Usability changes to write post and write page panels

picture of the modified write post area

modified edit-form-page.php

modified wp-admin.css

modified edit-pages.php

modified global.css

+1 Excellent, excellent changes here!

Changing the milestone to 2.6 since we have code attached.

modified edit-form-advanced.php

+1 from me too. Invaluable changes.

If i recall correctly,

It has been said elsewhere that for now the layout of the post screens will not be changing dramatically, specifically, not moving the categories & tags to the sidepanel.

It was suggested that once the category suggestion stuff and tag suggestions were added in, the extra width of having it below the post window would make sense

But take it with a grain of salt, I dont have anything to reference off right now and i cant seem to search anything up(But i'm sure theres been at least 2 other tickets for this). I'm sure if a large enough need was wanted to move to the sidebar again it'll be considered.

Personally I do not have enough space in my sidebar for the categories, and find that the extra width under the post box is ideal.

See also: #6635

I'm using my own changes and have found the layout much preferable to the new WP 2.5 layout.

The Category drop-down lists either all categories or most used categories already. I don't have a ton of categories, true, but there is room at the side to list them. And I can always close the menu when I'm done selecting the categories I want.

I am also using the plugin Simple Tags. It includes tag lists and tag suggestions. The tag lists appear in a scrollable box below the tag input. Again, there's plenty of room for the box to extend down quite a ways before it needs to start scrolling, and I can close the menu when I'm finished with tags.

Don't get me wrong - I'd love to have automatic tag suggestions. But I don't see why that requires a wider area than what's available in the sidebar.

P.S. re: #6635, it does not include the change to display the list of drafts at the top.

The reason that I find that function so helpful is because otherwise from the write page, I can't even tell I have drafts saved. With the way that auto-save works now, I ended up with several drafts that I had never intended creating. I realized they were there because I say it on the dashboard. But I don't go to the dashboard very often. I found it really annoying to have to go over to a separate list to find and delete the extraneous drafts. The list is really helpful information.

If you'd like to lobby for this change I'd recommend starting an idea on the ideas forum with links to your screenshots and asking people to vote for it. This isn't really ideal for Trac, so I'm going to close it out here.

Pointing to extend idea: http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic.php?id=1354