However, one thing that annoys me a little is the empty space the blog title leaves in the admin header and also the font size of the “sub-menu”. Consequently I’ve made a few minor changes to the admin to address this “issue”.

In short I want to implement the following changes (click to enlarge):

All you need to do is modify 2 files as described below.

Open admin-header.php and replace this:

<div id="wphead">
<h1><?php bloginfo('name'); ?><span id="viewsite"><a href="<?php echo trailingslashit( get_option('home') ); ?>"><?php _e('Visit Site') ?></a></span></h1>
</div>
<div id="user_info"><p><?php printf(__('Howdy, <a href="%1$s">%2$s</a>!'), 'profile.php', $user_identity) ?> | <a href="<?php echo get_option('siteurl'); ?>/wp-login.php?action=logout" title="<?php _e('Log Out') ?>"><?php _e('Log Out'); ?></a> | <?php _e('<a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/">Help</a>') ?> | <?php _e('<a href="http://wordpress.org/support/">Forums</a>') ?></p></div>

With this:

<div id="wphead">
<h1>&nbsp;<!--<?php bloginfo('name'); ?><span id="viewsite"><a href="<?php echo trailingslashit( get_option('home') ); ?>"><?php _e('Visit Site') ?></a></span> --></h1>
</div>
<div id="user_info"><p><?php printf(__('Howdy, <a href="%1$s">%2$s</a>!'), 'profile.php', $user_identity) ?> | <a href="<?php echo trailingslashit( get_option('home') ); ?>"><?php _e('Visit') ?> <?php bloginfo('name'); ?></a> | <a href="<?php echo get_option('siteurl'); ?>/wp-login.php?action=logout" title="<?php _e('Log Out') ?>"><?php _e('Log Out'); ?></a> | <?php _e('<a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/">Help</a>') ?> | <?php _e('<a href="http://wordpress.org/support/">Forums</a>') ?></p></div>

Then open wp-admin.css and scroll down to line #592. Replace this:

#wphead h1 {
	font: normal 36px Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif;
	padding: 11px 170px 16px 12px;

With this:

#wphead h1 {
	font: normal 10px Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif;
	padding: 0;

Further down on line #772. Replace this:

#submenu li {
	font-size: 14px;

With this:

#submenu li {
	font-size: 12px;

That’s it!

For future WordPress updates I would also very much like to see some changes in the “Write” section. To avoid extensive scrolling I wish the following “blocks”; Tags, Categories, Comments & Pings and Post Author could be moved back to the right-side menu. Maybe embed them in a tabbed interface in order to take up even less space yet still be easily available.

Besides the above mentioned I’m really happy with all the changes in 2.5. It feels much more secure and I’m starting to get used to the new “media centre”. When that’s said I’m curious to what you all think about the recent changes. Anything that really irritates you (like the top-menu I just wrote about)? Anything else that you love in particular? Feel free to shout or applaud below…

I’ve been running this blog on WordPress 2.2.x for some time now, but after reading several warnings about Technorati (and possibly others) planned index exclusion of vulnerable blogs I’ve decided it’s time to upgrade. After a quick test on localhost I didn’t see any reason not to go ahead.

However, things might break and I would really appreciate feedback in case you discover something out of the ordinary.

More updates will follow I’m sure, and soon a new theme which I will share as always.