Gutenberg 16.6 Released with Major Improvements

Gutenberg 16.6, the latest version of Gutenberg editor, has been released and is now available for download.

This new release, Gutenberg 16.6 includes an enhancement to the ListView in the post editor, introducing a horizontal scrollbar for heavily nested list views, a fix for the Cover Block on Safari on iPad, addressing an issue where images with a “Fixed background” were zoomed in excessively, and more!

Block hooks, formerly known as Auto-inserted blocks

On activation, plugins are now equipped with the capability to auto-insert blocks, enhancing the integration and automation between plugins and the Gutenberg editor. The previous versions of this experiment were called Auto-inserted blocks, but after the discussion, they have now been dubbed Block hooks. (#52969, #54029, #54024, #54147)

Captured toolbars for an easier editing experience

Toolbars for child blocks are now seamlessly attached to their parent blocks, offering a more intuitive and organized editing experience. And, this feature is currently supported for Navigation, List, and Quote blocks. (#53699, #53697)

Features

Interactivity API

Add Slot and Fill directives. (53958)
Query block: Client-side pagination. (53812)
Update data-wp-bind directive logic. (54003)
Query block: Move “Enhance pagination” toggle under Settings. (54198)

Enhancements

Moreover, here are some enhancements:

Bundle ObserveTyping within the BlockList component. (53875)
Default appender: Hide the dashed indicator until ancestor is selected. (53761)
So, register the block editor keyboard shortcuts automatically when using BlockEditorProvider. (53910)
[Commands]: Add toggle list view command in site editor. (53983)

Other Notable Highlights:

Make mid-size parameter settable for Query Pagination block. (#51216)
Add keyboard shortcut for duplicating blocks. (#53559)
Add toggle list view command in site editor. (53983)

Bug Fixes

Therefore, these are the bug fixes:

- Add missing aria roles for block locking toolbar and menu buttons. (53734)
- Block Editor: Fix cleanup in the ‘useNavModeExit’ hook. (53795)
- Command Palette: Fix crash on block-related commands. (53923)
- Date: Add relative time translations for moment.js. (53931)
- Date: Update translation domains for strings to be translatable. (53995)
- Iframe: Set character encoding to utf-8. (53519)
- Replace horizontal ellipsis icon with vertical ellipsis icon. (52731)
- Toggle Distraction free mode mode based on compatibility. (54030)
- Warning: Introduce SCRIPT_DEBUG to make the package compatible with webpack 5. (50122)
- [Commands]: Fix move to command condition for registering. (54049)
- [Commands]: Fix block editor commands availability. (53994)
- [Format library]: Fix language popover position. (53841)