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 3:13 am
Great Job!! I like it. Usually I hate change, but this is great.
December 5th, 2008 at 3:19 am
I hadn’t been taking notice of the development of this and when I logged in today found the changes. Absolutely brilliant, Nice, clean and lots faster access to everything that’s needed and lots more information immediately viewable.
Has a very nice, clean and crisp feel about it and display very nice. It has a very Mac OSX type look and feel about it. Outstanding.
December 5th, 2008 at 3:19 am
Had a two minute look at it and already liked it way more than the previous interface.
Easy, intuitive and a lot faster, what’s not to like.
Thanks
December 5th, 2008 at 3:19 am
I dunno about faster. This is my first visit since the change and every page is taking forever to load. I’m also finding on this particular computer that the text on the right-hand side of the page is cut off. I didn’t see a need for change but I guess I’ll have to get used to it. We don’t seriously have to update blogs in that tiny box on the right, do we?
December 5th, 2008 at 3:33 am
Of course not! QuickPress is just for small, quick posts from your dashboard. All the old editors are still there.
December 5th, 2008 at 3:21 am
Thanks WordPress team, what I like the most of the new Dashboard, is that it uses real screen state more efficiently now, plus I love the new features, thanks again!
December 5th, 2008 at 3:24 am
My most longed-for Christmas wish is to have my old dashboard back. Although I’m sure this was a time consuming effort, I truly dislike it. To say it is not user friendly is an understatement.
Do we have a choice? Why tinker with something that worked as well as the previous dashboard?
December 5th, 2008 at 3:38 am
Sorry we can’t maintain both at once, the new dashboard is the way forward. It provides the base we need to grow and expand the service and features for the next 3-5 years.
December 5th, 2008 at 3:24 am
Big improvement. User friendly. Much more organized. Makes things so much easier.
December 5th, 2008 at 3:26 am
There are some good features of the new design and some things that are very awkward. Transportation to the site from the dash is lacking, etc.
December 5th, 2008 at 3:28 am
:[ i dont like this theme
i like the old one better. it was more simple and organized.
can i change it to the old theme somehow?
December 5th, 2008 at 3:39 am
Nope, you can’t. Sorry!
December 5th, 2008 at 3:30 am
I like it so much!! It’s easy to use!! I heart wordpress!
December 5th, 2008 at 3:30 am
Love it! Its much easier!
-Sharpdesk-
December 5th, 2008 at 3:32 am
I know I’m not the only one to say this, but… I like the redesign!
December 5th, 2008 at 3:33 am
Good Job. Congratulations!.. I like the new dashboard.
Venezuela Blogger
December 5th, 2008 at 3:34 am
I’ve been using the beta for a while now, and I think it’s great! Thanks for all you’ve done.
As for the rest of you, I know it takes a little getting used to, but it’s definitely worth it.
December 5th, 2008 at 3:36 am
I really like the new set-up. It is much easier to navigate than the old format. I was anticipating that there would be a substantial learning curve, but I think the adjustment should be quick.
December 5th, 2008 at 3:37 am
LOVE the new . . . EVERYTHING. The quick edit is GREAT. Managing tags and categories will be SO easy now! THANKS!
OTOH, are the category widgets stable yet?
December 5th, 2008 at 3:39 am
I’m not usually a big fan of changes, but I like the layout and look. It doesn’t run any faster for me, unfortunately. Still slo-o-ow.
December 5th, 2008 at 3:50 am
You might also want to try turning on Gears, under Tools.
December 5th, 2008 at 3:43 am
Cool! Thank you! I love it! But I’m little bit confising on finding the button “go to blog”
December 5th, 2008 at 3:43 am
I’m officially in love with wordpress right now. You guys make me even more happy I chose my blog home to be wordpress.
December 5th, 2008 at 3:44 am
This is absolutely beautiful! I love the screen options on each page! Very nice! I also love to pick and choose and move things around, this is sooo practical! My new dashboard is a beauty!
I only have 3 complaints: 1) why can’t we move the sections in the menu (put what we use most at the top, and those we don’t use at the bottom); 2) in the menu, in the “post” category, I think “add new” should be first (before “edit” because that’s what most people do most; 3) this is not new, but I was hoping it would change and it hasn’t: when we are looking at our links, I wish we could select several links and perform different actions on these selected links (like change their categories). Right now all I can do is delete the selected links.
But these are small things. Overall: I love it
December 5th, 2008 at 3:52 am
Thanks for the compliments. To answer your questions:
Maybe in a future version, but for the big design change, we felt it was important that the navigation be standard so that people needing help could get answers quickly instead of having to spell out their menu structure with each help request.
1) Yesterday you didn’t even have the ability to see menu sections, and now you want them to move around?
2) We had “Add New” first originally, but in user testing, it turned out that most people thought “Posts,” being plural, would take them to the list of posts. There is one-click access to the Add New Post screen in the shortcuts menu in the upper right.
3) By creating our batch edit feature for posts, we’ve gotten the architecture to be able to to this for links in a future release.
Glad that overall you love it!
December 5th, 2008 at 3:45 am
Looks good!
At first I thought that the page wasn’t loading correctly then I saw the changes and the blog post title.
Love it.
Specially the quick post slot!
Thanks for the great work.
December 5th, 2008 at 3:45 am
looks great! can’t wait to get this on the .org
December 5th, 2008 at 3:46 am
I’ve seen two other posts about ‘Where did the Visit Site button go?’ I’m also wondering this. But most of all I’m wondering where on the dashboard is my blog name to click on to go to my homepage? Am I blind? Or is it so obvious I’m not seeing it? Help! :’P
PS Other than that I love the new dashboard! Nice work! ;’)
December 5th, 2008 at 4:14 am
It’s in the top-left by the WordPress logo.
December 5th, 2008 at 3:47 am
Congrats Matt. It’s come a long way since the beginning!
December 5th, 2008 at 3:48 am
Hey MATT,
I’m new to wordpress and Congrats on the new Dashboard, it looks super and when I first joined wordpres I was thinking ‘what a boring Dashboard’. Now just a small quarry, I love Movies, Music and Books, how do I create a column or two on the main page, to do mini posts, dedicated to either movies or books or music (i.e. to write my comments on a particular movie etc etc.) without making ‘Pages’ one after another? Is it possible to customize the designs I use the way I want? It looks limited options to me.
December 5th, 2008 at 3:48 am
Thank you, i love wordpress
December 5th, 2008 at 3:48 am
I love it but guys, my Theme!! It’s screwed – Looking forward to hearing from Support asap!
December 5th, 2008 at 3:51 am
OOh, what a surprise! I really like the look and the conveniences. Thank you for all your efforts!
December 5th, 2008 at 3:54 am
Yet to Explore… but appears to me Xtra Ordinary:-) Thanks….
December 5th, 2008 at 3:57 am
This great, this new dashboard easy to understanding. thank you.
December 5th, 2008 at 3:58 am
Woawesome ! Nice works kids ! ;o)
December 5th, 2008 at 4:04 am
How do you make an existing post Stick to the top in the new version? Not seeing the formerly obvious check box.
Also, while the technology looks cool in terms of moving things around – the left nav makes the pages so cramped, particularly the most important page to us, writing/editing posts. How can I configure my page so I can maximize width that basically eliminates the left nav and moves any other box down below?
Thanks in advance
December 5th, 2008 at 4:29 am
For sticky post: Click on Visibility in the publish area of a post. You’ll then see options to stick a post to the front page, password protect, or make the post private.
There are a number of options for customizing and de-cluttering your dashboard. You can click on Screen Options in the upper right and uncheck the fields you don’t want to display. You can collapse menus on the left to make room when you don’t need them. You can also drag and drop modules within the dashboard so the stuff you care about most is at the top. Special hint: If you put everything in one column, modules will stretch across both columns.
December 5th, 2008 at 4:05 am
Matt, this is great! Thanks to you and your WP team for creating this new WordPress Dashboard Design so we can focus on what is important.
December 5th, 2008 at 4:07 am
After two minutes of use, I like it very much.
It’s intuitive and easy to use.
Everything is there and within reach. Fewer clicks are needed.
I love that my drafts are visible.
The blog stats load much more quickly.
Everything seems to load more quickly.
Excellent job!
I can’t wait for the next two minutes.
Now I guess I gotta learn how to write!
Mike
December 5th, 2008 at 4:09 am
It rocks!
December 5th, 2008 at 4:10 am
Very Nice… !
Thank You… !
December 5th, 2008 at 4:11 am
Where can I find the blog name to get to the front of my blog?
December 5th, 2008 at 4:12 am
First impression – don’t like it at all. Find it very busy and the emphasis is NOT on the the things I look for. I reserve final judgment until I’ve used it for a few days but certainly the first impression was not positive at all. I found the old format very easy to use. This seems a bit frenetic.
December 5th, 2008 at 4:13 am
Okay I’ll let you guys off now it’s fixed – my bad. Yeah, double thumbs up. this is awesome.
December 5th, 2008 at 4:15 am
It’z great!!!
December 5th, 2008 at 4:17 am
I was lost when I first tried it, I could not find the “save” button, got a little frustrated, but after looking for a few minutes – found it. I think it will be easy to get used to.
December 5th, 2008 at 4:17 am
good work! it will take some getting used to, but for now seems to be well thought out & designed.
feels smooth & efficient! (even if some things are hard to find right now- but that will come w/time)
( i would recommend making the forum link a one click deal)
December 5th, 2008 at 4:17 am
So, if I had a self-hosted blog using the WordPress software, I could simply choose to never download the new versions, right? I guess if I switched now it’s too late to download version 2.6 isn’t it?
I’ve never been one to switch to something new just because it was new. I have a friend who buys a new iPod everytime they come out with a new iPod. I find my 2nd Gen Nano still works great; I have no idea what version they’re even up to. I’ll find out when my old one stops functioning completely. I’ve had the same Hotmail address since I signed up in 1996. In 12 years I’ve never even changed the password. IF IT AIN’T BROKE, DON’T FIX IT.
They’re a reason people buy new computers and replace Vista with XP. XP may be an older version, but it is infinately better than the new crap Microsoft has forced on the American consumer. Before desiging the new interface, did you try asking people if they liked the old one? I remember when the old designed you just trashed was new, and you told us how great that one was Matt.
December 5th, 2008 at 4:28 am
It was great – for its time. However we know for a fact that things are much faster in this new interface, and it gives us a solid foundation to provide new features for many years to come. (So we won’t need to redesign again for a while.)
December 5th, 2008 at 4:19 am
VERY nice. I like it. Thank you, Matt.
December 5th, 2008 at 4:20 am
I’m not cracking on WordPress, just some people’s obcession to constantly redesign things. I love my blog; with only about 150 posts I’ve had over 18,000 page views in the last 6 months. I not going to bail on WordPress just because the dashboard keeps changing, but it is annoying. I would have happily used the 2.6 version dashboard for the next 30 years.
December 5th, 2008 at 4:20 am
So far I like it. Especially the STATS! Those are very important for me in tracking….they seem more thorough now.
I have two questions…..what is QuickPress? And, how do I change the font size in my post? Like, I want some letters larger than others…..
Thanks!
December 5th, 2008 at 4:20 am
No doubt. Much faster, more convenient, and organized. Definitely worth all the hype and waiting
Buttt could you possibly go for a category addition to QuickPress? please?
December 5th, 2008 at 4:24 am
Congratulations, the best of all is the speed
December 5th, 2008 at 4:24 am
Really need the “Visit Site” button. I know, click the blog name… Problem is, my blog doesn’t have a name / title; it’s known by its domain, and my user name (which are the same). Please bring back the “Visit Site” button…or at least make the gray area in the top-left corner where the title would appear just default to “Visit Site” when there’s no title. Otherwise, it looks great. Thanks very much.
December 5th, 2008 at 4:39 am
We’ve changed the link to use your URL as the link text if you don’t set a blog title.
December 5th, 2008 at 4:27 am
shiny. looks cool. thanks for the hard work
December 5th, 2008 at 4:30 am
Good point re: ‘Tricky’ and new things getting used too…
AWESOME!!
Thank you!
December 5th, 2008 at 4:30 am
Yeaahhhhh….it’s so good!
December 5th, 2008 at 4:32 am
I LOVE IT!!
December 5th, 2008 at 4:33 am
well done. A much needed improvement over 2.6.
December 5th, 2008 at 4:33 am
Love it! Love it! Love it! Much easier to navigate, better organized… everything that’s been said already and more!
Thanks!
December 5th, 2008 at 4:34 am
I like this new dashboard, but I didn’t yet know to VISIT to my posts.
December 5th, 2008 at 4:34 am
U rock !
Keep the good work
December 5th, 2008 at 4:35 am
Took a while to orientate myself….
I like the addition of the recent drafts widget in the dashboard… saves quite a few clicks compared to the old layout.
The loading time has definitely improved.
Many Thanks to WP team.
December 5th, 2008 at 4:36 am
I love it! Those are the first words that came to mind. Much easier to use
December 5th, 2008 at 4:37 am
cool! very nice design. but i still need to find my way around and get used to it. nice work =)
December 5th, 2008 at 4:39 am
so powerfull..so easier to organize.. Great Jobs!!
Its dashboard for WP 7.0?
December 5th, 2008 at 4:40 am
Great! Awesome! Thank you, tireless wordpress people.
December 5th, 2008 at 4:40 am
More attractive than before..
I like it..
December 5th, 2008 at 4:40 am
I give it a thumbs-up already. I’ve been using the beta-3 release on another blog (self-hosted), and I’ve liked the way all your tools are available at any moment, instead of plunging through several menu levels. Well done to the team who redesigned the dashboard, and labored so hard on the paradigm to come up with a winner!
December 5th, 2008 at 4:41 am
Looks great! I love it already. Hopefully I won’t find anything to change my mind.
December 5th, 2008 at 4:44 am
wow! i like it!
December 5th, 2008 at 4:48 am
Looks nice. I like how you can blog right off your dashboard if you want. You guys still need to put out an app for us blackberry users. Not everyone has an iphone. Come on! Please?!!
December 5th, 2008 at 4:52 am
Terrific work guys– The recent updates, from blavatars to this new dashboard design, continue to make wordpress.com an innovative and exciting project to be a part of.
December 5th, 2008 at 4:54 am
Wow. So this is what love at first sight feels like!
December 5th, 2008 at 4:54 am
Akismet page can’t be opened, the message “Cannot load akismet-admin.” appeared. Seems to be only me though from the comments here. Is it broken?
December 5th, 2008 at 6:51 am
Not sure where you started from to get that page. Could you contact support about it?
December 5th, 2008 at 4:55 am
Looks very lovely!
December 5th, 2008 at 4:56 am
Here’s my trouble matt: everytime I open the write new post page, the frame boxes on the right get in the way of some writing space, how to bug it off?? I don’t want to move it to the bottom everytime. It’s really annoying.
Thank you Matt and tireless wp team, great works!
December 5th, 2008 at 6:51 am
Could you contact support about that please?
December 5th, 2008 at 4:56 am
nice work, the only thing missing is a compass.
December 5th, 2008 at 4:58 am
Unable to find ‘visit site’ button, not any where to be seen, annoyed.
December 5th, 2008 at 5:07 am
Click on the title of your blog in the top left by the W logo.
December 5th, 2008 at 5:17 am
Just click the blog link on the top left corner.
December 5th, 2008 at 4:58 am
The new Dashboard design isn’t bad, but I’d prefer the update that we’ve been told could happen soon to support AdSense. Come on, WordPress, it’s not that hard.
December 5th, 2008 at 5:01 am
hey, its very nice to see new Dashboard. Its very organized, easy to catch stuff etc.
Great work by WordPress Team……
Thanks
December 5th, 2008 at 5:02 am
hey guys, great job and it looks very nice.. thanks a tonne…
Love,
Su
December 5th, 2008 at 5:04 am
Better than the old one. Much better. Thank You!
December 5th, 2008 at 5:08 am
Christmas came early. Yay! Love the new present.
December 5th, 2008 at 5:09 am
just woke up, staggered over to my pc turned on the adsl thingy, was trying to figure out what on earth readomatic is all about, that was on my browser – opera – fabulous opera – get my emails on it too -
I refreshed the page – and fell off my chair when the new format stared back at me!
it looks wickiiiid koowall!
so nice and simple looking – but dynamite under the surface
oh dear…..more time needed to try things out
well done WP…….again!
December 5th, 2008 at 5:10 am
The new dashboard is pretty and much easier to use, thanks! ヽ(‘ ∇‘ )ノ
December 5th, 2008 at 5:11 am
I absoluely love it. Great job guys.
December 5th, 2008 at 5:13 am
I admit that the older one was easier to use, and I was more comfortable with it, but I guess I’ll get use to the new one. Good job.
December 5th, 2008 at 5:14 am
Nick, Matt, et al ~
Good heavens! My fussing re: a forum link taken as a suggestion and implemented. I’m in WP heaven. And, I’ve discovered the change, and it’s great.
Just a note, here. I’m one of the doofi that’s been running around who had NO IDEA this was coming until everything changed tonight. I mean – NO idea. What can I say? I’m busy.
But, after discovering how to find my stats, and how to drag and drop or minimize things to suit, it’s coming together nicely. Batch editing and the ability to sort out drafts from posts looks good.
My point: even for a totally unprepared user, this thing sorts itself out pretty quickly. In a day or two, I suspect I’ll not remember the old version.
Thanks!
December 5th, 2008 at 5:15 am
Thank You, looks very good. Better than the old one.
December 5th, 2008 at 5:16 am
Nice…thanks WP.
Sure its going to take a couple of posts to get used to it, but i loved it !!
December 5th, 2008 at 5:18 am
Oh no. Not again!
December 5th, 2008 at 5:19 am
Thanks WordPress. I like the new layout so far – it is so much easier to navigate around.
December 5th, 2008 at 5:21 am
Perfect ! Matt you done a good Job……… Indonesian Blogger loves U ..
December 5th, 2008 at 5:25 am
woww.. great design.. i will explore it…
December 5th, 2008 at 5:28 am
WOW! What else can I say, I love the new look of my dashboard. Everything is simply organized!
December 5th, 2008 at 5:28 am
Erm, I can’t find my home page
December 5th, 2008 at 5:39 am
Try clicking your blog title in the top left.