WordPress 2.6 may not be due until August 2008, but already I’ve managed to compile a list of features and enhancements that we’ll likely be seeing in this next major WordPress release. (I’ll continue to update this post as we approach the release date.)

• NEW (June 20): Admin SSL support — The WordPress 2.6 admin should be able to be visited via either HTTP (normal connection) or HTTPS (encrypted connection), with the option to make admin HTTPS mandatory. [via]

• NEW (June 20): Remote publishing disabled by default — Having the main avenue of attack for WordPress blogs be disabled by default will be great for WordPress security. [via]

• NEW (June 16): Theme preview — Theme preview functionality would allow you to see what a new theme would look like on your blog before you activate it.

• NEW (June 16): Theme paging — For those of you with a ton of WordPress themes (more than 15), you’ll be able to page through them in the administration. This should be especially useful for WordPress MU blogs that have large theme collections.

• NEW (May 22): Ability to move wp-config.php — In WordPress 2.6, you’ll be able to move wp-config.php one directory level below the public root. Perhaps this could also allow multiple WordPress installations to share the same config file?

• NEW (May 20): Google Gears support — Now integrated into the WordPress trunk (current working version), this feature will allow Google Gears users to experience a faster admin interface, and possibly manage their WordPress blogs while offline (how cool would that be?).

• NEW (May 5): Identicons — In WordPress 2.6 you’ll have the ability to select a default Gravatar for those who don’t have one.

• Post Revisions — Wiki-style revisions management for blog posts: a cool new power-feature, just announced on the WordPress Development Updates blog.

• Shift-Click Checkbox Selection — In WordPress 2.6, you should be able to select a range of checkboxes in the category, comment, tag, post, page, and media administration sections by checking the “start” checkbox, holding the Shift key, and then checking the “end” checkbox… Gmail style.

• Post Word Count — A WordPress.com feature that might be making its way into WordPress 2.6.

• “Press This” Bookmarklet — The bookmarklet (which existed in WordPress 2.3 and prior but was removed in WordPress 2.5) has returned, new and improved.

Thoughts? Ideas? Add a comment below!

The post also featured a link to download WordPress 2.5 Release Candidate 1 (the term “release candidate” means that the software is mature enough to be released as-is, but the developers want more feedback before the final release).

We should be seeing the final WordPress 2.5 in a couple of days!

The release date for WordPress 2.5 is March 10! Here’s a sneak-peak of some of the planned features:

• New admin interface — An overhaul of the one we’ve had since version 2.0. The new one looks sort of like a cross between the version 2.0 blue interface and ye olde version 1.5 gray scheme.

• Widget-Based Dashboard — Finally, Dashboard-editing support!

• Built-in avatar support — Using Automattic‘s own Gravatar service, of course.

• Tag Management — Now there will be an admin interface for managing your blog’s tags, presumably similar to the one for managing categories.

• Full Text Feeds — “By popular demand, feeds now include the content after the ‘more’ tag when full text feeds are selected.”

• Automatic Plugin Upgrade — Whoopee! Now if we could just have WordPress update itself automatically too (without the need for extra plugins), we’d be in great shape.

Looking good! A big thanks to all the volunteers who make WordPress possible!