What's New in WordPress 3.8?

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It feels like WordPress 3.7 just arrived, but here is WordPress 3.8 to make new waves across the WordPress community.

We should look forward to seeing more frequent changes to WordPress, albeit smaller updates to compete with the increasingly saturated CMS market.

Find out about some of the changes that have been made since the first release candidate was launch a couple weeks ago.

WordPress 3.7 versus WordPress 3.8

We recently released an article about the fundamental differences between WordPress 3.7 and WordPress 3.8. I suppose the biggest takeaway to be made from the article and from the launch is that that these updates are sequential. However, they should be looked at as concurrent and different offerings to WordPress core.

WordPress 3.7 is about new additions in the way WordPress functions while WordPress 3.8 is about making the CMS more beautiful and stylish to promote easier understanding and writing.

Video walkthrough of new changes in WP 3.8

There are a lot of changes to the dashboard interface with WordPress 3.8.

MP6 changes the way we think about organization in the dashboard. THX38 is the codename for the new theme system, which makes it simpler to see what options you have for editing themes and adding new ones.

The widget area chooser makes it easier to manage where widgets are going in primary and secondary sidebars.

For a more detailed write up of the changes and a video walkthrough, you can view this article that was released during release candidate 1.

Google Open Sans Font in WordPress

One of the biggest changes made to WordPress was in editing and usability.

A major player in why WordPress is now so pretty and easy to use is the Google Open Sans font that is used in the backend post editor.

It just so happens we have been using this font style in many of our themes already (we are waiting on our compensation for the idea, WordPress!). It is a very clean font with a bit of extra space between characters to make reading and editing easier.

New Profile Dashboard color options

There are even more colors available in the newest version of WordPress than in release candidate 1. There are now a total of eight colors available that run the gamut from low-key to loud. Sunrise is my personal new favorite, as it adds a lot of spice and color to the otherwise boring dashboard.

Mobile device users can also rejoice as WordPress 3.8 makes native WordPress on a browser look more like a web app than ever. It has a smart navigation sidebar that swings in gracefully on the left side.

Here is our video that goes over some of the new design changes:

What do you think about the new WordPress 3.8? Is it a nice change of pace, a step backward or more of the same?

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