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Tag: WordPress new features

  • What’s Coming in WordPress 6.3 (Features and Screenshots)

    WordPress 6.3 Beta arrived a few days ago and is expected to be released on August 8th, 2023. This will be the second major release of 2023 and will come with significant new features and improvements.

    We have closely monitored the development and tried new features on our test sites.

    In this article, we will look into what features are coming in WordPress 6.3 with details and screenshots.

    What to expect from WordPress 6.3 with new features and improvements

    Note: You can try out the beta version on your computer or a staging environment by using the WordPress Beta Tester plugin. Please keep in mind that some of the features in the beta may not make it into the final release.

    Here is a quick overview of changes coming in WordPress 6.3:

    Site Editor Enhancements in 6.3

    The site editor in WordPress came out of beta in 6.2. The upcoming 6.3 will improve the site editor with several new features and enhancements to improve user experience.

    New Navigation in Site Editor

    WordPress 6.2 introduced a new navigator to the site editor. This allowed users to choose the template or template part they wanted to edit.

    WordPress 6.3 will bring improvements to this navigator, allowing users to select not just template or template parts but also pages, styles, patterns, and navigation menus.

    Site editor navigation

    The search icon will open the command tool (more on this later), where you can look for the area you want to edit.

    You can also quickly open your site in a new tab by clicking the ‘View Site’ button. The button only appears when you take your mouse to the site title and the search area.

    Manage Patterns in Site Editor

    WordPress 6.3 will also introduce a new and intuitive way to manage patterns. You can view all your patterns inside the site editor.

    Patterns in site editor

    Clicking on ‘Patterns’ will show the patterns available on your site in categorized sections.

    These will include both synced and unsynced patterns that you can use.

    Patterns library in site editor

    Unsynced patterns are standalone patterns that can be inserted at any time. After adding them, you can make changes, and those changes will not affect the original pattern.

    Synced patterns can be used across your WordPress website. Changing them will affect the original pattern. They behave like reusable blocks, so all your reusable blocks will also appear here and now be called ‘Synced Patterns’.

    At any time, you can click on the ‘+’ button in the Patterns menu to create a new pattern.

    Create a new pattern in site editor

    You can also manage your custom patterns by clicking on ‘Manage all of my patterns’ in the sidebar.

    This will allow you to edit and manage your custom-made patterns and reusable blocks.

    Manage patterns

    Quickly Edit Pages

    The site editor will now allow you to easily select ‘Pages’ from the editor navigation menu.

    Edit pages in site editor

    Clicking on this will also show you the pages you edited most recently, enabling you to quickly resume edits on a page you have been working on.

    You can also click the ‘+’ button in the navigation menu to quickly create a new page and immediately edit it in the site editor.

    Create or edit pages in the site editor

    Preview Block Themes in Site Editor

    When installing classic themes, you can already preview them without activating them on your site. This allows you to preview a WordPress theme without changing your live site.

    WordPress 6.3 will also allow users to preview block themes inside the editor. This will help users test-drive a theme before activating it on their sites.

    Live preview block themes

    Note: This is an experimental feature that didn’t work well during beta testing on our test sites.

    Style Revisions to Easily Undo Changes

    WordPress makes it super easy to undo changes to posts and pages using a feature called Revisions.

    The same feature will now be available for site editor styles. It will allow you to see the changes you made to your theme styles and undo them if needed.

    Simply select a style or block that you want to edit in the Styles panel. Click on the ‘Revisions’ button and then select ‘Revision history’.

    Style revisions

    This will show you all the changes made to the style of the selected item.

    You can then switch between different versions and click the ‘Apply’ button to undo a change and revert to a previous state.

    Browse revisions

    The New Command Tool in WordPress 6.3

    WordPress 6.3 will also introduce the new command tool. It will allow users to perform actions quickly using the keyboard.

    Command tool in site editor

    Simply press the CTRL + K or Command + K keys on your keyboard. This will bring up the command tool, where you can simply start typing to search.

    It will then show you matching templates, template parts, patterns, blocks, posts and pages, and more. Selecting an item from the results will open it in the site editor.

    Block Editor Improvements

    WordPress 6.3 will also bring several new features and improvements to the block editor.

    Footnote and Details Blocks

    WordPress 6.3 will ship with two new blocks called Footnote and Details.

    Footnote Block

    Before, the block editor had no easy way to add footnotes to a post. Users had to create footnotes or use a third-party plugin.

    With WordPress 6.3, users can simply select the ‘Footnote’ option using the three-dot menu in the toolbar.

    Adding footnotes in WordPress 6.3

    Details Block

    Have you ever wanted a way for users to click on some text to reveal more information? The Details block lets you do just that.

    Simply add the Details block and provide the text that will be visible to the users.

    Using Details block

    Below that, you can add the content you want to hide inside the hidden block.

    This content could be text, images, media, and more.

    Preview Details block

    The Details block could be a handy replacement for accordions, which are commonly used to add FAQs or information in a compact style.

    Improved Padding and Margin Controls

    WordPress 6.3 will also introduce improved padding and margin controls.

    Previously, if you unlinked padding and margin controls, they took up a lot of space in the right column.

    In WordPress 6.3, padding and margin controls will be more compact and easy to use.

    Compact padding and margin controls

    Better Handling of Image Aspect Ratio

    WordPress 6.3 will allow users to choose the aspect ratio for an image. This will enable users to easily select the image size while maintaining the aspect ratio.

    This ensures that the images will look good in all sizes.

    Image aspect ratio

    Color and Layout Support for Cover Block

    The Cover block will get improvements in WordPress 6.3.

    Users can now choose its layout options, similar to the Group block.

    Cover layout

    The Cover block will now support duotone filters.

    Users will also find more design options for text inside the Cover block.

    Cover block duotone and colors

    Link control is the tool used by the block editor to add links. WordPress 6.3 will make some adjustments to improve it further.

    New link control

    Users can create a new page directly using the ‘Create Page’ button within the link control tool.

    The toggle to open a link in a new tab is also unavailable when adding a link. However, you can edit a link and find the option tucked away inside the ‘Advanced’ setting.

    Open link in new tab

    Under the Hood Changes

    There are also a ton of changes in WordPress 6.3 intended for developers. Here are some of the new features that you will find in the update:

    • Improved emoji loader to reduce the time spent on loading the emoji script. (#58472)
    • Defer and async support added to the WP Scripts API. (#12009)
    • Fetch priority support added for images. (#58235)
    • Skipping lazy loading for images outside the loop in classic themes. (#58211)
    • Attempt rollback for failed plugin and theme updates. (#51857)
    • Merge get_posts() and get_pages(). (#12821)

    We hope this article helped you get a sneak peek into what’s coming in WordPress 6.3.

    Comment below to let us know what features you find interesting and what you’d like to see in a future WordPress release!

    If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

    The post What’s Coming in WordPress 6.3 (Features and Screenshots) first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • What’s Coming in WordPress 6.2 (Features and Screenshots)

    WordPress 6.2 Beta arrived a few days ago and it is expected to be released on March 28th, 2023. It will be the second major release of 2023 and will come with significant new features and improvements.

    We have been closely monitoring the development and trying out new features on our test sites.

    In this article, we’ll give you a sneak peek into what features are coming in WordPress 6.2 with details and screenshots.

    What new features are coming in WordPress 6.2

    Note: You can try out the beta version on your computer or on a staging environment by using the WordPress Beta Tester plugin. Please keep in mind that some of the features in the beta may not make it into the final release.

    Here is a quick overview of changes coming in WordPress 6.2:

    1. Full Site Editor Comes Out of Beta
    2. Browse and Choose Templates to Edit
    3. Add Custom CSS to Your Theme or Specific Blocks
    4. New and Improved Navigation Menus
    5. Colors to Indicate Template Parts Being Edited
    6. See Styles for All Blocks in The Style Book
    7. Copy and Paste Block Styles
    8. Classic Widgets Import as Template Parts in Block Themes
    9. Separate Sub Panels for Block Settings and Styles
    10. A New Distraction-Free Mode is Introduced
    11. Improved Pattern Insertion with New Categories
    12. Miscellaneous Changes
    13. Under The Hood Changes

    Full Site Editor Comes Out of Beta

    The new full site editor feature in WordPress will come out of beta with the final release of WordPress 6.2.

    Site editor comes out of beta

    This completes a significant part of the WordPress development roadmap.

    The site editor feature is now stable for the community to create block-based themes and experiment with their own WordPress websites, plugins, or themes.

    Note: Full site editor is available with block themes that support this feature. You can try it out even if you are using the older classic editor with a block-enabled theme.

    Browse and Choose Templates to Edit

    Previously the Site Editor loaded the Home template of your theme by default. This left many beginners wondering which template or template part they needed to edit.

    With WordPress 6.2, the site editor will load the template preview window first. From here, you can browse different templates and see a preview of what it looks like.

    Template browser

    Then you can simply click on the Edit button to start working on the selected template.

    Once you are done editing the template, don’t forget to click on the Save button to make your changes go live.

    After that, you can click on the WordPress logo in the upper-left corner of the screen to bring back the template browser sidebar.

    Site editor navigation

    Now if you need to edit a different template, then you can choose it from here. Otherwise, you can simply click on the WordPress logo again and exit the Site Editor.

    Add Custom CSS to Your Theme or Specific Blocks

    In the last few WordPress releases, the site editor hid the ‘Theme Customizer‘ which made it difficult for users to add custom CSS to their themes.

    WordPress 6.2 will allow users to switch to the Styles panel and select Custom CSS from the menu.

    Custom CSS in site editor

    From here, users will be able to save Custom CSS that applies to their entire theme.

    What if you wanted to save custom CSS that only applied to a specific block?

    WordPress 6.2 will also allow you to add custom CSS for specific blocks. From the Style panel, click on the Blocks menu.

    Block styles

    On the next screen, you will see a list of blocks. Simply click on the block where you want to apply your custom CSS.

    Under the block styles, click on the Additional CSS tab.

    Block styles custom CSS

    If you want to conditionally add CSS or keep your custom styles outside of theme specific settings, then we recommend using the free WPCode plugin.

    New and Improved Navigation Menus

    Adding navigation menus in the full site editor has been a bit difficult for users. WordPress 6.2 will try to solve this by improving the way users can create and manage menus while using the site editor.

    First, instead of editing the menu items inline, you can now add, remove, and edit menu items in a subpanel under the Navigation block.

    Managing menu items in block panel

    From here, you can add a new menu item by clicking on the Add Block (+) button. You can also just drag and drop menu items to rearrange them.

    Want to create a new blank menu or reload an older one? Simply click on the three-dot menu and then choose a menu you created earlier or create a new one.

    Manage menus

    Colors to Indicate Template Parts Being Edited

    WordPress 6.2 will also highlight the template part that you are editing, and that changes will be made on a side-wide, global scale.

    The element will be bordered in a color and have a template part icon attached.

    Template part editing in site editor

    This will help users realize that instead of editing the specific page or post, they are now editing a template part and this change will affect other pages on their site as well.

    See Styles for All Blocks in The Style Book

    The site editor in WordPress 6.2 will ship with a ‘Style Book.’ Simply switch to the Styles panel and then click on the style book icon.

    This will show you all the blocks, and how they are styled in your theme.

    Style book shows all block styles at one place

    You can locate a block much more quickly this way, and then click to edit it directly.

    After that, you can change its appearance and style and customize it to your own requirements.

    Edit block directly from style book

    Copy and Paste Block Styles

    Now that editing block styles and appearance has become so much easier, there is a need to easily copy and paste these styles.

    WordPress 6.2 will allow you to simply copy block styles by clicking on block options and then selecting ‘Copy Styles’.

    Copy styles

    After that, you can click to edit a different block and select ‘Paste styles’ from the block options.

    Your browser will ask for permission to allow your website to view the contents of the clipboard. You need to click ‘Allow’ to continue.

    Paste styles

    Classic Widgets Import as Template Parts in Block Themes

    Users with classic widget themes lost their legacy widgets when they switched to a block theme. WordPress 6.2 will provide a nice fallback to that by converting legacy widgets into special Template Parts when switching themes.

    You’ll need to enter the site editor and edit the template where you want to import the widgets. After that, create a new template part by clicking on the Add New Block button (+).

    Import classic widgets in block themes

    From the template part settings panel, click on the Advanced tab to expand it and you’ll find the option to import a widget area from your previous theme.

    Separate Sub Panels for Block Settings and Styles

    With WordPress 6.2, the editor will show two sub-panels for a block. One for the block settings and the other one for styles.

    This will help users understand where they need to look if they want to change the appearance of a block.

    Sub panel for Styles

    A New Distraction-Free Mode is Introduced

    Historically, WordPress has always provided options to hide the formatting buttons and toolbars on the post editor screen.

    However, WordPress 5.4 made the editor full-screen by default. This allowed users to have a much cleaner writing interface, but there was no distraction-free mode.

    WordPress 6.2 will remedy that and will come with a completely clean and calm distraction-free mode. Users will be able to choose it from the editor settings.

    Launch distraction free mode

    Once chosen, the distraction-free mode hides all editor control elements.

    As you can see below, toolbars, side panels, and the top bar are nowhere to be seen.

    Distraction free editor in WordPress 6.2

    Improved Pattern Insertion with New Categories

    WordPress 6.2 will simplify the Pattern Insertion panel. Instead of showing previews and a drop-down menu of categories, it will show the categories first.

    Pattern insertion

    There are two new categories of Patterns added for the Header and Footer sections.

    Clicking on a category will show you the available patterns that you can use.

    Browse patterns in a category

    You can then just click to insert a pattern into your template and start editing it.

    For more details, see our tutorial on how to use patterns in WordPress.

    Miscellaneous Changes

    Download Link For Media Files – The media screen will now show a Download File link in the list view.

    Download file link in the Media Library

    Openverse Integration to Add Free Images – Openverse offers royalty-free open-source images.

    With WordPress 6.2, users will be able to find and add those images from Add New panel.

    Openverse Integration

    New Icon for the Settings Panel – The icon to display the settings panel previously used a gear icon.

    It is now represented with a panels icon.

    Settings icon

    Under The Hood Changes

    There are a ton of changes in WordPress 6.2 intended for developers. Here are some of the changes that you will find in the update:

    • Faster updates by moving directories instead of copying them. (Details)
    • A new switch_to_user_locale() function is introduced. (Details)
    • Create autosave revisions only when content is changed. (Details)
    • Add a style variation tag to themes that use style variations. (Details)

    Overall WordPress 6.2 beta 1 includes 292 enhancements, 354 bug fixes for the editor, and more than 195 tickets for the WordPress 6.2 core.

    We hope this article provided you with a glimpse of what’s coming in WordPress 6.2.

    Comment below to let us know what features you find interesting and what you’d look to see in a future WordPress release!

    If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

    The post What’s Coming in WordPress 6.2 (Features and Screenshots) first appeared on WPBeginner.