Posted: Friday, November 19th, 2010 at 3:30 am. Filed in Features.
Tags: ajax, color scheme, column sorting, Dashboard, IE9, links, pagination, WordPress 3.1
New Features: Linking, Sorting, Paging
Oh my!
It’s that time of year again, when the folks over at WordPress.org start putting the finishing touches on the next version of WordPress (in this case, version 3.1), and the lucky users of WordPress.com are automatically included in the beta testing, giving you all access to new features about a month before they are officially released. This is awesome, because you get early access, and your feedback can help us make even more improvements. I’m personally pretty excited about the new features you’ll be seeing around here starting later tonight, as they are additions I’ve been wanting for a long time. Here are the new things you can expect to see the next time you’re in your dashboard:
Easier Internal Linking
Yay. Finally. Literally. Seriously. What?! I know, right? 
You’re writing a post (or a page) in WordPress. You mention something you’ve written about before, and think to yourself, “I’m going to link to that last post!” What do you do? You might open a new tab and search for the older content in your dashboard’s list of posts, or you might go to your live blog and find it. Either way, you have to find that content and get the URL, so that when you click on the link button in the post editor, you’ll have it ready. Right? What’s that, 5-8 steps, depending on which way you do it? No more!
Existing posts and pages can be found and linked to using dynamic search.
With our sexy new internal linking feature, you can now enter any URL to create a link just like you used to, OR you can search your existing posts and pages right there in the link popup. A combination of pre-loading, autocomplete, and some ajaxy goodness make the new link creation tool a joy to use (and man, that popup is so much faster!). We hope this addition spurs you to make more connections between pieces of content on your site, which will make it easier for your visitors to find more related content from you. One more time, all together now: Yay! (Right?)
Column Sorting
When you’re in your dashboard and you click to the Posts section (or Pages, Media, any screen with one of those listing tables), do you ever wish you could click a column header to change the display, like to sort things by date, alphabetically, by author, or other criteria? I know I wish for it all the time. And now we have it! This feature is a product of a successful Google Summer of Code student project, proof that the program is a great way to get involved with WordPress development. The little arrow next to the column heading (in my example screenshot, the Date column) shows you which column is determining the sort order, and if it’s ascending or descending. Just click on the column header to sort by that column, or to reverse the order.
Better Pagination
If you have a lot of content, you may have run into a mildly annoying experience at some point when paging through screens in the dashboard that list your posts, media files, etc. Clicking forward and back is easy enough, as is skipping to the first or last couple of screens, but what about the middle? Say you had 23 screens worth of post listings, you’re on screen #6, and based on the dates, you think the one you’re looking for might be around page 15 or so. You would have had to click several times to advance a few screens at a time until you reached the screen you wanted. No more! With our new pagination style, those quick forward/back and first/last links are still there, but now you can jump right to any screen by just changing the editable number shown in the pagination area (and hitting enter). Sweet!
Ajax Search Results
Reviewing search results will be faster and no longer require screen refreshes in the dashboard, thanks to the addition of ajax to the search results screen. Go Speed Racer!
Revised Blue Color Scheme
In the personal options in your profile, you have a choice between gray and blue dashboard color schemes (the default is gray). We updated the gray color scheme a while back, but didn’t update the blue one at the same time. (Remember when we moved from the dark header to the lighter header? Good times.) The new blue color scheme is lighter, cleaner, and based on the same shadings as the gray color scheme but with a blue hue so that your focus can remain firmly on your content creation, without distraction. If you’ve never tried the blue color scheme, now would be a great time to give it a whirl and see how you like it! Are there other colors you’d like to have as options? Let us know in the comments!
Improved IE9 Support
If you’ve had any trouble using drag and drop features in the dashboard or have had any problems with the Visual editor on the post creation screen when using Internet Explorer 9, sorry! Improvements have been made to make these features work smoothly in the latest Microsoft browser.
Good stuff, yeah? Things to bear in mind: these are new features, and though they’ve been worked on and tested for some time, you may find a bug we missed. If one of these features gives you any trouble, please let us know. You can leave a comment on this post within the next two weeks, talk about it in the forums, or contact support through the usual channels.
I hope you enjoy these additions as much as we enjoyed making them for you. Happy blogging!
Update: November 20, 2010 11:30am
Thanks to your reports we’ve been able to find and fix a couple of bugs that we didn’t encounter in our own advance testing.
- We fixed a conflict with the CSS plugin wordpress.com uses (the incompatibility did weird things to content in the editor), so reported problems like content being all underlined or bolded unexpectedly should no longer be happening.
- We fixed an issue with IE8 for internal linking. We are still working on issues with IE7. (But seriously, using outdated browsers is generally not a good idea. Update your browser!)
If you are still encountering issues with the new features, when you leave a comment or contact support, please state what operating system and browser you are using so we can troubleshoot faster. Examples: “I’m using Firefox 3.9 on Mac OSX 10.5.” ”I’m using Google Chrome on Windows 7.”
Thanks!
November 19th, 2010 at 3:38 am
A much needed feature…thank you very much.
November 19th, 2010 at 3:43 am
Never thought you could describe linking as “sexy,” but it so totally is!
Great info…thanks!
November 19th, 2010 at 3:44 am
I really like the new blue, but I’ve been posting on and off all day, and all of the sudden, it’s much brighter! It kinda scared me. Thought my blog was gonna s’plode! lol…
November 19th, 2010 at 3:44 am
Awesome! Love these new improvements! Thanks again! Can’t wait to see what you come up with next.
November 19th, 2010 at 3:45 am
I found myself nodding my head constantly, thinking ‘yes, finally!’ to almost all of it! Great improvements!
November 19th, 2010 at 3:48 am
I could have used some of these two days ago and yesterday when I did my anniversary post. So much hunting…this will be most usable.
November 19th, 2010 at 3:51 am
Better Pagination is one thing i like bcs when ever i want to add a image it takes hell lot of time bcs i have more than 300+ images sometime i need to add image in between 100 so it takes a lot of time clicking next and all yeah we can use keyword and search but this feature is cool thank u wordress keep rocking
November 19th, 2010 at 3:51 am
Ooooooooooooh!!!!! I know I will use the internal linking feature. That will save so many steps and therefore lots of time, which will be great when I’m in a locale that has slow Internet service. Same with the pagination feature. Thank you!
November 19th, 2010 at 3:52 am
Better Pagination is it only for pages ???????? i want it also in media library
November 19th, 2010 at 5:04 am
All list-type screens have the new pagination.
November 19th, 2010 at 3:52 am
VERY cool features! WordPress just gets better and better
November 19th, 2010 at 3:55 am
Love it! you guys keep getting better and better.
November 19th, 2010 at 3:55 am
Easier internal Linking. Sounds really helpful. Marvelous
November 19th, 2010 at 3:56 am
Easier Internal Linking – this is really exciting to me because I link to older posts all the time. You have saved me time and made it more likely that I will bother to post every link to older posts. Thanks so much for all you do to make WordPress the absolute best blogging site on the internet!!
November 19th, 2010 at 3:57 am
The “Easier Internal Linking” part made me laugh. What Jane described there has happened to me soooooo many times
November 19th, 2010 at 3:58 am
these are zupeerr!! thx wordpress
November 19th, 2010 at 4:02 am
Awesome! Keep up the great work!
November 19th, 2010 at 4:05 am
Awesome!
November 19th, 2010 at 4:14 am
Awesome! Really like the idea of easier internal linking. Looking forward to using it…
November 19th, 2010 at 4:24 am
Absolutely GREAT! So excited about the new LINKING feature! YAYYYYYYY!
November 19th, 2010 at 4:25 am
Digging the new improvements, especially the Pagination! This was always a pain in the butt when I was looking for an older pic I posted to use in a new post.
Good Job! Keep em comin’!
November 19th, 2010 at 4:27 am
Holy COW!!! That first new feature is gonna make my life so much better! Wow! I’ve got over 1000 posts on one blog and hundreds of posts on other blogs and I’m often trying to link old content to new! Thanks so much!
November 19th, 2010 at 4:29 am
Internal linking – I know, right
The Blue is nice too …thanks!
November 19th, 2010 at 4:34 am
Love your work! Look forward to quick links! Cheers.
November 19th, 2010 at 4:38 am
Like the new tweeks. The new linking system is great!
November 19th, 2010 at 4:39 am
I think the new improvements sound great. I especially think the “easier internal linking” and “column sorting” sound awesome. Thanks for the great work! I think WordPress is ONE place in the world where when you say “We’ve improved this.” – it is actually true.
November 19th, 2010 at 4:47 am
This is very, very wonderful. As in major, major wonderful.
November 19th, 2010 at 4:49 am
¡Nice! you are moving ahead, that’s a good sign. Thanks for sharing your dream with all of us.
November 19th, 2010 at 4:52 am
Awesome! I can’t wait to try the internal linking feature. Thanks for your hard work!
November 19th, 2010 at 4:54 am
Thank you so much! This is extremely useful!
November 19th, 2010 at 4:54 am
Internal linking – I like it !!!
November 19th, 2010 at 4:57 am
Love your dedication to improving the tech. Something for all of us to appreciate regardless of sophistication [or not].
November 19th, 2010 at 4:57 am
Cool! Thank you
November 19th, 2010 at 4:57 am
The faster linking will become very handy.
Thanks.
November 19th, 2010 at 5:00 am
Love it!
November 19th, 2010 at 5:07 am
Rocking. This is a very useful update, thanks.
November 19th, 2010 at 5:12 am
You had me at Easier Internal Linking.
November 19th, 2010 at 5:15 am
Yay to ‘Easier Internal Linking’ and also ‘Better Pagination’.
November 19th, 2010 at 5:29 am
This is better than new themes! It helps alot to link with my older posts and easier admin tasks. Thanks
November 19th, 2010 at 5:45 am
Great stuff! I’ve tried the linking and I’m off to discover the other features. Thanks so much!
November 19th, 2010 at 5:46 am
Lovely to know that the WordPress team is just as concerned about the back end of things as the front. Thank you! Looking forward to hearing about the other new features coming our way.
November 19th, 2010 at 5:49 am
AWESOME!! I am so happy!
I have no life!!
November 19th, 2010 at 5:53 am
Love the new features. The linking improvements are inspired. WordPress is wonderful.
November 19th, 2010 at 5:57 am
I really love the internal linking ability because I’m always going “oh yeah, I want to include a previous post” and then having to go through a lot of trouble finding the old post. Thanks so much for the new features!
November 19th, 2010 at 5:58 am
You guys are the best.
November 19th, 2010 at 5:59 am
just thinking about it yesterday and walla here it is!!! WordPress .people have sixth sense
November 19th, 2010 at 6:02 am
Sounds awesome! Kudos to u guys!
November 19th, 2010 at 6:02 am
Easier and faster!
Thanks
November 19th, 2010 at 6:06 am
Thanks for all the new features. Used the new URL feature this evening and it worked great.
November 19th, 2010 at 6:17 am
AWESOME!
November 19th, 2010 at 6:17 am
wah..waiting for so long to use this
November 19th, 2010 at 6:42 am
Sweet! I am most excited about the internal linking feature. That is going to be a huge time saver! Nice work WP.
November 19th, 2010 at 6:43 am
Thanks! The internal linking feature is most welcome!
November 19th, 2010 at 6:43 am
Cool, thanks!
November 19th, 2010 at 6:52 am
I doubt I’ll use the the new URL thing because (1) I don’t memorize URL addresses, (2) The search thing pulls up so many choices that the old method will be just as efficient for me. I never use the previous or next feature anyway. I pretty much know what I posted when because much of what I do is event/date sensitive.
Pagination is promising. Others make it work well.
I could care less about color scheme and I don’t use IE9 but thank you for your continued efforts.
November 19th, 2010 at 6:53 am
The new linking feature is going to be brilliant – thank you again WP.
November 19th, 2010 at 6:53 am
Like it but look forward to something like Linkwithin.
November 19th, 2010 at 6:55 am
“YESssssssss!”
Let’s hear it for internal linking & better pagination.
“Thank-you, thank-you, THANK-YOU!”
November 19th, 2010 at 7:11 am
Thanks for the newbies…glad to know you are out there somewhere.
Like the linking speedo
all the best
November 19th, 2010 at 7:20 am
Hi
Love the Easier Internal Linking feature but I am intrigued as to why you refer to it as “Sexy” ?
“With our sexy new internal linking feature, you can now enter any URL to create a link just like you used to…”
Surely it’s practical, easy etc but sexy, never
November 19th, 2010 at 8:26 am
Saving time is definitely sexy!
November 19th, 2010 at 7:24 am
The new link system will be great. I was adding an internal link just a few hours ago – and yes, you’re right – the old way was a bit of a fiddle. I’ll look forward to trying it out! Thanks.
November 19th, 2010 at 7:26 am
superb feature now i am feeling how helpful it is
saved half of my work on every post i make and being in wordpress for one year this is the most exciting feature i liked in 2010 heheheh
November 19th, 2010 at 7:26 am
Hummm… this REALLY nice… Thank You!
November 19th, 2010 at 7:31 am
Think it’s very useful feature!
November 19th, 2010 at 7:33 am
Nice new features! I love the internal linking! I’ve been missing that…
I’m still waiting for the feature that lets you try new themes and customize them before they’re shown on the actual blog. Like a “Publish”-button for the new theme when you’re satisfied. I hate the way my blog looks when I’m in the middle of changing themes and is customizing it and trying colors and such – it looks like a constructionsite and it ain’t pretty! I would rather like my visitors to see the old theme until the new theme is complete and ready for the world! =D
November 19th, 2010 at 8:24 am
It’s something we’ve talked about…. maybe someday!
November 19th, 2010 at 7:36 am
This is probably the best update for wordpress ever!!!
I wish I had known wordpress earlier.. I used to use a different site and had the worst experience ever.
I really love wordpress! You guys should add a feature of liking a comment!
November 19th, 2010 at 7:37 am
These new features were much awaited ones. Thank you so much for helping out bloggers who enjoy flying with you.
November 19th, 2010 at 7:47 am
this is the way to create anthusiasm in community users this is really awaited……………….luv u all who create those things
November 19th, 2010 at 7:59 am
Was doing some internal linking this morning and discovered this new method … I thought wow, that’s great … and then I read this post!
You guys come up with features that I can use faster than I can think of what I’d like to have.
Brian
November 19th, 2010 at 8:02 am
Nice..Very nice work wordpress team.
November 19th, 2010 at 8:05 am
Nice!
November 19th, 2010 at 8:08 am
Thank you so very much! WP rocks!!!
November 19th, 2010 at 8:10 am
WordPress, I think I love you!
November 19th, 2010 at 8:11 am
I think I might like that link feature. I will see if I can get the blue, not loving the gray background.
November 19th, 2010 at 8:12 am
Great stuff – the linking is great
November 19th, 2010 at 8:13 am
Super
November 19th, 2010 at 8:14 am
Marvellous, thank you! Internal linking is a wish granted
Colour schemes: I’d like to suggest brown (sepia) in addition to blue and gray – it’s a warmer tone. Please?
November 19th, 2010 at 8:18 am
Nice one guys! Thanks!!
November 19th, 2010 at 8:56 am
Well thought! Makes life much easier. Thanks.
November 19th, 2010 at 9:18 am
Sounds terrific – especially the enhanced Linking. Thanks, WP!
November 19th, 2010 at 9:36 am
Internal linking is really fantastic as a feature :-p
But also the others are really useful… well done DUDES!!! :-p
November 19th, 2010 at 9:43 am
Maybe get a lot of color schemes and put all of them as an option. You know, like a website template. And maybe have fancy schemes, such as “Easter” “Thanksgiving” “Aquatic”.
November 19th, 2010 at 9:55 am
Brilliant! Really liked the idea of easier internal linking. Keep it up guys!
November 19th, 2010 at 9:57 am
WOW!! this gives me strength to link my older posts to newer ones with ease! Thank you Team WordPress.
November 19th, 2010 at 10:03 am
Super cool. The linking feature looks awesome. You guys spoil us
November 19th, 2010 at 10:04 am
That’s why WP is the best blog service in the world! Thanks!
November 19th, 2010 at 10:13 am
Thanks, WP! I love Easier Internal Linking.
November 19th, 2010 at 10:26 am
Whoohoo!! Great job!! Uhm, but since it’s beta testing, does that mean it’s gonna beta-ken away from us when the time comes?
November 19th, 2010 at 11:22 am
Hi, the beta means that you get early access, but the features are there to stay
November 19th, 2010 at 10:57 am
Yay!!! Internal linking will save sooo much time … will have to work on a post (have one in mind already) just so I can use it! Thanks!
November 19th, 2010 at 11:00 am
you just made my life easier with the Internal Linking apps – great stuff guys!
November 19th, 2010 at 11:28 am
What a wonderful early Christmas. All these improvements are great. If I may suggest one… On the dashboard page, under the clicks section: It would be nice to know what page the clicks are coming from. You show the links that were clicked but sometimes the same links can be found on different pages or posts over a span of many years. It would be great (but not necessary) to know exactly which page the link came from. Just an idea.
November 19th, 2010 at 11:32 am
Thanks for news features…
November 19th, 2010 at 11:48 am
I’ve been waiting for the internal linking feature. Thanks!!
November 19th, 2010 at 12:05 pm
Linking – guarded yay, as it seems inconceivable that it hasn’t been there from the beginning! First thing I noticed when I started using WordPress. But mustn’t grumble, it’s here at last!
November 19th, 2010 at 12:48 pm
*Easier Internal Linking*
Yes! Yes! Yes!
November 19th, 2010 at 12:48 pm
Who knew I could get so excited over “Column Sorting”?! New features sound great, can’t wait to try them.
November 19th, 2010 at 12:54 pm
Great stuff. Yay!! How much will it cost? Where do I sign up?
What? Huh?
It’s all free and I don’t even have to ask for it? WordPress, you’re better than Santa!
November 19th, 2010 at 1:02 pm
I am delighted I found wordpress.com. At a time when new features are being introduced and are welcomed by my predecessors. As a new user and a beginner in web publishing, I will need the new features and i’m sure they will enhance my learning very fast. Thank you for your generousity
November 19th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
Very good feature many thanks
November 19th, 2010 at 1:17 pm
Excellent stuff! loving it all, and i also completely agree with Susann about the theme-changing-avoiding-construction-site-blog-while-in-transition… really is something to think about. i love you guys. xx
November 19th, 2010 at 1:19 pm
Thank you very much! It’s thoughtful little tweaks like these that make WordPress far and away the best blogging platform I’ve ever used. I love the idea of the improved internal linking, and the changes to column sorting and pagination will also be very useful. I also really like the new blue colour scheme – I had my dashboard set up with the old blue scheme for ages, and noticed it had changed (for the better!) when I logged in this morning. It’s much easier on the eyes and it looks great!