WordPress 3.5 Release Candidate Review

On December the 4th 2012, the third Release Candidate of WordPress 3.5 was release on their blog, so naturally an investigation was is in order. WordPress 3.5 boasts a major annual release for the open-source blogging software, with many improvements across the board, which will be covered in this article.

Firstly, if you want to try WordPress 3.5 RC3 out for yourself, it’s available to download from their site:

Download WordPress 3.5 RC3 (.zip){.btn.btn-primary}

… So What’s New?

Media Uploader#

The ‘Add Media’ dialogue box you’ve come accustom to in previous WordPress versions has seen a complete overhaul. The new Media Uploader is mostly just a face lift, so the changes are particularly interface based but my God they make a stunning difference.

Twenty Twelve#

The default theme has also seen a major overhaul, with the introduction of the Twenty Twelve theme it summarises the whole update well. The new theme is cleaner in it’s appearance and uses the Open Sans font throughout to provide a very pleasant and robust theme. It’s also responsive – by using CSS media queries it changes and responds to the device it’s being viewed on.

Dashboard Updates#

The Dashboard is now ‘Retina Ready’ for all those tablet and hi-res screen users, but the dashboard update is more than just this – there are many little updates all over.

The WordPress Editor is one of these little updates to the interface, with the removal of button borders and generally a cleaner presentation. Interestingly, WordPress has also lost its iconic ‘pill’ buttons (fully rounded) for more modern and conventional square buttons.

Behind the Scenes#

All JavaScript libraries have been updated to their latest versions (jQuery 1.8.3 at last count) with Backbone and Underscore added as well. There are also many other improvements to the back performance, like with WordPress’ Multisite.

Conclusion#

That just about sums it up. There are many improvements across the board, mainly throughout the interface and presentation of WordPress and a clear step towards a cleaner WordPress image.

Have you tried WordPress 3.5 yet? Looking forward to the changes? Let us know in the comments below.

Cover Photo by teamstickergiant