I am putting up the first beta for Version 4.0.0. You can download it from the Google code page. I welcome you to test this version and put it through the grinder. Try out different combinations of layouts, test it with plugins etc. and let me know what comes up.

To reiterate, here are the highlights:

1. Mega-Menus:
   To see what the fuss is, go to Appearance → Menus. Then create a menu. For the root level items in your menu you can pick a Mega Menu Widget Area. Pick one, assign it a number of columns and do the other settings as required. Make sure you assign this menu to a menu location.
   Then go to Appearance → Widgets and add widgets to the Mega Menu area that you have selected. Now check it out on the front page.
   Typical things to test would be:
   1. The menu shouldn’t overflow the wrapper’s borders if the menu width is less than the wrapper width.
   2. Check with the different widget height settings, such as “Auto-arrange” or “Equal height for the same row” etc.
   3. Vary the number of columns and see the effect.
   4. If you have picked an empty widget area, you shouldn’t see the tab in the navigation bar.
2. Custom Layouts:
   Go to Templates → Custom Layout Template. Save the settings as you wish. Then create a page and assign the “Custom Layout” template to it. Upon “Save Draft” or “Publish”, in the “Additional Options for Suffusion” box you will see a new tab for “Custom Layout”. You should be able to save the settings. Add the widgets to the widget areas and then visit the page in the front end. Your new page should conform to your selections.
   Typical things to test would be:
   1. You should be able to create different pages with this template.
   2. For each page you should be able to control the number of columns in each Custom Layout widget area.
   3. Each page should respect the corresponding selections.
   4. Try the different widget height settings.
   5. Use this capability in conjunction with Widget Logic and see the effects.
3. Page Layouts:
   Instead of picking a “Single Left Sidebar” page template, you can now pick a “1 Left Sidebar” layout for a page / post. This gives you the advantage of combining third-party templates with Suffusion layouts. With this, the regular page templates with sidebar options are deprecated. You can still continue using them, but using a layout is going to be much easier.
   Things to test would be:
   1. If you have a page template such as “1 Left Sidebar” assigned, then you assign “2 Left Sidebars” layout, your page template will get the preference.
   2. Pick any other page template and assign a layout to it – you will be able to get the combination of both.
4. Featured Content:
   I added a lot of new options to the static Featured Content and widget. You will now have options to display icons, position the slider index and the controls differently etc.
5. Magazine Template / Tiles Layout:
   I have changed the markup here to use div instead of tables. This will now prevent the unbalanced column widths that you currently see. Do give this a thorough test with all your layout combinations.
6. General Checks:
   Try the following general checks (not a complete list, but it should give you some idea):
   1. There were issues with the latest version of the NGG plugin – that should be gone.
   2. Activate another theme, then come back and activate Suffusion – you shouldn’t see any errors of any sort in this process.
   3. Check if the menus are working correctly in terms of custom colours, rightly showing a downward or sideward arrow etc.
   4. Try sharing posts with this release – you shouldn’t see any fatal errors reported when you do this.
   5. You should see some “pointers” with tips in the back-end if you are using WP 3.3.x.

Note that this is a beta release. So please don’t use it on a live site! Feel free to post your comments and bugs here.