WordPress 2.1 and K2 0.95

WordPress 2.1 and K2 version 0.95 are on the shelves. In WordPress 2.1 I really like the fact that comments has its own tab and you can batch delete links, finally! My favorite, however, is the following feature for it reinforces the fact that the folks at WordPress understand their application as a CMS, and will be developing it accordingly: “you can set any ‘page’ to be the front page of your site, and put the latest posts somewhere else, making it much easier to use WordPress as a content management system.” Below is a more comprehensive list of new features:

• Autosave makes sure you never lose a post again.
• Our new tabbed editor allows you to switch between WYSIWYG and code editing instantly while writing a post.
• The lossless XML import and export makes it easy for you to move your content between WordPress blogs.
• Our completely redone visual editor also now includes spell checking.
• New search engine privacy option allows you take you to indicate your blog shouldn’t ping or be indexed by search engines like Google.
• Much more efficient database code, faster than previous versions. Domas Mituzas from MySQL went over all our queries with a fine-toothed comb.
• Links in your blogroll now support sub-categories and you can add categories on the fly.
• Redesigned login screen from the Shuttle project.
• More AJAX to make custom fields, moderation, deletions, and more all faster. My favorite is the comments page, which now lets you approve or unapprove things instantly.
• Pages can now be drafts, or private.
• Our admin has been refreshed to load faster and be more visually consistent.
• The dashboard now instantly updates and brings RSS feeds asynchronously in the background.
• Comment feeds now include all the comments, not just the last 10.
• Better internationalization and support for right-to-left languages.
• The upload manager lets you easily manage all your uploads pictures, video, and audio.
• A new version of the Akismet plugin is bundled.

K2 0.95 has further developed the customized header by allowing you to upload an image of any size and then crop it appropriately to the header height and width, very useful! Also, the update options layout has changed. Finally, this version is compatible with WP 2.1. Simultaneous releases like this illustrate that WordPress and K2 are working collaboratively to deliver a blogging CMS that is both easy and extensible which is powered daily by the most active community base of any open source application of its kind. Bravo WordPress and K2, you keep making my job that much easier! Now all I have to do is update my blog…