How to upgrade your blog to Wordpress 2.7

You may have heard already, but a couple of weeks ago wordpress released the next version of the Wordpress software. Version 2.7.

Here is how to upgrade your blog to Wordpress 2.7:

1. Log in to your admin area.

2. Go to the Plugins page and look for the plugin Lighter Menus

3. Deactivate the plugin by clicking on the link. The page will then refresh.

4. Now hover your mouse over Manage along the top and click on Automatic Upgrade

5. The Automatic Upgrader is a plugin I installed on your blog so you would be able to do this very thing (I planned ahead…).

6. The Automatic Upgrade plugin will guide you through the process of upgrading your version of wordpress. It contains prompts on the screen to tell you what each step does and what you need to do. So just follow the words and buttons on the screen.

7. When the Automatic Upgrade plugin has upgraded your wordpress installation you will see a whole new look for your admin area. Your menu options will be listed down the left as a column, and not along the top. Some people like this, but personally I hate it. I much prefer having the menus as drop down options along the top. They take up much less room and allow you to find the page you are looking for very quickly.

If you would like the menus to go along the top again, follow the rest of the instructions. If you are happy with the menus appearing on the left as a column then you can stop here.

8. Look for the Plugins menu option on the left, hover over it, then click the little Down arrow which will show up just to the right of the word Plugins. You’ll see it.

9. Clicking that will expand the Plugins menu and reveal ‘Add New’. Click it and the page will refresh.

10. On the page that loads you’ll see a little search box. Type ozh into it and click Search.

11. The result that is currently at the top of the list is called ”Ozh’ Admin Drop Down Menu”

12. Click ‘Install’ on the right of the screen for the ozh plugin, and a window will appear with another Install Now button in red which you need to click on.

13. You will now be taken to a page where you get asked if you want to activate the plugin now, or just look at the plugins page. Activate the plugin and you’re done!

PROBLEMS:

You may well come across an error when you are trying to install the plugin using the new Add Plugins search engine within your admin area. The automatic Upgrade plugin sometimes conflicts with it.

If you get an error message when you try and install the ozh plugin, and the words ‘wordpress automatic upgrade’ are there… then you’ve caught your culprit.

Here is what you need to do if this happens:

1. AFTER YOU HAVE UPGRADED YOUR VERSION OF WORDPRESS TO 2.7… Go to your plugins page where all your plugins pages are listed

2. Find Wordpress Automatic Upgrade in the list and deactivate it.

3. Now go back to step 8 above and carry on again installing the new plugin.

4. You can leave the Wordpress Automatic Upgrade plugin deactivated for now. You will only need it when you come to upgrade your version of wordpress again in the future.

If you are subscribed to this blog you will find out when wordpress comes out with a new version, and you’ll know exactly what to do

Lewis