A look at wordpress features coming in wordpress 3.6

The rockstars behind WordPress are set to release the all new version, 3.6, within the next month or so. Born 10 years ago as a fork from a similar blogging platform, WordPress has grown from blogging platform to the most used CMS (content management system) on the internet.

There are numerous WordPress features coming in WordPress 3.6 release. While WordPress 3.6 is not a complete reinvention of the software, there are a number of enhancements that many WordPress users and professionals are looking forward to working with.

Post Formats

Perhaps the biggest change in WordPress 3.6 is its presentation of Post Formats. While post formats have been around since WordPress 3.4, and there are no new post formats being introduced, they are getting a major facelift in the new release.

Post formats used to be hidden down the right side menu (with the category selector) but now will be placed in a simple-to-use (and see) ribbon across the top of the post-edit page. The key hope here is a more universal acceptance and use of post formats by WordPress users and developers.

Auto-Save & Post Locking

To solve two of the biggest frustrations that WordPress site managers have faced in the past, the creators have given us two new great features:

• Enhanced Auto Save
• Post Locking

Starting with 3.6, the posts that you are editing will save locally, which means you won’t lose any “unsaved” work if you accidentally refresh, if your computer crashes or if anything else were to happen between your updates. As another bonus, if your session times out, you will not be redirected to the login screen (losing your work), you will get the login box in a popup modal window right on the post-edit page).

Post locking is another great new WordPress tweak in version 3.6 that has us very excited. If you have a site that numerous members of your team have access to (we do, right here), you know how frustrating it is to have your hard work overwritten by someone else working on that post at the same time.

With the post lock, you can keep anyone else from editing the live version of the page/post that you are working on to prevent any problems or losses of your new updates.

Built-In Audio & Video Support

Starting in WordPress 3.6, the CMS will now have a built-in video player JS library (MediaElement.js). Now, video and audio content can be added and previewed in your post-edit page right through the built-in media uploader / manager.

Post Revisions

Forever lacking in real functionality, WordPress 3.6 post revisions now feature an easy-to-use 2-handle slider to easily compare revision date ranges, side-by-side comparison with easy-to-read comparisons. All-in-all, the upgrades here should make post revisions a more used tool in your WordPress arsenal (ours too).

Navigation Menus Editor

The built-in WordPress 3.6 is also getting a few tweaks that have us pretty excited. The interface now features accordion sections for “pages”, “links” and “categories” to include on the left and a new tab for built-in bulk-assign menu to a location function (lifesaver for big sites).

While we are still a few weeks out from launch and final release, we have played with the latest WordPress 3.6 beta and are pretty excited about the new features, the upgrades and all of the backend WordPress tweaks has made. Will the final version live up to the long list of big, successful WordPress launches? If the track record is any indication, the answer is yes.

If you cant wait for the release you can always download and install the beta