post:
WordPress 2.9, oh so fine
Best of all I like: “Themes can register post thumbnails which allow them to attach an image to the post, especially useful for magazine-style themes.”
Conclusion
Overall this is a great feature relase from WordPress with 2.9 and it brings the software to somewhere where many felt it should have been along time ago – but at least it’s there now and with still more to come your blogging (or website building) experience is set to become so much easier, fun and dare I say it, pleasurable (mmm – doesn’t sound right!).
Anyway this is a great step forward in the right direction and WordPress 3.0 in 2010 next year is going to be so good, even with a new default theme for us to play with and hopefully that will be something we can use instead of just deleting everytime we install the software!
Spread the word if you like what you read here …
Kimberly Castleberry
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks Jodie, Please make sure when you back up to not only back up your database but your file system as well. Have a great day/evening!
You are the man Chris – thanks for tip. Trust you had a wonderful time over the holidays
Jodie,
Thanks for spelling this out for us. I'm always a little nervous when it comes to just blindly updating all the plugins and theme. Not being a technical person I tend to get stuck very easy. I think it's that ready fire aim business.
Thanks for sharing all that you have learned with blogging over the last 2 years. You are truly a fountain of information.
Ken Pickard
The Network Dad
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