Beta 3 of Movable Type 3.2 was released last night. This release is quite close to the final release.
Being the upgrade whore that I am, I had to apply it right away to my main blog. I ran into a slight snag; I forgot to replace the mt-static folder from Beta 2 to Beta 3, so the upgrade screen hung on the “Starting upgrade…” message.
This new version has such a massive laundry list of significant, substantive improvements to the admin interface and the backend that I have to admit that I am impressed. Six Apart has been highlighting the 32 biggest new features, but I suspect they are keeping some of the best surprises under wraps for the final release.
BTW, here is a sneak preview of the default template that ships with version 3.2. They are calling it Vicksburg.
I think that after the final version is released (could be as early as next week), I will begin my long-planned site redesign so that I can finally switch over to dynamic publishing and also take advantage of some of the new template tags in MT 3.2.
hmmm, I just upgraded to MT 3.2b4. do you have any idea how to switch to the new default templates?
I’d say, first back up all the files in your site with an FTP program. Then create an entirely new weblog, using the Weblogs page of the System Overview section. This weblog will have the Vicksburg theme. Then go back to the Templates page of your old weblog, and choose Refresh Templates from the More actions... pop-up menu.
The Template Refresh plug-in keeps your existing stylesheet intact, so if your template is highly customized, and you don’t want to use the new stylesheet; your site will look messed up after rebuild (which is why I can’t use this action on notMike.com). Then to get the Vicksburg theme, manually copy the site-styles from the Templates admin page of the new site over to the old site. Now you can cross your fingers and rebuild .
Vicksburg is all that is available now. I’m sure once they release the final, they will post the other new styles to their site like they did with the old MT 2 styles.