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The latest update to the most popular blogging platform has hit the streets and is available for immediate download/update.  Of course, the easiest way to get updated is using the Updates page in your WordPress Admin Panel.  I updated all four of the sites I manage and was impressed with how quick the update was as it took less than about 15 seconds for each blog.  This goes without saying but back up your WordPress database before under taking any update even if it seems to be a minor one.

So what can you expect to find changed in this 3.1 update?  According to Matt Mullenweg at the WordPress.org Blog here are the highlights:

This release features a lightning fast redesigned linking workflow which makes it easy to link to your existing posts and pages, an admin bar so you’re never more than a click away from your most-used dashboard pages, a streamlined writing interface that hides many of the seldom-used panels by default to create a simpler and less intimidating writing experience for new bloggers (visit Screen Options in the top right to get old panels back), and a refreshed blue admin scheme available for selection under your personal options.

There’s a bucket of candy for developers as well, including our new Post Formats support which makes it easy for themes to create portable tumblelogs with different styling for different types of posts, new CMS capabilities like archive pages for custom content types, a new Network Admin, an overhaul of the import and export system, and the ability to perform advanced taxonomy and custom fields queries.

He also indicated there were more than 820 issues which were being tracked that ended up closed with this update.  It is simply amazing the work the WordPress community does to make this CMS what it is.

Head over to http://wordpress.org/download/ to grab the full download or, like I said earlier, log into your WordPress dashboard and update from there.