Welcome to the first WordPress meetup of the year!

Announcements

1. WordCamp

We will be having a WordCamp Austin in May. We will be contacting the group for volunteers in February and have a website up then; we will be selling tickets in March.

WordCamp will be held on May 19th, South Austin at AOMA

We will be able to have 230 attendees so a lot more people will be able to attend this year! Tickets will be in the $20 range and will include meals and a t-shirt. But to make that happen, we need sponsors! If you know of a business that might like to sponsor the group, we will be seeking that information in February as well.

2. Austin AIR: Accessible Internet Rally

We need teams who want to participate in the competition to build an accessible website for a non-profit organization. Part of the program includes training on how to make a website accessible. Even if you’re a freelancer or individual who doesn’t have a team already, you can recruit from other folks in WordPress Austin or contact AIR to help you find others. Many members of WordPress Austin, including Pat, Nick, Sandi and Jackie, have served on teams in the past so feel free to seek us out if you want to learn more about how it works and what you can get out of the experience.

For more information, visit AIR: Accessible Internet Rally

Austin Adobe User Group: InDesign Basics by Graphics Designer Veronica Primeaux at Friday January 13, 2012 (1:15 – 3:30)

Date: Friday January 13, 2012

Time: 1:15-3:30 p.m. Central Standard Time

Place: New Horizons Computer Learning Center (300 E Highland Mall Blvd. Suite 100) turn north onto Jonathan and park in the Visitor parking area

RSVP: To help our host New Horizons Computer Learning Center select a room that comfortably seats everyone, please RSVP to this free event

More info: http://austinadobeusergroup.com/

What’s new with WordPress 3.3.1

Quick highlights of what’s new and fun by Pat Ramsey. Presentation at http://wp3.slash25.com/

• WordPress 3.3 has been downloaded over 4.5 million times already! That’s a LOT of websites!
• 3.3 is the major release; 3.3.1 is a patch update.

1. Uploading media

• Single upload button on the editor
• file-type detection
• drag and drop upload

2. Dashboard design

• Flyout menus: keeps you from having to scroll a lot
• Persistent toolbar (combines admin bar and header)
• Responsive design: the admin area is more responsive for varying screen sizes
• The toolbar has links to make new posts, pages, etc., link to visit site, and other goodies

3. New feature pointer: boxes that open up announcing new features with the option to get more info or dismiss

4. New Welcome/About WordPress splash screen that loads when you update your version

5. Better co-editing: releases post-locks immediately when one person finishes editing so another can access the page etc.

6. Widgets get saved if you switch between themes – y0u no longer have to reset them if you swap out themes

7. Tumblr import

• Correctly handles post formats
• WP-Cron based background importing: start it up, then come back to see how far it’s gotten
• Duplicate checking, will not create duplicate imported posts
• Imports posts, drafts, pages
• Media sideloading (for audio, video and image posts)

8. %postname% permalinks

• Using just  /%postname%/ used to cause a performance hit but no longer! We recommend leaving this alone for existing sites unless you redirect your links.

9. WP_Editor

Here are the links from tonight’s early look at WordPress 3.1.

WP Beginner – What’s Coming in WordPress 3.1

WordPress Development Updates

Make WordPress UI

WordPress Demo Site

Here’s a post from Jane back in September on the Process & Scope for WordPress 3.1. This is a nice outline n what’s being worked on for the upcoming release.