Upgrade of LDS.org Has Launched!

by Larry Richman

LDS.org has just been upgraded. The release follows a successful 3-month testing period wherein tens of thousands of users accessed the site under the name of new.lds.org. The site has a new visual design, many new sections of content, an upgraded search engine, and translated content. The new site is designed to focus on helping Church members learn, live, and share the restored gospel.
To make the transition to the new site easier, the old LDS.org is still available at classic.lds.org if you want to refer to old content that is not yet part of the new LDS.org. The development of parts of the new LDS.org will continue for many months. Therefore, as you navigate through the site, you may find sections that refer you back to classic.lds.org to find content that has not yet been rebuilt in the new design.
Watch videos that introduce the new tools and sections of  LDS.org.
Below are a few highlights of what is now available:
Prophets and Apostles Speak Today
The section Prophets and Apostles Speak Today chronicles the ministries of living apostles and prophets, providing access to the Brethren’s messages and insight into their ministry. It includes stories about and interviews with members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Prophets and Apostles Speak Today also provides links to general conference and First Presidency messages, The Family: A Proclamation to the World, The Living Christ: The Testimony of the Apostles, and “classic” addresses by apostles and prophets that remain relevant today.
You can reach the site from the prominent link on the LDS.org home page or from the Study section in the menu.
Calendars
The calendars have been restructured to be easier to use and more useful for wards, stakes, branches, and districts throughout the world. You can now have as many separate calendars as you need. For example, you can have a calendar for Ward Activities, Scouts, Relief Society, Elders Quorum, and Bishopric. Members can control the type of events they see.
When you first log on, you’ll see instructions for transitioning to the new calendars, including an Import Wizard that lets you import events from your existing calendar at stakes.lds.org (or ward.lds.org). The new calendar has a few bugs and will continue to be enhanced during 2011, but it is already better in many ways than the old calendar. Further enhancements in January 2011 will make the interface much more intuitive, so you may want to wait until the January release before widely adopting it in your wards and stakes.
The calendar on LDS.org is available in 10 languages: Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.
Directories
The directory has also been enhanced. In addition to members’ names and contact information, the new directory includes a place to upload pictures of individuals and families and allows members to edit their information.
The directory on LDS.org is available in 10 languages: Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.
You can reach the directory by clicking Tools. You can also go directly there at lds.org/directory.
Church News and Events
This is a source of official news of the Church online. It also brings together headlines from each of the Church’s official news sources, including the Public Affairs Newsroom (newsroom.lds.org), Church magazines (magazines.lds.org),  Mormon Channel (MormonChannel.org), and Church News (ldschurchnews.com). The old Around the Church site on classic.lds.org and its associated e-mail and RSS feed will no longer be updated.
Church News and Events works closely with these outlets to cover news and events of interest to Church members and provide a global perspective. Articles can be filtered by topic to help you quickly find information that’s important to you.