What’s New in WordPress Version 3.7?
Named after Count Basie, an American jazz pianist with a particular flare for both improvisation and mentoring others, WordPress 3.7 has arrived (just 86 days after the release of WordPress v3.6*) – with the most notable new feature being – of course – automatic updates. However, automatic background updates aren’t all that’s new, read on for a quick summary of the main changes:
Automatic Background Updates
Update to WordPress 3.7 and minor manual maintenance-and-security updates are a thing of the past – because from now on, unless you decide to turn them off (and presumably few people ever will), whenever a maintenance or security update gets released, your WordPress install will automatically update itself to the latest version: thereby adding an extra level of built-in security. The obvious fear here is of course that your site will update itself and break something (due to some kind of plugin/core incompatibility say) in the process, however, the release of 3.7 also makes the update process even more reliable and secure, with dozens of new checks and safeguards against things going tits up – fingers crossed everybody!
New (Stricter) Password Meter
Most of us are already aware of the importance of using strong passwords for just about everything these days, however, there are still plenty of people (ahem: clients) out there who still don’t really know what constitutes a secure password – which is where this particularly welcome new update comes in: try creating anything less than a strong password for a new WordPress user and this new feature will do its utmost to encourage you to use something more secure!
Improved Search Results
For years now WordPress users have been complaining about WordPress search, with most choosing to use external plugins like Search Everything or Relevanssi (used on this site), however, thankfully, WordPress 3.7 makes the default WordPress search functionality a whole lot better than before (i.e. it now brings back results ordered by how well the query matches a post, instead of ordering results only by date) – ’bout time too!
Better Global Support
WordPress 3.7 also adds better support for both translations and automatically installing the right language files, which it will automatically keep up-to-date (i.e. in the background) – may all who use localized evrsions of WordPress rejoice!
*the quickest turnaround between releases in the history of WordPress
Note: for a complete list of what’s new in WordPress 3.7, check out the official version 3.7 codex
Stay tuned for news and info on WordPress 3.8 – due December 2013 – and remember to always backup before updating, just in case things go awry!
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