Oh so happy!

I logged on the game for 2 minutes this morning so I could change my character's looks. Can't stay on the comp. much longer as I've got classes, but I just wanted to rejoice over the new party screen. I'm glad that they have finally implemented the /invite text command, as well as having a box to type in player's names, rather than having to seek each individual out, click on them, and then send invites. This works MUCH much better; thanks ArenaNet! & Great job on the game -- I'm very excited about playing it.

Nice,

All they need to do now is implement a better follow command

Yes, I agree.

I've been having a few problems with the party/invite system.
For one, I find it annoying having to type the player's name into the box, maybe I've missed some important command or something that would just let me click on them to have their name entered automatically. The same goes for whispering. I'd like to have some way of choosing who to whisper to just by clicking on them or clicking their name in the chat log rather than having to type it, especially when some names are long and strangely spelt.
Back on the party window, when I enter an explorable area, my party members window always locates itself on top of the minimap so that it obscures my view of the top half of it. Even if I move the party window, as soon as I enter another area it goes back down there.

As far as I can tell you just double click on the character that you want to follow.

Actually, if you click on a character, their name gets inputted into the box automatically, and then you can press the "+" button to add them. You can also click on a character's name in the chat log and it will set it to whisper. I've also noticed the whisper has auto-completion of player names, which is good, because when I want to send a whisper to a friend, sometimes I only have to type the first few letters of their first name and the rest gets filled in.

Yeah, but then you only follow until the person stops running, in which you have to double-click them again.