WordPress 2.8 is now available in its beta release, and there are more than one reason to rejoice for WordPress lovers. The stable release is expected soon, and from reviews so far, it looks like one of the best upgrades ever. If you haven’t tried yet, try it out on your test server and check out the admin panel. You’ll be up for a surprise.

And here are 10 reasons why you should upgrade to WordPress 2.8 (when it is stable that is)

1. Search and Upload themes right from the Admin Dashboard

Now changing your theme is just like searching for a plugin from the admin area. You can search wordpress themes based on the usual criteria’s like two column / three column, preview themes and activate it all right from the Dashboard. no more FTP stuff, man, life just got easier !

2. No more nagging email updates for your own comments

For your own comments, now WordPress won’t send a confirmation email. It would still send them for other users comments but not you, the admin. Clever !

3. No more un necessary prompts while marking spam comments

WordPress realizes that you already know that what you’re marking as spam is indeed spam. No more prompts or confirmations here, once marked spam, always a spam !

4. Tweak all plugin files (even the ones with more than one file) right from Admin area and fix those troublesome plugins

How many times have you tried to fix that problem child plugin from the dashboard only to find that there are more files which you have to edit via FTP ? Well, this issue is now sorted as WP now allows you to edit all plugin files right from the Admin dashboard.

5. No more password resets, as logins are now “case insensitive”

Yay ! so that means even if you typed “admin” instead of “Admin”, WP would still let you through.

6. No more widget trouble, as you can see all your sidebars from the Admin area and arrange and place the widgets accordingly. No more memorizing what goes where.

Every time I had to re-arrange the widgets, it meant lot of trouble. As changing one widget would mean, I had to save it elsewhere. This problem (and other widget problems) are now sorted as WP allows you a better widget management.

7. Customize your dashboard, with drag and drop, by selecting what to show on screen and what not to.

No more messy Admin area. you decide what remains and what not. Also WP now allows you to select from a grid format of admin widgets.

8. Editing WordPress themes from the admin area is now easier as WP2.8 will carry CodePress syntax highlighting to Theme and Plugin Editors.

So that means better function references and error free editing for themes and plugins !

9. Forgot what tags you used already ? Manage them better with exclusive tag manager for each post.

On WP2.8 there will be an exclusive Tags area where from you can manage all tags for each posts. Much like what we see in HeadSpace plugin.

10. Support for IIS 7.0 URL Rewrite Module

This would give hope for blogs on Microsoft server platforms, and now they too can change to pretty permalinks with no server errors whatsoever, without using work arounds.