The second major release of this year, WordPress 6.0 is finally here with new features and exciting enhancements. The update has been named after the legendary Jazz musician, Arturo O’Farrill. So, let’s welcome the new update and learn more about it.
If you’ve been staying updated with the latest buzzes on WordPress, you might be aware of the major changes that are taking place in WordPress 6.0. Some of the major updates include accessibility improvements, enhanced writing experience, better block functionalities, a new intuitive style switcher, more template options, integrated patterns, advanced design tools, enhanced ListView, Block Locking Controls, performance improvements, and many more.
Including the mentioned updates, WordPress 6.0 includes nearly 1,000 enhancements and bug fixes. Download the latest version of WordPress here.
Let’s have a closer look at the new changes in WordPress 6.0 “Arturo”
Accessibility Improvements
WordPress 6.0 update includes more than 50 updates regarding the accessibility of the platform. For instance, adding button text labels to the site editor and displaying the block title when removing a block. The update also includes accessibility enhancements in other areas like Nav Block, ListView, Media, Quick/Bulk Edit, log in and Registration, Themes, and more. Get full details about the Accessibility Improvements in v6.0 here.
Enhanced Writing Experience
The new update makes sure users have a smoother writing experience and includes the following changes:
- Select text across multiple blocks for easier copying and pasting.
- Type two open brackets `[[` to quickly access a list of recent posts and pages.
- Keep existing styles when you transform some blocks from one kind to another—from a Paragraph block to a Code block, for instance.
- Create customized buttons and any new buttons you make will retain the style customizations automatically.
- Make tag clouds and social icons even more appealing with updated settings and controls, and a new outline style for the tag cloud.
Better Block Editor Functionalities
Like any other major update, WordPress 6.0 also includes an array of amazing performance enhancements regarding the Gutenberg Editor.
Here are some of the highlights included to further enhance the Block Editor:
- Global Style Variations
- Block Locking UI
- Page Creation Patterns
- More Template Options
- Updated Separator Block
- Several Performance Improvements
New Style Switcher
Block themes now include the option to contain multiple style variations that expands the new Style system and enables shortcuts to switch styles within a single theme. In block themes that support this feature, you can change both the available settings, like the font weight, and the style options, like the default color palette.
Integrated Patterns
Patterns will now appear in more places like in the quick inserter. If you’re a block theme author, you can even register patterns from the Pattern Directory using `theme.json`, enabling you to prioritize specific patterns that are most helpful to your theme’s users.
Advanced Design Tools
- A new color panel design
- New border controls
- Transparency levels for your colors
- Control gaps, margins, typography, and more on a collection of blocks, all at once, in the Group block
- Switch between the stack, row, and group variation
Enhanced List View
Another update in WordPress 6.0 is enhanced list view. New keyboard shortcuts enable you to select multiple blocks from the list view, modify them in bulk, and drag and drop them within the list. List View now is collapsed by default and it automatically expands to the current selection whenever you select a block.
KNOW MORE ABOUT WORDPRESS 6.0 HERE. Or you can also check out the WordPress 6.0 Field Guide for more details.
The lead for this major update was Matt Mullenweg.
Other Squad Members:
- Release Coordinators: Héctor Prieto and Anne McCarthy
- Core Tech Lead: Peter Wilson
- Editor Tech Leads: Adam Zieliński and Greg Ziółkowski
- Core Triage Leads: Ahmed Chaion and Colin Stewart
- Editor Triage Lead: Nick Diego
- Documentation Leads: Birgit Pauli-Haack, Milana Cap, and Abha Thakor
- Marketing & Communications Lead: Dan Soschin
- Test Leads: Piotrek Boniu and Brian Alexander
- Design Lead: Channing Ritter
There were 500+ contributors with props in this release. With so many new and improved things this time, the WordPress 6.0 release comes with WordPress 90% or more translated into 205 languages with more on the way.
Have you updated to WP 6.0 yet? Did this newest version of WordPress fulfill all your expectations? Let us know in the comments section below.