14 DAY TRIAL // WordPress.com is continuing to update the Dashboard, even after several fairly significant changes this year. Bloggers now get a brand new media uploader, with drag and drop uploads, as well as flyout menus and a bit more space for the stuff that matters.
The big new feature is the drag and drop media uploader. The uploader can take any type of media, photos, music, video and so on, and it uses the same interface to do it.
There's even only one button for all of these in the WordPress.com post editor, dubbed "Add Media."
"After you’ve clicked that, find those image/music/video/other files you need on your computer, drag them over and drop them into the WordPress interface, and watch the magic happen!," WordPress.com announced.
If you're using a stand-alone WordPress install, you may have noticed that the upcoming WordPress 3.3, which is still in beta, is also using a brand new media uploader, which boasts drag and drop and HTML5 support.
WordPress regularly debuts new features, once they're ready, to WordPress.com while those using the stand-alone version have to wait for the stable version to be available.
Along with the new media uploader, WordPress.com is also introducing a small but interesting tweak, flyout Dashboard menus. This means that you only have to click once to do anything, just hover the mouse over any menu entry you want and the submenu will open up without having to click on anything.
Finally, the blog title has been removed from the top of the dashboard. Recent changes to the top toolbar meant that you could get to your blog from there, making the title redundant. Removing it saves up space which can be put to better use for the elements that you're actually using.