I’m a couple of weeks behind on this news, but it was news to me! I’ve been sick and out of the loop these past weeks, and only just read the list of features planned for WordPress 2.7, due to be released as soon as the end of 2008. I’ll be keeping a close eye out, and will probably jump in and beta test as I did with the 2.5 release.

From Weblog Tools Collection:

Here is a list of features that will be introduced into WordPress 2.7:

• Comments API – This according to me is the most exciting feature, it will allow developers to create offline integration of comments management, where users could use desktop clients to manage comments (moderate, edit, reply, delete, spam, unspam).
• Keyboard shortcuts for comment moderation – This feature will help users to quickly moderate comments using keyboard shortucts, so you can expect key combinations like Ctrl + S to spam a comment, Ctrl + A to approve and so on.
• Theme Update API – WordPress 2.5 and above have really made plugin management quite easy, you automatically receive notices when a new update to a plugin is available and can upgrade it without having to manually upload it to your FTP server. With this addition WordPress aims to bridge the gap between theme developers and the users for publishing updates to themes.
• One Click Plugin Installs – Installing a plugin will be much easier with One click plugin installs. A plugin with similar features called One Click Plugin was the winner of the Plugin Competition last year.
• WordPress core updates – This is a feature many users have been waiting for, with core updates you can easily upgrade your WordPress versions. The WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin performs the same task.
• Default Sitemaps – WordPress 2.7 will include a default sitemap creator, which will create Google XML sitemaps for your blog. Google Sitemaps Generator plugin is the best option available right now for creating XML sitemaps.
• Admin Panel Comment Replies - This plugin will help administrators to reply to comments using the admin panel. There are several plugins which allow you to do so right now, including WP AJax Edit Comments, Better Comments Manager and Absolute Comments.
• Comment Threading – This feature will allow users to reply to other commentators in a threaded manner, where replied comments will display below the actual comment, WordPress already has the ability to scale to accomodate threaded comments, without requiring database changes. Brian’s Threaded Comments is a does the job of allowing users to reply to comments.
• Subscribe to Comments – The WordPress team is also planning to include a option to allow commentators to subscribe to follow up comments, but this is marked as a question, so it may not actully make it into WordPress 2.7. The Subscribe to Comments plugin does the job to notify commentators on follow up comments.
• Widgets for Dashboard and Write Box – This feature will allow users to re-arrange the widgets on the dashboard and write page to suit their preferences.
• Batch Editing of Posts – This feature will allow users to batch edit their posts. Though there is not much information available about this right now, and I could not really find more from my research on the topic.

It’s going to be a fun winter!

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Tickled Pink is a two-column, fixed width theme with a two-level CSS page menu. It is coded to be very search engine friendly, with proper use of heading tags and sidebar lists. Included is a one column page template.

Coming soon: a matching forum skin for SimplePress forum.

Demo Link
Download

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Bug Fix Update for Green Apple Theme

Somebody slap me! I released a theme that was not quite ready. There were a couple of bugs in the CSS, which I fixed, and I also added tiny little arrows in the post navigation bar. The menu was not displaying correctly in Internet Explorer 6 (it’s always IE6!) and that should now be resolved.

My apologies for any inconvenience caused!

Demo link

Download

Green Apples is Rose City Garden’s first theme release. I know I said I was releasing Tickled Pink (and I will), but I’m still working on the forum skin and finished this theme first. ! I think you’ll like it - it behaves well in all the majors, and even in IE6 the menu works with the help of a snippet of Javascript.

Description

This is a very clean and simple three-column, liquid width theme. It is widget ready and has a two-level CSS dropdown top menu bar. The green apples photo in the header is by the very talented Jean Scheijen.

Demo link

Download and Install

Download Green Apples WordPress theme. Unzip and upload the green-apples folder to your wp-content/themes/directory.

License and Terms

This theme is released under the GPL. If you use the Green Apples image for anything else, please credit the photographer.

And…please do something nice for someone. Call your mom!

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I built an Amazon store and stocked it with the latest WordPress and blogging books - check it out! I didn’t use a plugin, but instead made a modified template file and included my aStore in an iframe. I’ll make a video or screencast tutorial soon on how to do it - it was super easy!

I am also getting VERY CLOSE on completing the Tickled Pink theme - you should expect an announcement in the next few days. I don’t know if I”ll submit it to the Theme Codex or not - or even whether they will accept it, but I’ll have it available for download soon. I have to finish the accompanying Simple:Press theme, Pinkish, as it will be part of the package.

I’ve also got another theme in the works that uses NextGEN Gallery - right now it’s just a bare outline in Photoshop and I’ll have to flesh it out but it won’t be long before it’s a nice theme for a gallery or portfolio site!

And - nothing to do with WordPress or with the Gardens, but: Congratulations to Senator Barack Obama on winning the Democratic nomination!