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by Scott Frangos, Managing Editor – WebHelperMagazine.com

Security Update 2.3.2 Released Dec. 29th…

WordPress 2.3.2 is an urgent security release that fixes a bug that can be used to expose your draft posts. 2.3.2 also suppresses some error messages that can give away information about your database table structure and limits and stops some information leaks in the XML-RPC and APP implementations. Get 2.3.2 now to protect your blog from these disclosures. See below regarding update methods.

WordPress Version 2.4 is on its way — get set to upgrade

WordPress 2.4 is due out in the last week of January… prepare to upgrade, as I think this release will be a great one which will include a needed overhaul of the Admin interface (you can track other features the WP team is developing at Westi on Wordpress blog). Should you upgrade right away, or wait until the bugs shake out? Well, there usually is a fix-it release that comes 2-4 weeks after the initial release, and you may wish to wait for that. There’s always the question of updating your plugin set, too. Here are a couple of steps you can take to make the process easier:

Use the WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin — I’ve used it for the past 3 -4 upgrades and it works fine. See our overview article of the Top 10 WordPress plugins, for a screenshot and link.

Make it a habit to keep your plugins current – if you have upgraded to 2.3.x, then you will see notification in the Admin. area for plugins when the author updates a plugin at the WordPress plugin repository. TIP: check the plugin author’s site too — they may have an update there that is newer than the one at the WordPress site, which is where your One Click Plugin Updater fetches updates.

Six Picks: A thumbnail review of new and interesting themes…

Here is a look at six new themes for WordPress (click them to see larger images — site download link in captions). The first one is a news style theme, and is offered as a “premium” theme, costing $99.95 for a single user license. I am pleased to see good theme designers offer premium themes to be rewarded financially for their work.

I don’t know about you (leave a comment below), but I am tired of all of the two columns on the right themes, so you will find some different layout designs here.

Premium News Theme ($99.95)	INBW theme – a fluid three column theme	Clean Blew Theme – another two columns on the right design.
HeliosGrin – a Web 2.0 style with two fixed width columns.	The Harvest is a 2 column theme, navigation on right, designed with an eye for providing a good blog layout for a photographer or artist.	Greenleaves theme is a narrow two column theme with navigation on the left.

The Fast Way to install WordPress Themes & Plugins…

Ever wish you could just snap your fingers and your new WordPress themes, or plugins would automatically be installed? Well, now a combination Firefox Extension, and WordPress plugin allow you to do just that — the One Click WP installer. See full article, with installation tutorial – here…

Is WordPress really a CMS (Content Management System?)…

Well, evidently PACKT Publishing who awarded WordPress a best CMS award, thinks so. Ford Motors uses it to create their Auto Shows website (http://autoshows.ford.com/) with no blog in play, thinks so (see article). A company called “Know Now” even offers an “Enterprise Edition” of WordPress for larger company applications.

But you know… there are always some naysayers. In a thread which began as a poll about web development trends over at WebMaster-Talk.com, (31% of those polled believe that CMS (Content Management Systems) are replacing “old school” websites), the debate has evolved into strong cases being made for and against Open Source solutions and WordPress in particular. You may like to jump on over and make your own voice known. For those interested, here’s how the poll looks there, so far:

Poll Results: Looks like most WebMasters there believe XHTML is replacing HTML… did you know that the developers of WordPress believe it too? See the WordPress codex article on HTML to XHTML – http://codex.wordpress.org/HTML_to_XHTML.

Some Favorite WordPress Reference Sites…

I like using Google Reader as my RSS feed reader, and they just implemented a “share with friends” feature whereby I can share with all of you friends… some of my favorite recent blog posts about WordPress. Note that you should take a look at the source websites — all excellent resources for WordPress BlogMasters. And of course, this is just another example of the web, as a Content Management System (with Google as the big Kahuna):

FYI… my shared items are also available as a web page at: http://www.google.com/reader/shared/00499286454965925497

Just think of the possibilities for your own RSS shared web page. Is it a new form of magazine? Oh… and there’s a Feed (of my Feeds) too. Talk about consumption — as I’ve always said, “chew the web, and you will be its master.”

WordPress Jobs on New Job Board…

We’ve added a new job board at WebHelperMagazine.com – http://www.WebHelperMagazine.com (just visit and click on “Jobs”), and since we are able to filter jobs by different criteria, we included a range of openings just for BlogMasters and WordPress experts. Some are on location positions, and some are for telecommuters.

A couple of examples WordPress Jobs:

• Wordpress Theme Design @ oDesk
• PHP and WordPress Developer @ Comsys, Inc

Take a look, and get the job board RSS feed

That’s a wrap of this edition of the WordPress round-up. Stay tuned for a review of Version 2.4.