Posted: Friday, December 5th, 2008 at 1:27 am. Filed in Administration, New Features, WordPress.com.
Tags: 2.7, crazyhorse
New Dashboard Design
You’ve probably gotten tired of hearing about it from us, but the day has finally come and the new dashboard is finally here. It’s now immediately available to everyone on WordPress.com.
Change is always tricky, but pretty much everyone who has already switched to the new design and layout (that we affectionately call Crazyhorse) prefers it after a day or two of using it.
Why is that? Well aesthetics are a matter of taste, and you might like or dislike the new look, but speed is not.
A big focus of this redesign was making everything faster. It loads faster. It’s faster for you to navigate. And nearly every possible task in WordPress now takes fewer clicks than it used to.
This means we can get out of your way and you can focus on what matters: your writing, your comments, your readers, your blog.
So take a few minutes to explore around, there are a ton of new features for you. Try rearranging your dashboard, or your write page. Click the arrows in the menu to expand modules and navigate faster. Go to your profile and turn on keyboard shortcuts for comment moderation. Poke and prod! 
For those following along at home, this new dashboard is going to be available as the 2.7 release on WordPress.org sometime next week. But because we update things so frequently here on WordPress.com, version numbers don’t apply as much.
Support is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week if you have any problems, and as always completely free. (Give us a little extra time to reply though, we’ll probably get a lot of folks contacting us.)
Love, Matt and the tireless WP team
December 5th, 2008 at 1:38 am
I love it. Makes it so much easier to organize, see my stats, etc. Thanks WordPress.
December 5th, 2008 at 1:39 am
It’s good, but different. Hopefully I wind up getting used to it.
December 5th, 2008 at 1:44 am
fifteen minutes with it and i hate it already.
it’s so hard to use.
i hate how everything that is actually useful is at the bottom of the page.
and i hate the crap at the top.
i know you guys worked like, mega hard on this.
but seriously, is there any way to get the old wordpress back?
it was fine how it was.
now it’s hard to use and annoying.
-the monster doesn’t like this setup very much.
d:
December 5th, 2008 at 6:00 am
Now that there’s drag and drop, you can move the things from the bottom up to the top!
Update: see yourownpersonalmonter’s update a few comments below… success!
December 5th, 2008 at 1:44 am
Looks great and works great so far, only a matter of getting used to it. Shouldn’t be too difficult.
December 5th, 2008 at 1:44 am
looking good. but where can I find my schedualed posts now?
December 5th, 2008 at 1:58 am
Posts => Edit
You will see your scheduled posts
December 5th, 2008 at 1:45 am
well don’t i feel like a dumbass.
so, the page didn’t excatly load before.
so when i turned off the internet and got back on,
wordpress was like totally changed.
so, i don’t hate it.
i happen to love it.
-the monster doesn’t think sometimes.
December 7th, 2008 at 8:52 am
Yay!!
December 5th, 2008 at 1:47 am
Where did the nice obvious “view blog” button go to? How do I get to the front of my blog now?
December 5th, 2008 at 1:55 am
Just click on the blog name.
December 5th, 2008 at 1:47 am
Simple. Beautiful. Thank You.
December 5th, 2008 at 1:55 am
Its awesome!
December 5th, 2008 at 1:58 am
¡Está hermoso! Saludos desde El Salvador
a mí si me gusto y estoy feliz del cambio que hicieron
December 5th, 2008 at 1:58 am
I love it! *hugs*
December 5th, 2008 at 1:58 am
It’s really awesome!! Can’t wait for the full version for self-hosted.
December 5th, 2008 at 1:59 am
loving it …. very clean … simple.
good work
appreciate it!
December 5th, 2008 at 2:00 am
Wow! This one took me by surprise but after playing around I got used to it in minutes. I love it! I also hunted for the “view blog” but you response above answered the question. Nice job, everyone.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:02 am
FYI–the first couple of times I loaded my dashboard it was all jumbled and nothing was showing up right, and nothing was working when I clicked it. Don’t know if it’s just my dashboard or what…but it’s finally working.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:03 am
Yep there may have been a few minutes in the switchover when things looked funny. When in doubt, reload!
December 5th, 2008 at 2:05 am
Ugh. Sorry. I preferred the old to the new. @_@;;
December 5th, 2008 at 2:07 am
Definitely give it a few days of usage, even testers who hated it at first got hooked after 2-3 days.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:06 am
It’s super duper AWESOME!
December 5th, 2008 at 2:11 am
Appreciate .. cool .. good job bro. Thanks.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:12 am
I simply cannot find a direct link to the forums, the feature I use the most. If that isn’t available, then this new version is unacceptable to me.
I made it to the forums, but it took clicking through four pages. That’s unacceptable.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:20 am
Thanks for the suggestion. We’ve added a link for the forums in the Help dropdown that you can find in the upper right corner of the admin screens.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:13 am
It Was Clean and More Accessible!
December 5th, 2008 at 2:14 am
LOVE IT!
December 5th, 2008 at 2:15 am
Matt, The new interface is just so darn cool!
Congratulations to you all at Automattic, especially Jane, for pushing WordPress’s UI development, and creating such an intuitive, easy to use blogging tool. Now for my first post in 2.7!
December 5th, 2008 at 2:16 am
I tried to stay awake until now, it´s 2 am here in sweden!!!!! Thanks god I did !! I love the new dashboard!!!
December 5th, 2008 at 2:16 am
Not bad
December 5th, 2008 at 2:16 am
Mostly looks good but as a big user of scheduling, the change from showing the scheduled date to show the number of days in the future make life very difficult. I know have to try and calculate the next posting date rather than just look up the last date.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:16 am
Looks like an improvement, particularly the ‘not having to click as much’ aspect. Thanks guys
December 5th, 2008 at 2:16 am
It’s pretty awesome, except, one complaint: QuickPress is missing a way to include categories. If it had that, you could create a post from the Dashboard without having to edit it elsewhere before going live.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:19 am
Yes that was a deliberate decision to try and make the form as simple and compact as possible.
December 7th, 2008 at 8:55 am
In a future version, we intend to make QuickPress configurable so that you can choose the 3-4 elements you want to include in QuickPress.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:17 am
LOVE IT! ²
December 5th, 2008 at 2:17 am
awesome i love that now you can post and check your stats immediately instead of clicking everywhere
December 5th, 2008 at 2:20 am
Thanks for the implementation. It looks good. ^^
December 5th, 2008 at 2:21 am
Where’s the forums link????
December 5th, 2008 at 2:24 am
It’s under the Help dropdown in the top right.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:21 am
I commented at Jane’s older post earlier and I’d like to reiterate, I really love it! Maybe I’m one of the few who’d first tried it seconds from when the green flag was up. Got easier workarounds, neat!
Thanks, I won’t trade WP for anything! More power! XD
December 5th, 2008 at 2:23 am
at first, i didn’t see my old post or view post but when i click my blog name, it’s a big bang…good job…
December 5th, 2008 at 2:23 am
I’m actually afraid of it. I have to get used to this new look.
December 7th, 2008 at 9:02 am
Automattician Nikolay likes to quote American presidents. If he were moderating comments here, he might quote FDR and say that, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
Don’t be afraid. Play with the new interface, click around, explore. If anything goes monstrously awry, just contact support and we’ll help.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:24 am
The Safari interface is beautiful. Firefox 3, not so much. Something is wrong. The dashboard is rendering as an ugly blue with no icons. (Hope it’s on WP’s end and not mine, because I don’t have a clue.) The post editing page is correct and just like Safari. Other than that little gotcha, everything is cool. Too early to tell about the speed. Good job WP folk! Thank you for the hard work on our behalf!
December 5th, 2008 at 2:26 am
Make sure to clear your browser cache in Firefox.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:24 am
I love it!
It’s so sleek and sexy.
Great improvement!
December 5th, 2008 at 2:24 am
Muy bueno el nuevo cambio amigos, siempre trayendonos mejoras,s on unos GROSOS!!!!
December 7th, 2008 at 9:05 am
Bueno, intentamos! Gracias por los elogios.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:25 am
Love it!
December 5th, 2008 at 2:25 am
I like it too, but it will be hard to get used to it.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:27 am
Whoa!
Scared me there for a moment! Well, surprised me is more accurate. I just came back to the ‘puter and went to check my stats (non-existent that they are) and…*jumps*…look at that! WordPress was totally different…didn’t know at first where I was or if I clicked some wrong link…
Thanks! So-o much easier to read and navigate! Looks sharp, too!
December 5th, 2008 at 2:28 am
Nevermind. It’s fixed now. Thanks, Matt.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:29 am
I love the new look, and features. Thanks!
December 5th, 2008 at 2:29 am
Mmmm… clearing cache right now!
Very sweet interface for my eyes.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:29 am
Vaaarrrrryy nice! Thanks!
December 5th, 2008 at 2:29 am
it’s gooooooooood! it’s good-good-goood!
thank you!
December 5th, 2008 at 2:30 am
Brilliant launch Matt and company. Congratulations to you all and I can’t wait to roll the update on my own website and my clients’ websites.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:30 am
Wow…
December 5th, 2008 at 2:30 am
I like the changes. Good job WordPress!
December 5th, 2008 at 2:30 am
Eagerly awaiting the upgrade for wordpress.org
December 5th, 2008 at 2:31 am
Just a few more days.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:31 am
Don’t forget, if you are using FireFox, and AdBlock, you may need to disable AdBlock on the WordPress.com web site, so your Dashboard shows up properly. To do so, click down arrow, next to and underneath the Red ABP Icon, and select ‘Disable’. You will either need to reload the page, or restart the browser for the change to take effect.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:34 am
Oh, I love it! So elegant. You’ve really raised the bar.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:35 am
Now i can see new wp 2.7 at my blog. The dashboard is nice. I can see everything on the dashboard ( stat, reply comment, quick post etc). Good job wp team
December 5th, 2008 at 2:36 am
How does one get out of Dashboard? Where did the “Visit site” button go?
December 5th, 2008 at 2:43 am
Click on the blog title and it’ll take you back to the blog home page.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:37 am
Much better. Thanks.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:38 am
WOOHOO! Finally, after longer than a month’s wait, it’s finally here!!! Thank you so much for making WordPress a better place to blog at. Your staff is awesome!! I’ve been waiting for this since October, and it’s been driving me crazy since. Finally, IT’S HERE!!!
December 5th, 2008 at 2:38 am
Like always, there will be the ones who get horrified ( only to end loving it ) and the ones who like the “fresh” felling and adopting it immediately.
I really enjoy it. Nice work.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:38 am
cooooooooooooooo………l
December 5th, 2008 at 2:39 am
Way too busy…the old version was much more streamlined visually and by function. This is just too cluttered and all over the place.
I really do not like it at all.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:41 am
Wooow……
I love it
December 5th, 2008 at 2:41 am
Good. Very useful. Beautiful. Thanks to WordPress
December 5th, 2008 at 2:42 am
Cool man………
i more love to WP
December 5th, 2008 at 2:42 am
I don’t understand why people hate changes. As the year changes, techology changes too. Embrace change people!
Loving the new Dashboard, definitely! The ability to rearrange the Dashboard is spiffy. Now, I’m just waiting for next week for the release on WordPress.org!
Well done, WP team! Thank you for all the time and love you have put in for the world users of WP!
With love from Singapore,
Zee
December 5th, 2008 at 2:42 am
I spose I’ll have to get used to it…. still a bit of a shock going from top to left navigation…. Only been here less than 5 months lol. Ah well.. no use moaning ey? I don’t usually like change anywhere, but I’m not gonna give up just cos of this lol.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:43 am
I love it. However, the only problem that I have with it is the fact that my Firefox 3.0 spell checker won’t work as I’m typing. I realize the WP has a built in checker, but I just got so spoiled from having an “as you type checker” that, knowing me, I’ll forget to use the built in one which isn’t as half as good as Firefox’s.
If there’s a work around (as I cannot use IE), and anybody knows, please tell me!
Thanks
December 5th, 2008 at 2:43 am
Quite simply “great”, way to go wordpress.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:44 am
Fantastic…Oh and Happy Holidays!
December 5th, 2008 at 2:44 am
Good .. good.. good
December 5th, 2008 at 2:45 am
it’s good…simple and very nice interface
December 5th, 2008 at 2:46 am
Thanks WordPress!
December 5th, 2008 at 2:46 am
This is nice. For the first few minutes the side navigation bar took up the entire screen, but it went where it was supposed to once I cleared the browser and cache.
Thanks WordPress!
December 5th, 2008 at 2:47 am
I was one that hated the new design. I still do not like it completely.
I agree that WP has gotten much more useful and faster to complete tasks. Thinks are more intelligent now. I really appreciate these changes. Great job.
However, items on screen have gotten much more space consuming. WP developers need to work on this! On 2.6, items were narrower and I had more space to work on the content that matters. WP looks good on a 19′ wide screen, but not that good on a laptop (I have less than 50% of the hozintal space available for my posts, all other space wasted by side bars).
I would really appreciate being able to move the navigation bar around just like I do with other screen content. I prefer the navigation bar on the top since this will free up horizontal space.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:51 am
Check out this post on how to reconfigure the interface which should make it fit better on your screen, as I mentioned above.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:48 am
I like the old format better. But we shall see. There must have been a reason why you changed it.
December 7th, 2008 at 9:11 am
Yup: the reason was feedback from users just like you. Tthis design was very much based on user feedback and testing to try and create the fastest, most usable application interface possible. Give it a few days…most people who start out resisting the change find themselves loving the increased ease of use and can’t imaging going back. Once you’ve customized the screens to your liking, hopefully it will feel better for you.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:48 am
My only real issue with the new design is that it isn’t reallyresizeable. I don’t often have my browser maximized and now that floating right sidebar overlaps the actual posting area. *That* is really annoying. The rest of it is mostly just getting used to things not being in the same place.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:49 am
Check out this post on how to reconfigure the interface which should make it fit better on your screen.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:48 am
Oh my goodness -what a great surprise! I logged on and totally forgot that this was THE DAY. Beautiful design. Thanks so much WordPress for your hard work and creative vision.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:49 am
After 10 minutes of using it and trying to adjust a saved draft and write a new post I absolutely loathe it with all of my soul. I liked the old way. Why is it that EVERYTHING feels that their stuff needs to constantly change? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:54 am
Give it a little more time. Months in the making, needs more than 10 minutes to appreciate.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:50 am
it’s betterthan the old one..
December 5th, 2008 at 2:50 am
Okay. Let me amend my previous comment… I just clicked on “blog stats” and they are all superimposed over one another. I don’t like this at all.
Can you change it back?
December 5th, 2008 at 2:57 am
Sounds like you may have a local issue, you should contact support since blog comments aren’t the best way to help.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:51 am
I’m not always a fan of change, but so far I love the new look and implementation.
As much as it is different, there are plenty of familiar elements there to aid the transition.
Awesome guys – some great work!
December 5th, 2008 at 2:51 am
Way to go. You guys really knocked this one out of the park. I love it.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:57 am
The Drafts module isn’t working for me yet (maybe it can’t handle 25+ drafts?) but otherwise the UI is terrific, as advertised. And as a .org blogger also, I like getting the preview here first.
December 7th, 2008 at 9:14 am
The drafts module only shows the last handful of drafts right now. In a future version the module will be customizable, but don’t fear, not showing all 25 drafts doesn’t mean it’s broken, it’s just working the way it was programmed for its first time out in the world.
December 5th, 2008 at 3:00 am
hey I’m just very new to WordPress and I think the new dashboard is good, better than the old one, with everything I want to improve the blog apppears on the same page then I do not have to look for somewhere else, it’s clearer and neater than the old one, the lay out and new orders are easy to see and edit, the most important is upper and less is lower. THanks a lot
December 5th, 2008 at 3:01 am
woow..
it’s great, i like it
December 5th, 2008 at 3:03 am
i love this new design, but i have problem with font.
a don’t like font this design. and i don’t know to fix it.not yet
December 7th, 2008 at 9:17 am
That’s funny, since we’re using the same fonts as in the last version. Our designer held firm on this point, and we did not change fonts.
December 5th, 2008 at 3:03 am
wordpress rules!! ilikeitalot. can we now have more themes?
keep up the great work!!!!
December 5th, 2008 at 3:06 am
If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it. My learning curve does not come free to me, and this mornins in particular it is obnoxious to have to loook around for the simplest things. I feel like a blindman whose well-meanins friend moves the furniture around. I wish you would stop that.
Pierre JC Allard
December 5th, 2008 at 3:27 am
We don’t take change lightly, but the good news is that this redesign provides a solid foundation that we’ll be able to build on for the next 5 years of WordPress, just like the last one was basically the same for 5 years.
December 5th, 2008 at 3:06 am
Amazing! I had the problem with the interface, it was solved when I cleaned the browser cache.
But I think QuickPress could have categories. Maybe an arrow that when you click the popular categories appear.
BTW, great work!
December 5th, 2008 at 3:10 am
i like it
December 5th, 2008 at 3:10 am
VERY nice, the new Dashboard is swiss-clean and so much better organized. Love it!
December 5th, 2008 at 3:10 am
i love it!!! so organized! so great! cool.