One of the cool new things about wp2.9 is support for post thumbnails. What this means is that you can associate an image with a post, as a thumbnail for that post.
Previously I have had to write all kinds of code to pull the first image embedded in the body of the post, resize it, and throw that into the template. For example, a “Current Projects” page. Each project on this page is a Post in the “Current Project” category. You can embed/upload an image into the body. My template then extracts the image from the body, resizes it, makes a link out of it, and displays it on the page that lists all of the Current Project Posts. I’ve done this so many times I copy/paste the code from one project to another.
WP2.9 has this post thumbnail business. Which is brilliant. You enable support for post thumbnails in your theme. Then there’s a new block on the Post edit screen where you pick an image to use as a thumbnail. You don’t upload it to the body, it’s separate and clear. Then I use two functions in my template code to check whether or not there’s a thumbnail for this post, and if so, output it.
Dirt simple. I love it. I played around with this a bit so I know how it works. I can’t wait to put it into practice.