The first Beta for the next major release, 5.8 is here. WordPress 5.8 Beta 1 has been released with many exciting new features and enhancements. The highlights in WordPress 5.8 Beta 1 include handpicked Patterns, Powerful Blocks, New Template Editor with new custom templates, New Design Tools for existing blocks, and more. Also, the update includes several tiny improvements as well.
The software is still in development, so the development team recommends you to not run it on a production site and so do we. Simply set up a test site just to play around with the new version.
The major release, WordPress 5.8 is targeted for release on July 20, 2021. It is our responsibility to help the team roll out the major release with minimal (to no) issues. Therefore, let’s start testing!
To test WordPress 5.8, try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”). Or you can download the beta here (zip).
Check out the big items to test to find as many bugs as possible in the coming weeks to make things easier for the developers.
WordPress 5.8 Beta 1 Highlights
Handpicked Patterns
You can now recommend and select patterns during block setup, empowering you with new flows. Not only you can select, but also transform the patterns and convert your blocks into patterns.
Powerful Blocks
Many new enhancements have been made to different blocks in order to have more control over the blocks.
- Several new blocks and expressive tools have been added, including blocks for Page Lists, Site Title, Logo, and Tagline.
- A permanent toolbar button for selecting a parent has been added in the nested blocks.
- A new List View for better navigation of blocks and patterns.
- Enhanced Reusable Blocks
- New duotone block adds images effects which can be used in media blocks or supported in third-party blocks with customizable color presets.
Other Improvements in WordPress 5.8 Beta 1
- Create new custom templates for pages using blocks with new Template Editor
- Themes can now control and configure styling with a theme.json file, including layout configuration, block supports, color palettes, and more.
- New design tools and enhancements to existing blocks, including more color, typography, and spacing options, drag and drop for Cover backgrounds, additions to block transformation options, ability to embed PDFs within the File block, and more.
- Includes improvements to how the editor is rendered to more accurately resemble the frontend.
- Changes to end support for Internet Explorer 11 being merged
- New sidebars, widget, and widget-types REST API endpoints
- Added block patterns to default themes
- Added ability to mark a plugin as unmanaged
WordPress 5.8 addresses more than 215 tickets. It includes88 new features and numerous small bug fixes and improvements to help smooth your WordPress experience.
As mentioned above, the WordPress 5.8 Release is up for July 20 and the development team can surely use all the help. If you think you’ve found a bug, you can post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on WordPress Trac, where you can also find a list of known bugs.