Automattic designer Matt Thomas yesterday announced the dashboard’s redesign, which features better contrast, the “oh-so-lovely” Open Sans as the default typeface… and is pretty much the (top secret!) MP6 plugin many of us were expecting would be part of WordPress 3.6.

The revamp also includes redrawn icons and spacing in the dashboard has been opened up.

Thomas said he had a handful of goals for the redesign, which included:

• A simply, uncluttered design; free of excessive decoration and focused on your content.
• It should use webfonts for beautiful, legible typography that’s consistent in every browser.
• A responsive design tailored to desktop computers, tablets and smartphones.
• It should be able to do all this while retaining the familiar user-tested dashboard interface that millions of users already understand.

He said work was still underway on a responsive design for users who used smartphones or tablets to post to their WordPress.com site.

The new dashboard will be available later this year, but is available to preview now.

To enable the responsive dashboard, go to Users > Personal Settings and click the checkbox next to “Enable experimental responsive design (MP6)”.

Thomas was quick to respond to comments in his announcement post about bugs in the design. He has encouraged users to send any screenshots to WordPress.com support.

The announcement comes after the final weekly update for the MP6 plugin at Make WordPress UI on June 8.

In response to a question about whether MP6 will be the new WordPress 3.6 dashboard design, Thomas reassured users the plugin wouldn’t be part of the release. It’s possible we will see this dashboard design in a future release of WordPress.

It’s great to see the dashboard has been given a beautiful look. Hopefully the confusing navigation will be next to get a makeover because I’m not the only one who gets lost trying to use it.

What do you think of the redesigned dashboard? Do you think it meets Thomas’ goals? Tell us in the comments below.

Image credit: Pixabay

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The app’s creator Tom Witkin announced the news in a short statement on his blog, saying he, along with his software, had been snatched up by the WordPress.com parent company. He didn’t disclose how much money changed hands.

Witkin will be joining Automattic’s mobile team as a designer and coder.

“So what’s changing? Poster will no longer be available for purchase, but if you’ve already bought the app you’ll always be able to re-download it. I’m continuing to support it, and I’m always just an email away if you’ve got any questions.

As for me, I get to keep doing what I love: creating apps and experiences that enable and delight. The only difference is that I get new opportunities to continue to learn and develop personally and now get to work with some amazing people. I truly believe that something great will come from devoting my time and attention to Automattic.”

Poster was added to the Apple App Store last August, offering a clean and simple blogging alternative to the WordPress iOS app.

Witkins’ app has already been taken down from App Store. It is yet to be added to Automatic’s list of products.

It’s interesting to note that Witkins’ addition to the mobile team comes after WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg recently spoke to CNN Money about the platform’s need to focus on mobile technology.

“I think probably within the next five years we’ll transition to a majority, or super majority, of WordPress usage coming from touch devices, including things like laptops that have keyboards, but they’ll primarily be touch driven,” Mullenweg said.

“I don’t think we embraced mobile early enough, especially because open source communities don’t embrace these closed platforms.

“We’re doing fantastic on the web and growing that percentage but I don’t think our mobile apps are really where they should be at.”

The Poster acquisition is the second time Automattic has pulled out its cheque book this year and is the latest in a long list of Automattic’s acquisitions, starting with Gravatar.

• Gravatar - October 2007
• BuddyPress - April 2008
• Intense Debate - September 2008
• Polldaddy - October 2008
• Blo.gs - April 2009
• After the Deadline - September 2009
• Plinky - June 2010
• Code Garage - December 2012
• Simperium - January 2013
• Poster - June 2013

So what has happened to these products and services – which you may or may not have heard about before – since Automattic’s snapped them all up?

Let’s take a look:

Gravatar

After buying Gravatar, a service for providing unique avatars that follow you from site to site, Automattic rewrote it in PHP, made premium features free, improved the server response time, allowed for bigger sizes, and now millions of avatar images are being served over 8.6 billions times each day.

Sites that have signed on to use Gravatar include American Idol and Battlefield 3 Battlelog.

Tom Preston-Werner, who created Gravatar, went on to successfully start GitHub in 2008 and is the code host’s CEO.

BuddyPress

Automattic bought out the social networking in a box software and hired its creator Andy Peatling, who continues to work as a WordPress.com engineer.

The first stable release of BuddyPress hit the shelves – or should I say, the WordPress plugin directory – in May 2009 and since then a small core team led by John James Jacoby has continued what Peatling started.

The latest stable version, 1.7.2, includes theme compatibility, group administration and a streamlined installation process. BuddyPress 1.8-beta 1 was released on June 13. BuddyPress has been downloaded almost 1.5 million times.

In September 2010, Automattic gave control over BuddyPress to the WordPress Foundation.

IntenseDebate

Less than a year after startup incubator TechStars launched the commenting system in October 2007, Automattic bought out Intense Debate and hired its developers for an undisclosed sum.

The system “super charges” the comment section of a site by adding features like threading, reply by email, voting, reputation and global profiles.

At the time of the buyout, Mullenweg wrote in his blog that he planned to keep Intense Debate as a platform-agnostic, independent service and integrate some of its features into future versions of WordPress and Gravatar.

“Long-term, I think comments are the most crucial interaction point for blogs and an area that deserves a lot of investment and innovation,” Mullenweg said.

According to the plugin’s trac log, it hasn’t been updated in 12 months, though the Intense Debate blog is regularly updated.

It’s not clear what Automattic’s plans are for the commenting system, but it’s still available to other blogging platforms and can be activated as a plugin within WordPress installs.

PollDaddy

Polldaddy started out as a two-man, self-funded operation in Ireland before it was acquired by Automattic.

Co-founder David Lenehan became the product lead for Polldaddy at Automattic. The polling and survey software now operates using PHP and MySQL and is more stable and scalable.

The plugin’s trac log shows it’s regularly updated and support questions are quickly answered. The blog on Polldaddy’s site is updated sporadically.

Like IntenseDebate, it seems Automattic is simply maintaining PollDaddy for use as a plugin with no grand plans in the works.

Blo.gs

Automattic acquired blo.gs, a ping update service, from Yahoo. Yahoo had originally bought the service from it’s creator Jim Winstead in June 2005.

At the time, Matt Mullenweg said Yahoo was transferring blo.gs to Automattic for “safekeeping”, adding he had been a long-time fan of the service and it had inspired an early WordPress feature that reordered blogrolls based on update times.

“We’re looking forward to beefing up the service and giving it a refresh, while continuing its reputation for reliability,” Mullenweg posted on his blog.

Well, a quick visit to to blo.gs reveals the site’s news feed was last updated in 2009 - with a post announcing Automattic had acquired the service.

It seems the site has been neglected and any plans to beef it up have been long forgotten.

After the Deadline

Mullenweg discovered After the Deadline when the spelling, grammar and style-checking software’s founder Raphael Mudge commented on a Hackernews post that his software had found errors in a New York Times article. Mullenweg contacted Mudge and just a few months later, Mudge had joined Automattic’s staff. He was tasked with delivering After the Deadline to non-English speaking bloggers.

The software is now available for French, German, Portugese and Spanish, as well as English and is free to for personal use as a Firefox add-on, Chrome extension and OpenOffice extension.

It’s no longer available as a plugin for WordPress – in June 2012, After the Deadline became part of Jetpack.

Mudge worked for Automattic as a code wrangler for about a year and now runs software and training company Strategic Cyber.

Plinky

Plinky joined the Automattic family about a year after its launch in early 2009. Plinky was Thing Labs’ first product, which they stopped developing after their Twitter client Brizzly took off.

Plinky is a site designed to help people get over writer’s block. The service send you a prompt every weekday with a question, such as “What is your favorite summer memory?” or “Is being ‘normal’ – whatever that means to you – a good thing or a bad thing? Neither?” to get your creative juices flowing.

Automattic code wrangler Stephane Daury and Krista Stevens, who leads the editorial team, continue to work on Plinky. Plinky supports WordPress as well as LIveJournal, Tumblr, TypePad, WordPress.com, WordPress.org and Xanga. Plinky answers can also be shared on Twitter and Facebook.

Like IntenseDebate and Polldaddy, it appears Plinky is being maintained, with no big plans to further expand the service.

AOL acquired Thing Labs in 2010.

Code Garage

When Code Garage founder Peter Butler found his business was growing larger than he alone could handle, he approached Automattic and a few months later joined the VaultPress team.

At the time, Mullenweg said he hoped Automattic could learn from Code Garage’s approaches, such as its agency-friendly pricing model, making it easy for customers to manage dozens of sites, something that VaultPress was experimenting with.

Butler has written an insightful post about how he started Code Garage and how it was eventually acquired by Automattic.

The backup and security service, along with all of Butler’s customers, is in the process of being fully merged with VaultPress and existing Code Garage customers have been invited to migrate to VaultPress by July 1. Butler continues to work for Automattic.

Simperium

In January this year, Automattic bought out Simperium, a startup that ran a data syncing platform and, along with it, Simplenote, the company’s personal note-keeping app.

Automattic also bought the simplenote.com domain name from a squatter.

Simperium’s three-member team, including founders Mike Johnston and Fred Cheng, joined Automattic as part of the acquisition.

In a post on the Simplenote blog, Johnston and Cheng said the plan was to “super charge” Simplenote with a lot more attention in the “coming months and years to come” on native apps for more platforms, ongoing improvements and more work on the data syncing service.

“You know how sometimes, the services you love just disappear when they’re bought by someone else? Or they wither and die a slow and painful death? Not the case here. We made sure of that,” they posted.

In announcing the acquisition, Mullenweg posted on his blog that he was a daily user and fan of Simplenote and looked forward to seeing how Simperium could be used across WordPress.com

Simplenote is still available to download for free, but the app’s blog has only been updated once since Simperium was acquired. Who knows, the acquisition could be part of some big plan to advance WordPress into the touch device market – or maybe Mullenweg has just scooped up another product/service he personally like to use.

Summing Up

So what will happen to Poster? Well, existing users can continue using it but we’ll have to wait and see whether its features are incorporated into future versions of WordPress or it is re-released as a stand-alone app for mobile devices.

Is there any software you would/wouldn’t like to see Automattic snap up? Tell us in the comments below.

Image credits: Joi, Wikimedia Commons, Del Barfoot.

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Is it JIF or GIF?

I’m gonna keep saying GIF with a hard “G”. End of story, as the file format’s creator Steve Wilhite likes to say.

P.S. This is a Friday Funny so chillax :)

When you activate a new theme for the first time and it’s not quite what you expected…

When you finish writing a post and you can finally close all the windows that are clogging your browser…

When you need to update an old plugin that you didn’t bother putting comments in…

When you’ve had a long day at work and can’t quite switch your brain off…

When the WordPress visual post editor removes all your forced line breaks…

When one of your posts tops WPMail’s latest email newsletter…

When you find out Matt Mullenweg paid $14,000 for WPTavern…

When WPMU DEV announces it’s changing its pricing structure and customers have a lot of questions…

When the WordPress gods blacklist your website…

When WordPress 3.6 is finally released…

When Apple unveilled iOS 7…

When you saw the NSA’s PowerPoint presentation

When you haven’t watched the latest episode of Game of Thrones and someone gives away a spoiler…

When you realise it has just turned five o’clock on a Friday…

Have a great weekend! Share you favorite animated GIFs in the comments below.

Credits: the_coding_love();, lubczuk, gif vs jif, Twister Sifter, Developer Life.

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The Heartbeat API will be a new feature introduced in the latest release. It’s been designed to deliver login expiration notifications, provide post locking and trigger autosaves - making writers like me very happy.

According to Andrew Ozz who is leading the API’s development:

“The purpose of this API is to simulate bidirectional connection between the browser and the server. Initially it will be used for autosave, post locking and log-in expiration warning while a user is writing or editing.

The idea is to have a relatively simple API that sends XHR requests to the server every 15 seconds and triggers events (or callbacks) on receiving data. Other components would be able to “hitch a ride” or get notified about another user’s activities.

In the future this can be used to block simultaneous editing of widgets and menus or any other tasks that require regular updates from the server.”

The “heartbeat” will be set to a default 15 second interval when the browser window is in focus and the user is active. When the window is out of focus or there aren’t any mouse and keyboard strokes for 5 minutes, that interval drops to 2 minutes.

Locking posts has been a sought after feature, giving people who work on websites with multiple authors editing posts, like WPMU.org, the ability to “lock” posts. The last Autosave update at Make WordPress Core reveals a dialog box will be shown either when an author visits a locked post or when a post becomes locked. When you visit an already locked post you will have the option to break the lock and take over control of a post, a handy feature if you’re an editor.

As I mentioned above, autosaving is important to writers. There’s nothing worse than tapping out a long and carefully written post and then losing every single freaking word when there’s a brownout or your cat has jumped onto your mouse and inadvertently navigated to another browser page. I’ve sworn at my laptop, at WordPress, and for a while started writing posts in Notepad to avoid using the WordPress post editor.

So I was a very happy camper when Mark Jacquith acknowledged my pain and the pain of others before me back in January when he announced an update to the autosave feature in 3.6, enabling autosaving to the browser’s local storage:

I want, as a major 3.6 bullet point, that we should never lose posts due to expired cookies, loss of connection, inadvertent navigation (even if AYS’d), plugin or core errors on save, browser crashes, OS crashes, cats walking on keyboards, children drooling in keyboards, etc. I want people to trust WordPress with their posts.

They should never fear that something they’ve spent time creating or editing should go away due to their mistake or ours or that of a third party. Mistakes and errors should be recoverable. I can’t stress enough how important it is that people believe this and have good reason to believe it. If a post gets lost, there is a catastrophic loss of trust, that could take years to be regained (if indeed it ever is). This is people’s time and their creative output we’re talking about. If we’re not valuing those things above all else, then our priorities are seriously out of order.

This is an all-hands-on-deck item for 3.6. Even if you’re not actively working on the code or the copy or the UI or the UX I want you to be thinking about ways in which WordPress could better treat your creative output as the valuable artifact it is.

The last Autosave update also reveals improved user logout notification is now in core and its UI has been tweaked to directly show the login box, rather than prompting first. According to Ozz, there was discussion as to whether it was better not to block a user’s access to the editor/current page when it was detected they not longer had a login token, since it would stop the user while they were in the middle of a sentence.

Hopefully we’ll see another Autosave update soon as there hasn’t been one in a while.

There will be a lot of opportunities for developers and plugin and theme sellers to make the most of the heartbeat. Mike Hansen has suggested it could be used to enable comments on posts to auto populate while someone is viewing them, blog posts could auto populate while a reader is viewing all posts and forums such as bbPress could even become interactive like a chat room. Pretty cool stuff.

A heartbeat test plugin is available if you want to try it out.

What else do you think the heartbeat could be used for? Tell us in the comments below.

Credits: hyekab25, Aaron Jacobs, DavidDennisPhotos.com

No related posts.

But for every beautiful theme there is a truly fugly one waiting for some poor unsuspecting soul to download and activate it on their WordPress site.

I scoured the internet to put together this collection of some of the worst WordPress themes. There are some real shockers out there, but it just goes to show how far web design has come since WordPress was conceived and how high expectations are now for theme creators.

Check out the list and let us know if you’ve come across any fugly themes that didn’t make it into the list.

P.S. This isn’t supposed to be a serious article – it’s a Friday Funny. Apologies if you designed any of these sites. But hey, maybe you’ll get some downloads :)

1. Jakobian

INFO

Let’s ease into the list with this cracker. It is described by its designer as “A hideously ugly, barely usable theme inspired by (infamous web usability consultant) Jakob Nielsen.” Apparently the theme is based on an older version of Nielsen’s website.

The colors don’t work at all – the soft yellow and blue backgrounds are the same color as the fading onesies my little brother wore when he was a baby back in the late 1980s.

2. Rounded Blue

INFO

A boring name for a boring looking theme. “A simple layout with one column for posts and two columns for widgets at the bottom,” according to the designer.

A fantastic theme if you want to take your website back to circa 1999.

3. A

INFO

Another boring design, this time in 50 shades of green. Much like EL James’ book, Fifty Shades of Grey, this theme lacks class.

4. Winter

INFO

Geocities anyone? According to the designer, “In the winter sunshine, glittering snowflakes, they are lovely and comforting.” This theme is anything but comforting. The repetitive background hurts my eyeballs and I can almost smell the cheese wafting from the snow in the sidebar.

All it needs is a scrolling marquee to complete the look.

5. Shelter

INFO

I haven’t seen wood panelling this ugly since I designed my first house in Sims in 2000.

The designer describes the theme as having a “richly toned wood floor background with bare-earth colored widgetized sidebar and footer… A strong theme to begin with; grow into; and, build on.”

How would you build onto this theme? I’d grow into it with an image of a moose head and an animated GIF of a roaring fire.

6. Nature

INFO

“A great, simple theme that gives out a very natural and refreshing vibe. You can just smell the trees!” according to the designer.

I can’t smell the one little tree on the page… my nose can’t get past the poo-colored background or the green headers. It really is ugly.

7. Medieval

INFO

Okay, so this theme hasn’t been updated in two years. Still, this Geocities-inspired design wasn’t exactly trendy two years ago. The border looks like the carpet my grandmother had in her house in the 1970s.

8. BlankSlate

INFO

When I installed and activated this theme I thought it hadn’t loaded properly so I hit refresh. Nope, it really is supposed to look like an error occurred and it’s missing CSS.

9. Heavy

INFO

This theme is also shades of wrong, despite the designer’s assurance that it is “very professional and very free” and is a “beautiful modern theme.”

I can understand the metal floor background, given the name of the theme, but the pink header background and links don’t make sense at all. Then there’s the butterflies and the hummingbird, which look absolutely ridiculous and out of place in the header. It’s like the designer got distracted after setting the background image.

10. Edublogs

INFO

And last but not least, one of our own designs… the Edublogs theme.

Download it and take your site back in time seven years!

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The parallax effect, or parallax scrolling, in web design features layered images that move at different speeds, creating the illusion of depth as you scroll down the page, kind of like a faux-3D effect. Usually the background moves slower than the foreground. The technique uses scrolling to reveal new content and works similar to one-page sites where all the content is on a single page.

It’s a cool effect that can turn an otherwise boring looking website into something fun and exciting – and even a bit sexy.

The term parallax is derived from the Greek work parallaxis, meaning alteration. Nearby objects have a larger parallax than more distant objects when seen from different positions, so parallax scrolling can be used to determine distances.

I’ve put together a list of premium parallax WordPress themes – with a few free ones thrown in – that will transform your site. Check them out – you’ll be impressed.

Happy scrolling!

P.S. If you’ve seen any parallex themes in your interweb travels that have impressed you, share them in the comments below.

1. Parallax

INFO | DEMO

A responsive theme that features two color variations and is widget-ready. Parallax is visually beautiful and ideal for showing off your images.

2. Harmony

INFO | DEMO

Harmony has been designed especially for bands and musicians and includes the ability to play songs, handle events, upload photo galleries and sell merchandise. It features big background images and is easily customizable.

3. SCRN

INFO | DEMO

A single responsive and minimalist theme ideal for promoting your business. It is easily customizable and includes lots of shortcodes.

4. 907

INFO | DEMO

907 is a beautiful and visually eye-popping responsive theme that makes use of custom post types and offers many widget options.

5. Mercurial

INFO | DEMO

Mercurial is fully-customizable and includes beautiful typographic effects and the ability to insert portfolios, skill bars, clients logos, social sharing icons, sliders, pricing tables and build up team pages. It is perfect for freelancers, businesses, events and photographers.

6. SlideOne

INFO | DEMO

An awesome one-page theme that is customizable and includes more than 350 fonts and the ability to feature unlimited contents in the sidebar.

7. Pulsar

INFO | DEMO

Pulsar is fully-responsive with five parallax sections and is designed for creative types who want to make a portfolio in minutes.

8. Minimum

INFO | DEMO

A high quality and professional theme for businesses, which features three fluid AJAX animations. You can create unlimited parallax pages and add unlimited sliders and slides.

9. Montreal

INFO | DEMO

Montreal is perfect for creative agencies or freelancers keen to showcase their work. It features a fullscreen slideshow, six different portfolio versions, a great blog layout and a project planner.

10. Status

INFO | DEMO

Status is a modular and responsive theme suited for business or portfolio sites and includes customizable features.

11. Balloons

INFO | DEMO

A cute theme for bloggers wanting to add a personal touch to their site. Balloons is a one-column, minimalist theme with a touch of quirk.

12. QuickStep

INFO | DEMO

QuickStep is a responsive one-page theme for creative portfolios with AJAX page loading, unlimited color options and sliders, along with custom page backgrounds.

13. Dynamo

INFO | DEMO

A clean and fully-responsive theme with a featured slider, 10 page templates and unlimited color options.

14. Tokyo

INFO | DEMO

Designed as a modern take on the concept of corporate websites, Tokyo is a responsive theme with unlimited styles, custom layouts, shortcodes and easy translations.

15. Dreamer

INFO | DEMO

A fully-responsive theme with a filterable portfolio, more than a thousand icons, responsive video and a twitter feed.

16. Pen and Paper

INFO | DEMO

Pen and Paper is a fully-responsive, one-page minimalist theme that’s great for personal sites and portfolios.

17. Parallax

INFO | DEMO

Parallax is visually stunning and ideal for creatives wanting to showcase their work. It features a fully-responsive layout, a portfolio custom post type.

18. Persona

INFO | DEMO

A beautiful and responsive theme perfect for a creative portfolio, personal website or a designer’s profile. It is fully-customizable.

19. Surreal

INFO | DEMO

Surreal features the ability to embed video and includes a masonry portfolio, contact form and CSS3 animation.

20. Kula

INFO | DEMO

A beautiful, simple and visually stunning theme, Kula is perfect for freelancers and creative agencies wanting to show off their work. It features beautiful typography and iconography as well as CSS3 effects.

21. Tharsis

INFO | DEMO

A single, responsive theme ideal for designers who want to promote their work. It is responsive and minimalist.

22. Impress

INFO | DEMO

A bold design that makes good use of images, Impress is fully-customizable and includes shortcodes, sticky navigation and is responsive.

23. Reason

INFO | DEMO

Reason is an eye-catching and stylish theme ready for mobile devices and includes shortcodes, an icon menu and an AJAX contact form.

24. Ego

INFO | DEMO

Ego is sleek and bold with a beautiful fullscreen slider and features a blog, an AJAX portfolio and custom captions.

25. Camara

INFO | DEMO

Camara has been designed for creatives to showcase their work and is responsive and bold.

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Version 3.6 has undergone a complete makeover, with a new UI, a shortcut in the sidebar for faster and easier posting and improved push notifications.

The interface is not as clunky as it used to be – it’s easier than ever to fire up the app while you’re sitting on the train to work or having a coffee at your favourite cafe and tap out a quick post.

According to the Make WordPress Mobile change log, version 3.6 includes:

• A completely redesigned new user experience
• A faster way to post: added shortcut on the sidebar
• Fixed a problem with Tumblr imported blogs
• Emoticons now appear correctly on notifications
• Performance improvements for notifications
• Updated translations: now also in Russian, Danish and Korean

I took the app for a spin and it’s easy to create a new WordPress.com-powered blog or log in an existing self-hosted WordPress site. Adding and editing posts and pages is straightforward, as is moderating comments. There’s also a clean interface for checking your site’s stats.

It’s a good app, but it’s still missing features that would make it a great app. Uploading media is awkward. It’s not easy to position photos where you want them to sit in your post. It also doesn’t make sense that uploaded photos show up as HTML code rather than as pictures when you’re editing posts. For bloggers with no technical ability – and those who have made an exodus from Tumblr – making it easier to upload and edit media needs to be a priority in the next release. On top of that, there’s no way to search your existing media library if you want to use an image you have previously uploaded.

Just last week, WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg spoke to CNN Money about WordPress and its future in mobile.

“I think probably within the next five years we’ll transition to a majority, or super majority, of WordPress usage coming from touch devices, including things like laptops that have keyboards, but they’ll primarily be touch driven,” Mullenweg said.

“I don’t think we embraced mobile early enough, especially because open source communities don’t embrace these closed platforms.

“We’re doing fantastic on the web and growing that percentage but I don’t think our mobile apps are really where they should be at.”

It looks like we can expect more features in the next version of the WordPress for iOS app.

The new WordPress 3.6 is available for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch for free at the App Store.

Have you tried out the latest version of the WordPress iOS app? Tell us what you think below.

Credits: pixelthing

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There are a number of factors that need to be taken into account, such as cost, time, quality, flexibility and control.

There is only one award-winning content management system used by millions around the world, including some of the most respected corporations, that meets all of these needs: Joomla.

The debate about which is better, WordPress or Joomla, has raged for too long. In this post I will outline the reasons why Joomla reigns supreme and rightly sits atop the Iron Throne of CMSs.

By the time you finish reading this post you will be convinced of the need to immediately uninstall your worthless WordPress install and make the switch to Joomla.

Your business – and your web cred – depends on it.

TL;DR: If you’re scratching your head at this post, don’t worry – it’s just part of our new Friday Funnies :)

1. 2.8% of the World’s Websites Use Joomla

You can’t argue with 35 million downloads and counting, or as the Joomla website says, one download every 2.5 seconds. Impressive stuff.

Joomla powers the websites of some of the world’s most well-known and much-loved brands like Pizza Hut and Kelloggs and even the websites for Leonardo Di Caprio and Gorillaz!

When you buy an ÄLVROS armchair from the Kuwaiti IKEA website, you can thank Joomla for your smooth transaction.

With WordPress now the backbone of more than 20 per cent of websites, Joomla can quietly go about being the best CMS available without the added pressure of being the most popular. A brilliant business strategy.

2. Joomla Has More Than 6000 Extensions

What WordPress folk refer to as “plugins”, Joomla developers refer to as “extensions”.

The 12,000+ plugins available to WordPress users is way too much. It’s overkill. I mean, who needs to rainbowify, unicornify or catify their site? There’s no need for all that junk. There’s no need to add even more clutter to Joomla’s already beautiful templates.

3. Some of the Biggest and Most Respected Companies in the World Use Joomla

Pizza Hut, the UK Ministry of Defence, the Greek Government, the High Court of Australia and MTV in Greece are just some of Joomla’s biggest fans.

And did I mention that Leonardo Di Caprio uses Joomla? Pretty cool, huh?

But what you might not know is that McDonalds is also a convert. That is, McDonalds in Bahrain.

If you have a craving for McArabia Chicken or a McRoyale Burger, the local McDonalds website has you covered.

Joomla powers the restaurant’s website for the Arabian Peninsula, ensuring information is easily on hand for budding burger flippers with stars in their eyes wanting to find out more about the region’s Hamburger University.

4. The Admin Area Inspires Greatness

Just as Muhammad Ali was the greatest, so too is Joomla and its stunning and simple to use admin area.

Joomla’s endless lists of text that seem to go on and on and on, the multiple sets of navigation and the fact is calls me a “Super User” like I’m some sort of web wunderkind who controls the interwebs from the admin area that in no way at all looking bland and boring. I’m in love.

Logging in conjures up images of riding a unicorn over a sea of rainbows and joy balloons.

Yes, I love the admin area. It doesn’t make me want to smash my head on my keyboard at all.

5. The Default Templates are Simply Stunning

I mean Protostar, doesn’t it knock your socks off with its pretty blue flower and all the… other stuff? And don’t get me started on Beez3 with it big blue banner and boxes.

There’s no need to download any of the hundreds (not thousands) of fancy new templates when two high quality templates are already installed for free. And when you get tired of one template (which is highly unlikely) you can just switch to the other template.

Conclusion

Joomla is by far the best CMS available and way better than WordPress. It’s just a matter of time before it dominates the market place. Just a matter of time. You wait and see…

Disclaimer: I love Rainbowify, Unicornify and Nyan Press. I am in now way dissing those plugins at all. My tongue is firmly planted in cheek.

Why do you think Joomla kicks ass? Tell us in the comments below.

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2. 6 Reasons Big Companies Need WordPress WordPress’ 3.0 Thelonius release is establishing the platform as an...
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If you’re not on Twitter it’s time to get with the program.

In 140-character bursts of information, Twitter provides quick headlines, links to stories and the wittiest zingers going around.

I’ve created a list of the top 99 English-language Twitter accounts I recommend following for all the latest news and views about WordPress and the people in every time zone working with our favorite 10-year-old.

It’s by no means a definitive list and is totally subjective. These are accounts I’ve found helpful and humorous (i.e. I’ve stalked) while on my WordPress adventures.

The list includes developers, designers, writers, Automattic employees, WordPress enthusiasts and news and resources websites.

Take a look through the list (arranged in alphabetical order with descriptions – where available – straight from Twitter) and share in the comments below any other accounts you would recommend that offer the best insights into WordPress and its community.

Aaron Brazell
@technosailor
Bio: ”Author / Former Austinite / WordPress Developer / Football Fan / Ravens, Red Sox, Longhorns, Terps / Equality and Justice for All”
From: Baltimore, MD
Website: about.me/technosailor

Aaron D. Campbell
@aaroncampbell
Bio: ”@WordPress core contributor, currently co-leading the 3.6 release. Web development consultant, all around code monkey, and definitely at home on the range :)”
From: Phoenix, AZ
Website: ran.ge

Alex King
@alexkingorg
Bio: ”Denver web developer, founder of @crowdfavorite, original contributor to @wordpress, creator of ShareThis and the Share Icon.”
From: Denver, CO
Website: alexking.org

Andrea Middleton
@andmiddleton
Bio: ”Dot Organizer at Automattic. WordCamps FTW. Kick-ass mom of 2. Portlander. Wine blogger. Kind but firm.”
From: Portland, OR
Website: wine-scamp.com

Andrea Rennick
@andrea_r
Bio: ”Canadian homeschooler quilter renovator & StudioPress documentarian & forum support. Co-author rml.me/aio”
From: New Brunswick, Canada
Website: wpebooks.com

Andrew Nacin
Bio: ”@WordPress Lead Developer. WordPress with dashes of journalism & politics from D.C. @AudreyCapital, @WordPressDC. Loves @kerikaeindc.”
From: Washington, D.C.
Website: nacin.com

Andy Christian
@andrew_cpht
Bio: ”I’m a WordPress nut, so I teach people how to use it. I provide training and support (and even some dev) for tadpole.cc”
From: New York, NY
Website: tadpole.cc

Andy Peatling
@apeatling
Bio: ”wordpress.com engineer, open source developer, and bogey golfer”
From: Winnipeg
Site: apeatling.com

Automattic
@automattic
Website: automattic.com

bbPress
@bbPress
Bio: ”bbPress is forum software with a twist from the creators of WordPress”
From: All over the world
Website: bbpress.org

Beau Lebens
@beaulebens
Bio: ”Code Wrangler at @Automattic. I make web stuff, usually with PHP/JS/WordPress. I built FeedBlendr and MyBabyOurBaby.”
From: Brooklyn, NY
Website: dentedreality.com.au

Ben Cook
@wpblogger
Bio: ”WordPress Addict”
From: the St. Louis area
Website: wpblogger.com

Benjamin Bradley
@benjaminbradley
Bio: ”WordPress glutton, domain name collector, Libertarian who wants less govt, volunteer firefighter, and the ‘professor’ at webdesign.com”
From: Arlington, VA USA
Website: benjaminbradley.com

BloggingPro
@blpro
Bio: ”BloggingPro is one of the oldest news sites around blogs, WordPress and other blogging platforms”
Website: bloggingpro.com

Bob Dunn
@bobWP
Bio: ”I’m a WordPress trainer, coach & blogger. Social media fanatic. Maker of WordPress tutorials. I also appreciate a good LOL comedy and dry vodka martini.”
From: Puget Sound WA and beyond
Website: bobwp.com

Boone B. Gorges
@boone
Bio: ”philosophy; computers; higher ed; crosswords; Jesse Frederick-composed theme songs”
From: Queens, NY
Website: boone.gorg.es

Brad Vincent
@themergency
Bio: ”I am interested in all things #WordPress! I write code and plugins on top of WordPress. I don’t edit core :)”
From: South Africa
Website: themergency.com/twitter/

Brian Gardner
@bgardner
Bio: ”Starbucks Addict. Sarah McLachlan Fan. Nomad Theorist. Runner. Founder of StudioPress. Partner at Copyblogger Media.”
From: Chicago
Website: briangardner.com

Brian Krogsgard
@Krogsgard
Bio: ”I enjoy blogging about WordPress and the web. I’m the curator of @post_status. I’m the Lead WordPress Developer @infomediadotcom. Personal account is @bkrogs”
From: Birmingham, AL
Website: krogsgard.com

BuddyPress
@buddypress
Bio: ”BuddyPress is social networking in a box from the creators of WordPress”
From: All over the world
Website: buddypress.org

BuddyPress
@buddypressdev
Bio: ”Project status updates for @BuddyPress. Send questions here, or to @jjj, @pgibbs, or @boone.”
From: All over the world
Website: bpdevel.wordpress.com

Carl Hancock
@carlhancock
Bio: ”Father, Husband, Travel Addict, Amateur Photographer, and Startup Founder. Partner at rocketgenius, we created Gravity Forms for WordPress.”
From: Planet Earth
Website: rocketgenius.com

Chris Pearson
@pearsonified
Bio: ”I’m a *very* dangerous Scrabble player. Also, I created Thesis—software that you can use to build a killer website. Good times.”
From: Austin, TX (!)
Website: pearsonified.com

Code Poet
@WPCodePoet
Bio: ”Because you make things with WordPress”
Website: codepoet.com

Collis Ta’eed
@collis
Bio: ”Hi I’m Collis, I work at Envato where I help make awesome websites! I’m also a Baha’i and in my spare time work on Baha’i Blog (bahaiblog.net)”
From: The World!
Website: envato.com

Cory Miller
@corymiller303
Bio: ”Founder, @iThemes | Entrepreneur, Marketer, Blogger, Hubs, Dad | @reply me to start talking!”
From: Oklahoma City
Website: ithemes.com/our-founder/

Cristian Antohe
@sareiodata
Bio: ”Web-designer working mostly with WordPress. Also I’m a cofunder of reflectionmedia.ro and I curate wpmail.me”
From: Timisoara
Website: cozmoslabs.com

Dave Clements
@daclements
Bio: ”Marti’s husband. ***’s dad. Engineer of watery systems. Creator with WordPress. Efficiency and grammar nazi. Consumer of vegan things (mostly). Hello.”
From: Saint Petersburg, FL 33710
Website: davidclements.me

David Wells
@DavidWells
Bio: ”Founder of InboundNow.com, Marketing Junkie, Fanatical WordPress Designer & Developer. I build marketing apps bit.ly/appmark”
From: San Francisco
Website: inboundnow.com/about/

Devin Price
@devinsays
Bio: ”Web developer and WordPress aficionado living in Austin, Texas.”
From: Austin, TX
Website: wptheming.com

Dougal Campbell
@dougal
Bio: ”Web developer, WordPress ‘Developer Emeritus’, creator of @twitual, family man, husband of @suzecampbell, and hoopy frood.”
From: Canton, GA
Website: dougal.gunters.org

FreelanceWP.com
@FreelanceWP
Bio: ”Collecting all the best #WordPress Jobs, Links, Themes + Resources for Designers, Developers + Bloggers.”
From: Across the Interwebs, 24/7
Website: FreelanceWP.com

Helen Hou-Sandí
@helenhousandi
Bio: ”Director of User Interface Engineering @10up. WordPress core guest committer. Sometimes collaborative pianist. Happy mommy :)”
From: Jersey City
Website: helenhousandi.com

Ian Stewart
@iandstewart
Bio: ”I lead the WordPress.com Theme Team for the ever-awesome Automattic. I’m probably thinking about WordPress themes right this very minute.”
From: Winnipeg, Canada
Website: iandanielstewart.com

instantShift.com
@instantshift
Bio: ”InstantShift is leading design and inspiration related community which provides daily resources for web designers and developers.”
From: Ge
Website: instantshift.com

Isaac Keyet
@isaackeyet
Bio: ”I’m @Automattic where I help shape the future of mobile @WordPress. Tweeting about WordPress, mobile stuff, design/inspiration.”
From: Sweden / Website: isaackeyet.com

James Collins
@om4james
Bio: ”WordPress Developer, wpmelb.org organiser, part of @OM4, occasional photo taker: http://photos.jamesc.id.au. Views are my own. Hi :)”
From: Melbourne, Australia
Website: jamesc.id.au

Jason Tucker
@jasontucker
Bio: ”†, WordPress Web Dev – tucker.pro wpwatercooler.com http://jasontucker.us disneydaytrippers.com ohatdl.com @JenTucker = wife”
From: Whittier, CA 90603
Website: jasontucker.us

Jean-Baptiste Jung
@catswhocode
Bio: ”Web developer, WordPress user, blogger.”
From: Mons, Belgium
Website: http://www.catswhocode.com

Jeff Starr
@perishable
Bio: ”Designer, developer, author, artist, blogger, philosopher. Projects: Perishable Press, Digging into WP, Smashing WP, .htaccess made easy, WP-Mix, xyCSS, & more.”
From: Here. Now.
Website: perishablepress.com

Jen Mylo/Jane Wells
@jenmylo
Bio: ”UX designer + community stuff for WordPress. Jitterbug baker at jitterbugontybee.com”
From: Tybee Island, Georgia
Website: jane.wordpress.com

John Eckman
@jeckman
Bio: ”Managing Director at ISITE Design in Boston, WordCamp Boston Organizer, WPBook plugin developer, Drupal advocate, Blogger, Open source evangelist, Vegan.”
From: Salem, MA
Website: openparenthesis.org

John James Jacoby
@JJJ
Bio: ”Automattic, BuddyPress, bbPress, WordPress, Thinks you’re neat”
From: Riding a Jetpack
Website: jaco.by

John Saddington
@saddington
Bio: ”Entrepreneur ~ @8BIT ~ @WPDailyCo ~ @Pressgram ~ Hacker”
From: TEH INTERNETS
Website: john.do

Jon Bishop
@JonDBishop
Bio: ”Creative Technologist at @AMP_Agency in Boston, MA. @BostonWP organizer. @SocializeWP dev. All about WordPress, jQuery, CSS3, HTML5, guitar and my jeep.”
From: Allston, MA
Website: jonbishop.com

Joost de Valk
@yoast
Bio: ”I optimize websites for speed, SEO & conversion, often using my WordPress plugins. I blog, train & speak in public about this. Live in NL with wife and 3 kids.”
From: The Netherlands
Website: yoast.com/twit

Kevin Conboy
@alternatekev
Bio: ”Designing and building fun and amazing things at Automattic, the makers of WordPress.com, Polldaddy, Gravatar, VaultPress and much more.”
From: Denver
Website: about.me/alternatekev

Konstantin Kovshenin
@kovshenin
Bio: ”A WordPress addict. I do cool things at @automattic.”
From: Moscow
Website: kovshenin.com

Lance Willett
@simpledream
Bio: ”Outdoorsman, polyglot, second-culture kid, and recovering RVer. Theme Division lead at @Automattic. I love @WordPress themes.”
From: Tucson, Arizona
Website: simpledream.net

Lisa Sabin-Wilson
@LisaSabinWilson
Bio: ”Wrote WordPress For Dummies. Developer of WordPress things @WebDevStudios.
Produced in TX, Aged in WI – GO PACKERS!”
From: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Website: lisasabin-wilson.com

Lorelle on WordPress
@lorelleonwp
Bio: ”WordPress, blogging, and web publishing tips, techniques, and training.”
From: Everywhere and Portland, Oregon
Website: lorelle.wordpress.com

ManageWP
@managewp
Bio: ”Make managing multiple WordPress blogs easier with ManageWP.com”
Website: managewp.com

Mark Jaquith
@markjaquith
Bio: ”I make WordPress. Web publishing is my passion.”
From: Brandon, FL
Website: markjaquith.com

Marko Heijnen
@markoheijnen
Bio: ”WordPress and mobile developer, WordPress core contributor, Recent rockstar of WordPress 3.4, GlotPress core developer and speaker.”
From: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Website: markoheijnen.com

Matt Mullenweg
@photomatt
Bio: ”WordPress, Automattic, Akismet, Polldaddy, VaultPress, Gravatar…”
From: On a Plane
Website: ma.tt

Matt Thomas
@iammattthomas
Bio: ”Designer for @wordpressdotcom at @automattic, New Orleans fanboy, Wheel of Fortune idiot savant, and chief feeder of the Maggie Dog.”
From: Bqhatevwr.
Website: mattnt.com

Mike Little
@mikelittlezed1
Bio: ”I am the co-founder of WordPress, founder and CEO of zed1.com a WordPress specialist web development consultancy.”
From: Stockport, UK
Website: zed1.com

Mike Perez
@Thingee
Bio: ”Senior Developer for DreamHost and core developer of the Cinder OpenStack project.”
From: iPhone: 34.256520,-118.536018
Website: github.com/thingee

Michael Fields
@_mfields
Bio: ”I am a Theme Wrangler at @automattic. Do not click follow unless you totally geek-out on WordPress :) github.com/mfields”
From: Portland, OR
Website: mfields.org

Mika A. Epstein
@Ipstenu
Bio: ”Half-Elf Support Rogue. Working for Dreamhost, but my tweets are my own.”
From: California
Website: ipstenu.org

Mike Hansen
@MikeHansenMe
Bio: ”WordPress Core Contributor @Bluehost. Showing the commitment Bluehost has to Open Source. My tweets are my own.”
From: Daybreak Utah
Website: mikehansen.me

Mike Schroder
@GetSource
Bio: ”WordPress Core Contributor. Coffee Enthusiast. DreamHost Employee, but tweets are my own.”
From: Los Angeles
Website: getsource.net

Ozh Richard
@ozh
Bio: ”http://yourls.org/ · http://amzn.to/plugindevbook”
From: Nantes, France, Europe, World
Website: http://ozh.org/

Paul Gibbs
@pgibbs
Bio: ”Works at Automattic. BuddyPress Lead Developer.”
From: West Sussex, UK
Website: byotos.com

Peter Westwood
@westi
Bio: “WordPress lead developer | Happiness Gardener | Code Dreamer | Ex-Embedded Firmware Developer | Photographer | Music lover | http://en.gravatar.com/westi”
From: West Sussex, UK
Website: peter.westwood.name

Philip Arthur Moore
@philip_arthur
Bio: “Premium Theme Team Lead at @Automattic, Inc. Third Culture Adult and Global Nomad. Music Lover.”
From: San Francisco Bay Area / Asia
Website: philiparthurmoore.com

Pippin Williamson
@pippinsplugins
Bio: ”Expert WordPress Developer bringing you WP plugin development tips, tricks, and also weekly free plugins”
From: Lawrence, KS
Website: pippinsplugins.com

Ryan Boren
@rboren
Bio: ”Atheist, libertarian, skeptic, vegan, cranky optimist. Not so much into piña coladas. Must be in the mood to get caught in the rain. Fuck yeah kombucha.”
From: Dripping Springs, TX, USA
Website: ryan.boren.me

Ryan Hellyer
@ryanhellyer
Bio: ”WordPress geek. Blogs about geeky stuff at geek.ryanhellyer.net and personal stuff at ryanhellyer.net”
From: Oslo, Norway
Website: geek.ryanhellyer.net

Ryan Imel
@ryanimel
Bio: ”WordPress core contributor, writer, and entrepreneur.”
From: Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA
Website: wpcandy.com

Samuel Wood (Otto)
@Otto42
Bio: ”Tech Ninja for audrey.co. I do random things like work on WordPress.org. Sometimes I make beer.”
From: Memphis, TN
Website: ottopress.com

Sara Cannon
@saracannon
Bio: ”I’m an artist & designer. I love WordPress and Typography. I blog at sara-cannon.com design portfolio: design.sara-cannon.com – art: art.sara-cannon.com”
From: Birmingham, AL
Website: sara-cannon.com

Sarah Gooding
@pollyplummer
Bio: ”Web Designer & Developer, specializing in open source CMS and social networking architecture: WordPress, BuddyPress, and Drupal.”
From: Tulsa, OK
Website: untame.net

Simon Ward
@pingable
Bio: ”Blogs @ http://www.pingable.org – A blog about everything #WordPress.”
Website: pingable.org

Siobhan McKeown
@SiobhanPMcKeown
Bio: ”WordPress, documentation, writing, @audreycapital, @smashingmag”
From: Kent
Website: siobhanmckeown.com

Smashing Magazine
@smashingmag
Bio: ”Vitaly Friedman, editor-in-chief of Smashing Magazine, an online magazine for professional Web designers and developers.”
From: Freiburg, Germany
Website: smashingmagazine.com

The DradCast
@DradCast
Bio: ”DradCast is a video podcast brought to you by @williamsba and @dremeda. Pressing all the words!”
From: Here and there!
Website: dradcast.com

Tom McFarlin
@tommcfarlin
Bio: ”Self-employed developer who works with WordPress and JavaScript building software for others. WordPress core contributor. Partner at @8BIT.”
From: Atlanta, Georgia
Website: tommcfarlin.com

Toni Schneider
@tonidotorg
Bio: ”CEO at Automattic, Partner at True Ventures”
From: San Francisco
Website: toni.org

Travis Smith
@wp_smith
Bio: ”A WordPress Enthusiast’s journey in WordPress trying to help other WordPress enthusiasts with tutorials, explanations, & demonstrations.”
From: Atlanta, GA
Website: wpsmith.net

WooThemes
@woothemes
Bio: ”WooThemes is a market leader in designing & developing beautiful, functional & customizable commercial themes & plugins for WordPress.”
From: Proudly internet based
Website: woothemes.com

WordPress
@WordPress
Bio: ”Updates and other fun stuff related to WordPress.org (that’s the self-hosted version).”
From: All over the world
Website: wordpress.org

WordPress.com
@wordpressdotcom
Bio: ”News from WordPress.com (that’s the hosted version). Follow @wordpress for .org updates. Get support at: support.wordpress.com/contact”
From: All over the world
Website: wordpress.com

WordPress Beginner
@wpbeginner
Bio: ”WPBeginner is the largest unofficial #WordPress resource site offering WordPress tips, tricks, and other resources.”
From: West Palm Beach, Florida
Website: wpbeginner.com

WordPress Jedi
@wpblackbelt
Bio: ”Everything WordPress. Best WordPress themes, plugins, and tips”
From: Philadelphia
Website: wpjedi.com

WordPress Rumors
@WPRumors
Bio: ”Don’t believe anything you see here.”

WordPressTV
@WordPressTV
Bio: ”Keep up to date with the latest WordPress.tv content, or feed us your top tips for future screenings :)”
Website: wordpress.tv

WP Arena
@wparena
Bio: ”Wordpress Arena is growing hot spot for WordPress Developers and Designers, free and useful online resources for them.”
From: UK
Website: wparena.com

WPCandy
@wpcandy
Bio: ”We’re a blog about WordPress. Yes, we realize how crazy meta that is.”
From: The Internet
Website: wpcandy.com

WP Daily
@wpdailyco
Bio: “Turning the Curious into Converts. WordPress forever.”
From: Everywhere. Literally.
Website: wpdaily.co

WP Engine
@wpengine
Bio: ”We make WordPress fast, secure, and scalable by hosting your site on our rock solid platform. Contact support via @WPEsupport. Get a site! Call us: 877-973-6446″
From: Austin, TX
Website: wpengine.com/special

wpengineer.com
@wpengineer
Bio: ”We always try to show ways to make WordPress a little bit better, more convenient, more flexible or in short – just awesome!”
From: Germany
Website: wpengineer.com

WPMU DEV
@wpmudev
Bio: ”Everything you’ll ever need for WordPress, Multisite and BuddyPress. Plugins, Support & Themes: wpmudev.org Blog: wpmu.org”
From: All Over
Website: premium.wpmudev.org

WPLift
@wplift
Bio: ”WPLift is a blog all about WordPress, we cover tips & tutorials, theme & plugin reviews and everything else related to our favourite CMS.”
From: UK
Website: wplift.com

WP Mayor
@wpmayor
Bio: ”WordPress Hacks, Tutorials, Plugin Reviews and more. We also do WordPress blog/site development.”
From: Europe
Website: wpmayor.com

WP Realm
@WPRealm
Bio: ”Reporting on WordPress news and events across the world, from France to Serbia to China to India to South Africa to the USA and everywhere in between!”
From: We are everywhere
Website: wprealm.com

WPSNIPP
@wpsnipp
Bio: ”We Tweet interesting #snippets of #Wordpress #code, with over 600 unique snippets.”
From: Toronto
Website: wpsnipp.com

wptavern
@wptavern
Bio: ”Official account for the WPTavern website”
From: Ohio
Website: wptavern.com

Wptuts+
@wptuts
Bio: ”Tutorials, Articles, Tips, and Community for WordPress Users and Developers”
From: Earth
Website: wp.tutsplus.com
And of course, my own Twitter account is @raewilsonwrites :)

Who do you follow on Twitter? Tell us below.

Credits: Twitter, Rosaura Ochoa

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It’s easy for newbies to feel just a little bit overwhelmed. So what do you do? You click on the help drop down menu, of course. You know the one, it’s in the top right hand corner? You click it and it drops down and there’s text and stuff…? Yeah, I haven’t used it either.

Every admin area has this apparently helpful – but mostly forgettable – drop down menu, which, when clicked, reveals text explaining the features of the specific page you are viewing. Like so:

For new WordPress users who are after a quick explanation on the admin area’s pages, the drop down menu is probably a useful feature. Too bad it’s tucked away in a corner in tiny text where no one can find it.

Along with a quick run down of the page you’re viewing, the drop down menu also points users who want more information to the WordPress Codex where they can find an overwhelmingly thorough compendium of information about everything there is to know about WordPress. If that isn’t enough, there is also a link in the drop down menu to the support forums.

In a Facebook poll of WordPress users, the overwhelming majority said the help drop down menu was “useless in every way and needed to be completely redone”.

Only one person said the menu was “fantastic, so easy to see and use, I love it.”

One user said he even tweaked a client’s UI to remove the drop down menu completely because when he asked his customers, they all said the feature was “just noise that confused them”.

Another user said the feature wasn’t used consistently by plugins and themes so it was essentially forgotten.

One user said he couldn’t even find it.

In version 3.6 it looks like the help menu isn’t getting a look in – no revamp, just the same boring text menu.

Work Arounds

It’s easy enough to customize the text and jazz it up so you don’t have to look at the stock standard help menu.

WPMU DEV has a couple of great plugins for customizing the help drop down menu – Admin Help Content and Ultimate Branding.

The great thing about changing up the drop down text is that you can put anything you want in that space – handy tips for your clients, maybe a link to an FAQ for new users.

What Should Go There Instead?

It would be great to see this space used more effectively, particularly with new users in mind because, let’s face it, they are the ones who need help and will be looking for it in the admin area.

For a start, the “Help” button needs to be more prominent. I’m not talking neon signs or giant, flashing arrows, but adding some colour to help the button would help users more easily spot where to go.

Another idea would be to drop the drop down menu all together and shift the Help section to the admin sidebar. Not only would it be easier to spot, but users could be directed to an easy to read page rather than a drop down menu.

Even a giant animated paper clip with googly eyes, à la Microsoft Office, would be easier to find than the Help button as it is.

If the drop down menu must stay, other features could be placed in that space, such as an FAQ or maybe a video walkthrough of the admin area talking users users the basics.

Do you ever use the help drop down menu? What would you like to see there instead?

Credits:  Martin Bamford, marc falardeau

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