Enjoy A Shiny New, Simplified Admin Bar
Remember your old admin bar (displayed at the top of your screen while you’re logged in to WordPress.com)? Up until today, it’s looked something like this while viewing an individual post:
But we wanted to make it easier for your visitors to interact with you via Likes and Follows, so we’ve cleaned it up a bit. Now it looks like this:
Better, right!? Now on the right hand side of the admin bar where your Gravatar is displayed, you have easy access to your user profile, all the blogs you can contribute to, and all the comments you’ve made across WordPress.com:
In the blog menu on the left side of the admin bar, you’ll see all the stuff related to the blog you’re currently viewing. If you’re looking at a post on your own blog, the menu will display links to your dashboard, post editor, comment moderation panel, custom menus, and widgets. Next to the blog menu are the Follow and Like buttons, along with a sparkline, which reflects the last 48 hours of page views on the blog:
When viewing posts on other blogs on WordPress.com, the blog menu on the left side of the admin bar will display the following options, as well as the shortlink and theme information:
If you hover over the WordPress.com logo in the left corner, you’ll see the following quick links:
Lastly, you may have noticed that you’re no longer able to reblog a post after clicking the Like button. Don’t worry — we’re cooking up some reblogging improvements that you’ll have access to very soon. Stay tuned!
- September 23, 2011
- Admin Bar
WordPress.com News 
I appreciate that your team put a lot of work into this update, but I would have preferred that the admin bar be left as was. I’m still learning WordPress; I don’t like it when just as I get comfortable with something, it gets changed.
If you wanted to make it easier for visitors to Like a blog or post, why not just add a Like button and leave the rest as it was? The darker color is hard on my eyes, and now I have to relearn where things are on the bar.
I realize that some bloggers like the new bar and it’s not likely to change; just wanted to weigh in and let you know I’d appreciate some advance (as in pre-release) warning next time an update occurs that will affect how I manage my three (soon to be four) blogs. Thanks.
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This is one website change that I am actually on board with. It’s intuitive.
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I miss easy way to get to site stats!
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When you are viewing your blog you can click on the stats sparkline. If you are visiting another blog, you can use the My Account menu on the right where you’d hover over the Site name and then click the Stats item.
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Much better!
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Used the new admin bar to like this post! Great work.
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For a moment I was missing the way to switch between blogs, but glad it just has been moved. Will have to get used to it, but it looks good!
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Nice improvements. Took care of some annoying spots for me. Thank you.
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I hate that from my dashboard I can’t see the blog page with one click. I have to find the “My blogs” and then click on the blog. Waste of time. Hard to navigate the new stuff.
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Sure you can, click the site title at the top of the dashboard. You don’t even need the admin bar for that. 😉
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I appreciate all the effort WordPress continually does to keep making everything so user friendly. Keep up the great work!
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The new bar looks amazing, love it.
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Fresh air in a permanent state of motion in WordPress.
It’s already on my blog. it works perfectly all right. I suppose it excuses the malfunction I noticed with the visitors’ comments a couple of days ago.
Thanks a million once again.
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I LIKE IT. I find it quicker and easier to use.
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I appreciate all the work you guys are doing to make WordPress even better. It seems like you’re making it really easy for me to visit other people’s blogs but, unless I’m doing something wrong, it’s extremely time-consuming for me to work on my own WordPress sites. I have three (soon to be four) other sites, and I haven’t found an easy way to switch from one to another. Is there something I’m missing?
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Your blogs are listed in the menu on the right side under your name and Gravatar.
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Hehehe… nice but it sort of freaked me out when it surprised me by popping out of nowhere and knew my real name instead of my Login name. But then ‘change’ always makes me leery at first.
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Toni Schneider
reblogged this from toni.org.
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Personally, I’m finding the new changes much more complicated. I liked the old format where I could hover and be able to check blog status right away. Now, there seem to be more steps to do the same things…. Maybe it’s overload, but it seems that both Facebook and WordPress have made changes that aren’t as user friendly as they anticipated?
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This is the equivalent of shutting the barn door after the horses have escaped. It’s poor customer service to roll out changes and THEN explain what’s going on. Just as Facebook and Twitter are doing, this is just another place where changes are being made without giving users the option to participate or not. Some of that involves the codes, I get that, but there should be codes written to allow for the choice.
This isn’t something that would compel me to leave WordPress, but the new navigation bar is not as user-friendly as the old one, which was more intuitive and easier to navigate. I am also not one of those who use the “follow” and “like” options, so those two items being prominent on the toolbar does me no good at all. I prefer the old drop-down menu that would take me straight to my stats.
For me personally, I’d like to hit my dashboard as soon as I log in, rather than land on a page full of blogs I don’t have any interest in reading.
My two cents.
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I guess the only downside to this is that there isn’t a clear link to the dashboard when you sign in to WordPress.com. I took some time for me to figure out you have to highlight your username, scroll down, and click the link that pops up. That’s more steps than before.
I also agree with SilverTiger’s comment a bit.
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I love it! Thanks for doing this.
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Having difficulty finding things…like the search box. What happened to the search box?
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Click on the search magnifying glass to the far right.
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Sounds like a nice update to an already decent product. Thanks!
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While I really, really love the cleaned up visuals, my hand is definitely suffering from the mouse race between the two corners of my screen to get to what I need.
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I hate it. It’s much harder to find everything now. I’m not sure why sites like wordpress and facebook like changing every feature that users are used to. You want to figure out how to deal with a blog when you start it and then go about blogging with no additional reading of instructions. Why do we need a streamlined menu (rather than one that has everything on it so that we can see it at one time–as your previous menu had) if we are the administrator of the site, and why do you think it is such a great idea to have to make users constantly have to figure out new menus etc when the point of starting a blog is writing and sharing media–not gaming or constantly having to learn new rules? Makes me want to go back to blogger.
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“Better, right!?” – I don’t see any improvement. If you mean less intuitive – I would agree.
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It looks very tiny and beautiful. Like it!
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Where and how can I search for other blogs/interests/entries? The search box is gone, and the magnifying glass icon returns no results. None.
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If you want to do a global WordPress.com search you can go to http://en.search.wordpress.com/
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Now the tool “Read Blog” forward to a “https connection. It was easier to read one’s own on “http”, I think…
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I find the new admin bar a bit less intuitive and it is now quite long to get to the “Read blog” button, which is one of my favourites. Besides, all these changes are absolutely frightening for my co-authors, who are all white-haired and not really into technology…
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I love the concept, but unfortunately, it is nearly invisible against the Andreas background.
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Just seems to add to the noise already out there. Liked it the other way fine. Thanks anyway.
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I’m sorry but I don’t like it. For some reason, it’s screwing up my screen and I’m getting overlapping images/words. Can I have my old Admin bar back please?
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Another great innovation. There have a lot of them lately, so thanks very much…
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I just now returned to my computer and cleared my cache yet again, and clicked to another random site and clicked back to my blog (I did not click the Back button). That terrifying link that says “UNFOLLOW” is still there. Horrors. 8-(
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If you are following a blog that is what you’ll see so you can unfollow if you want to.
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I don’t care for it. The new look makes it much more difficult for me to go from the wordpress homepage (where I like to read all the Freshly Pressed blogs), to my Dashboard, where I love viewing all my stats. Those are really the only places I go. The new look is probably easier for those with multiple blogs, but most people, like me, can barely handle one! Please make it easy to get to my Dashboard!
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seems backwards to me?
shouldnt me and my stuff be in the left, and you and your blog and the following/liking stuff be on the right, with the search?
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I don’t like it at all. Please tell me if it’s possible to switch it the way it was.
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I’m sorry but I don’t like the new look! I was just beginning to learn my way around, and now you change it. I would have liked to have been given a choice. Tell me how it’s more efficient and user friendly now because I don’t see it. All I see is all the stuff I used to see at a glance isn’t where it was. Why can’t people get that most of us want Simple, easy, fast, without a lot of distractions and unnecessary searching to do what we want to do.
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I hate it, its much harder for me to navigate
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I love it, and I evev blogged about it
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I can’t find a way to log out from the dashboard… is that feature gone?
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I’ve stumbled around and found my way, but it looks like the Global Dashboard feature is no longer available? True, or have I missed it? I liked being able to see comment/updates/etc to both of my blogs in one place…. Thanks!
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So cool — love the new admin bar!
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muy bueno, muchas gracias
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Well, we can’t do anything about it, right? It looks cleaner and everything is still there, but it will take time and effort to get used to something new that was imposed on us. :-/. I feel that it is less cluttered, but you have to guess where to find your stuff.
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I noticed that. It looks nice. bibliowynd, I don’t know anything about Google +, but I’m sure I like WordPress a whole lot better!
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Not sure I’m that impressed; yes, the new “clean” look is nice, but deploying the new look without making sure that full funtionality is retained is just foolhardy and disrespectful.
I really don’t see any added benefit at all, to be brutally honest. To have to use http://en.search.wordpress.com/ while you figure out a solution is rude.
This move reminds me of the Flickr debacle from a year or so ago.
But, that aside, I still love this site; I beg of you though, a little more consultation before the next big change please.
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Just one more thought…. if you wanted to make it easier for others to use the “Like” functions, why didn’t you just add the “Like” to the bar? “Follow” was already there….
I really don’t understand the logic of that opening statement.
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Thanks for the changes.The appearance is what is improved in my opinion;I think the whole thing seems easier to read. I did have some problems with positioning my title, & with some sort of bullet showing up when I posted earlier today, though. Was it me or is there a glitch somewhere?
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i don’t use the like or the follow button so i really don’t like haveing to see them all the time. is there anyway to personalise the tool bar?
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And, just like magic, the bar has a black background and is perfectly visible against the Andreas04 background. Thank you! 🙂
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Now that’s a good suggestion, if ever I saw one! Please provide us with the ability to personalise our own toolbars! I vote for that!
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What the heck happened to the Global Dashboard? I can’t seem to track my comments anywhere.
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AWESOME JOB GUYS !!! thanks for the cool stuff you guys have been working on..its very much appreciated..Blue
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Cleaner and more user-friendly. I like the new design!
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It’s refreshing and it looks very nice! Thank you!
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I would rather have the old tool bar back. It needed fewer steps. Looks aren’t everything
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This is very cool. Keep going. Loving it.
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Really like the new update
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The new admin bar is look great and more clean. I love the new updated bar….
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I like it overall, except for the fact that I have to go to the drop-down menu to get to the dashboard now, when I am on the main page of my blog, and that’s annoying and not efficient.
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Also, I loved to be able to go directly from this type of post (that you guys write, or other WordPress blogs) to my blog. Can’t do that anymore, too bad…
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Simplicity is indeed often the sign of truth and a criterion of beauty
Excellent ! 😆 Quick access and not complicated.
Thanks a lot 🙂
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I’ve been using WordPress for close to six years, and I’ve always found the interface to be very intuitive. This one is still easy to use and still intuitive for the user, but the differences, as usual, are mostly cosmetic. There’s nothing new, except the layout.
It would be a fantastic thing if WordPress were to bring back the “Random Blog” arrow to the Dashboard. That would be a change worth getting exciting about.
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I do not like the new admin bar.
I do not like the new admin bar at all!
I do not wish to appear ungrateful for the work someone(s) put into these changes, however…
I do not like the new admin bar!
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very HORRIBLE layout, for the sake of nice looks… now i have to lunge my mouse all the way to the right, instead for having everything within reach on the left – WHY wordpress, WHY?
why do you have to go after failbook and fail where they fail ?
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I appreciate the clean up. I was shocked first to see my real name in the admin bar. Changed that immediately, cause I don’t really now who can see that and who can’t. XD I like anonymity online.
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Sorry, but I prefer the first version. indeed it is not better, only different. and like some others I can’t copy the shortlink (or only with great efforts) 😦
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I have liked many of your changes over the last few years, simply ignored a few, but I hugely dislike this one. I write posts and edit them in stages, and having to take another step for editing (going to a drop-down menu) is simply a hassle.
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P.S. I too do not use either the like or follow buttons so your awarding them so much prominence over the features I do use is frustrating.
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Personally, I thought it looked okay as it was. Also, when I logged on yesterday evening I had a few moments of panic before I realised things had changed. A warning beforehand might have been in order. However, I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. Mostly, I greatly appreciate what you do to improve WordPress and make it more user-friendly. Being able to have Google Friend Connect would be a good next step.
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Yes! I absolutely LOVE it!!! Thank you again WP.com staff (for the hundredth time)!
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Liking this, thanks, muche less complicated.
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I’ve always been fond of buttons…never quite liked the drive towards minimalism in these layouts
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I don’t get it. I’d like the new admin bar you are talking about, but how do I get it?
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I’ve always liked the clean style of WP but there are too many things hidden in submenus now and, f.y.i. hovering is exactly as inconvenient as clicking.
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THANK YOU WORDPRESS, finally, that old bar was so hard to use, complicated, now is just fine 😀
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I think it’s simply ‘AMAZING’
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Any chance you’d release an option to go back to the old admin bar? I dunno – that one just worked better for me.
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Hate it. This is “simpler” only in appearance; it’s significantly more complex to actually use.
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Hi many thanks for the new bar… it really looks neat.
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Oh WordPress, dear hearts – please stop rearranging the furniture. It is not “cool” – it is annoying.
I have to ring in with the haters. BIGTIME. Not because this change is necessarily so crummy for me, but because ANY change means that managing my blog becomes more difficult, grabbing more time from my schedule than I’d budgeted, with NO warning so I could stand a prayer of adjusting my schedule in any realistic manner. Can you get that? It would REALLY be worth your time to attempt to understand this important business concept.
BTW- VISUAL changes are always a function of preference, dominant modality, and usage habits, and not really the big improvement your (young, right?) staff seems to think they are. IMHO, *primary* changes (features & functionality) are where I want you guys to focus your time and energy — THAT would be an upgrade I’d consider worth my time to learn to use, not uncluttering the LOOK of the “steering wheel.”
Isn’t that what THEMES are for? Note the concept – we can change if WE think the look is better and worth the time to learn to “unconsciously.” Otherwise, business as usual.
Those of us who have lives beyond WordPress hoped to be able to use this platform as a TOOL – it was marketed as a “less work” solution to having a web presence, and that’s why we flocked to you in droves. Your addiction to chronic “upgrades” mean we have to learn to use it newly anytime one of you gets a wild hair – meaning that everything that was formerly on “autopilot” must now be consciously managed — which dilutes focus on the project we wanted to use the tool to accomplish. Which blows our schedules out of the water because it takes longer than we’d budgeted for the project — time which comes out of our private lives or upgrades to our BUSINESSES, not our dashboards.
So changes better be REALLY worth the integration time or they are simply inconsiderate and RUDE – **especially** without *advanced* warning.
Imagine how friendly you’d feel toward MY product if I jumped in to rearrange YOUR workspace or office whenever I felt like it (and without advanced warning or explanation) simply because *I* though it *looked* less cluttered! Hey, here’s a thought, let’s put the keys on your keyboard in a novel order, just because we like it better (and don’t touch-type). Not so much, huh?
Please – reconsider your rollouts – and move “notification, warning and explanation” way UP on the list – long before “delivery.” A great many of us are *really* not fond of your surprises or of change for change’s sake.
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I liked the design very much. But sadly, I now hate the admin bar because the profile tab has been shifted at the right side which looks odd.
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I wondered why I suddenly coudn’t do anything. Now I know why. It is “clean and uncluttered.”
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Its seems good but the admin bar is not the same as displayed in your blog stuff related to your blog no edit menu between dashboard and new.. why
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cool renovate
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Change makes no difference to me except I don’t enjoy how cumbersome it is to find freshly pressed blogs after I visit my stats page. Where the hell is the link to FP? That is what I need to read my subscriptions which are not available on my side bar….I need one or the other if both are too difficult to manage.
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I believe so! It’s a greater, faster and safer update. Thanks word press for your Info.
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I would like a clean bar at the top of my blog while readers are reading… with the options of a search box and sparkline, possibly others. I have put a similar bar at the top of my blog now, a mock sparkline and without the search box, which would not function if I put it in now.
If this is possible, I would sure like to have a real search box up in that bar for readers to use, the sparkline also.
Thank you
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i really don’t like the new bar
i liked the old one, simple and very usefull
now you have to click 5 different things to see your stats
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I actually prefer the older look and thought it more sophisticated and modern. This looks and feels a little too simplified I think. Just my two pennies.
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The changes are fine except for the loss of the reblog feature. I use it every week to repost an article from my archives. The sooner you get the reblog feature working again, the happier I’ll be.
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Honestly, to me upgrades that involve moving buttons around are really more of a hastle than helpful. Thanks for your efforts, though.
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cool.
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I’m not crazy about the new design. Before when I logged in everything was at my fingertips. Now I have to jump through many hoops to get to where I want to go. Is there any way to get it back to the way it was because it was? It much easier that way. ~Sophia
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Don’t really see it as being any simpler, or an improvement, just different with different failings. The drop down under the gravatar should really be on the left with everything else. We look to the left more, and it’s also easier and tidier to have everything together.
Remove the “Like” button at the top as there’s one on the blog.
On a side issue, why do menus always have to drop down when you hover over them? I hate it. Too many times when trying to work fast on sites i catch a drop down menu and as i try to click what i want i get something from the stupid menu instead. I have no problems clicking for a menu, it’s not as if it takes long. For me the best thing you could do is to give the option of turning off the hover so i can just click the damned thing when i want it.
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Very clean and easy to organize. Great job!
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I don’t like this at all. The “old” admin bar was way better and handier. I could press one button and i got where i wanted to. Now ik have to search and click and click and then at last i have what i want. Make me happy and give me the option to change it to the way i like it instead of forcing me some new unhandy bar.
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I realized something interesting was going on with that bar. Cool on my peepers. Like it, more simplified. It would be nice also if the Administration area was a bit more efficient, and not scattered around so much. Sometimes it takes a bit longer to absorb what is being said, until I get my brain wrapped around the wide variety of different bits. ;- )
I was sent to WordPress from Microsoft, after they closed down their Blogsite. It took a while to be able to handle the instructional language pattern though. There is a world of differences on how Microsoft explain how to do your blog compared to WordPress’s explanations. Dialog and language of indigenous areas of the world creates a structural shift in the way english is handled. There is strength in simplicity. Keep the templates and directional instructions related to them simple and efficient. Writers don’t have a lot of time to get wrapped up in the technological aspect of blog, we just want to write prose as we are downloaded by the higher-mind to simply write what is trying to get out with all expediancy. Simple is better. Better is better. I enjoy my learning curve though.
Thanks….. May today be good to you all!
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The old way to move between your blogs was easier for me, too, but this “improved” way is not too difficult thankfully. I don’t know enough to tell you how to run your business, but I hope you don’t go to far down the social interacting road. Because I bet a lot of that stuff is going to become stale in the future. Facebook has become practically unusable because of the information overload and clutter. Some of my friends are sick of it, and twitter, too. You can easily get overwhelmed just trying to manage the constant communications in and out. Sooo, I hope you are not making these changes because of something the new is starting to wear off of. Blogs are blogs and not tweets.
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It is certainly neater, but it’s more difficult to use. I don’t like it!!
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