Pages Feautre in 1.5

Very good question indeed. The page feature in 1.5 might not allow some things to validate (Html tags) so I’m not sure and It says It doesnt work with WP 1.3+.

If you are using the new default theme, all you have to do is Write->Write Page. This suffices for pages that do not include php. If you need php on your contact page, you can either install the RunPHP plugin or create a template specifically for your contact page. Take a look at links.php and archives.php in the new default theme. You can copy one of those to contact.php, edit to suit, and change the Template Name header to “Contact”. Now you can go to Write->Write Page and select “Contact” from the “Page Template” dropdown.

We need to document this.

I was under the impression that as long as a page included the following:

/*
Template Name: Contact
*/

you could put any html, php, etc.

Does this only hold true if you are editing the contact.php file from outside the “write page” within the admin?

Superspiker is almost correct there. I learn a lot from trial and error using 1.5 new static page creation. Also, ryan boren of documentaion page about the page system in his blog helps a lot. You can basically create template with any names and when you write a new page in the admin area, just click on the drop down menu the template you want. New templates are autodetected in the drop down menu as long as you have the valid header declaration while creating those templates. You can visit my site and see whether this is what you want or you prefer to stick to the other solution you have posted. :). Both are fine but the 1.5 way of doing it gives so much freedom and a lot easier to edit your pages content. Not to mention you can customize each pages with their own css and templates.

Nightly builds can be scary though, although it seems like fewer and fewer major bugs were reported in the bugs tracking system recently.