In March, WordPress got an exciting new release. WordPress 6.2 has lots of new features that will improve your site for sure. Curious what these are? Then just keep reading!
WordPress courses available for free
That’s right! WordPress has made its educational courses available on a new hub. Currently, you can watch a course about getting started with WordPress, how to create a site, and an introduction to SEO, blogging, and podcasting.
This is already very exciting, but it gets even better. Because WordPress has announced that they’ll make even more courses. Plus, you can also watch live webinars and replays on wordpress.com/learn.
WooCommerce 101 webinar
One of the exciting webinars that you can rewatch is the WooCommerce 101 — How to Set Up a Store. The webinar will cover how to install WooCommerce, how to use the setup wizard, set up basic products and shipping, and so on. And since it’s given by a WordPress expert, it might be useful for both ecommerce veterans and first-time business owners to watch.
Make those buttons pop
Are your buttons looking a little flat? Then we have good news! In March, WordPress added a new feature: a shadow effect for buttons. This will give your buttons something extra to make them stand out. The preset options available in the Styles menu will let you apply this effect to your entire site.
Note: This feature is only available on block themes.
What’s new in WordPress 6.2?
Today marks the release of WordPress 6.2! This release comes with lots of new features and improvements to the block editor, as well as performance enhancements, fixes for accessibility issues and PHP8 compatibility.
For a full review, check out this related post, WordPress 6.2 Updates.
An overview of the new features can be found below.
A new interface
The site editor has an updated interface. Now, you’ll have more control over your site and pages, because you can edit parts of your website and parts of your template in one place. You can even add new templates!
So how do you access the site editor? Click on Appearance in the sidebar, then click on Editor. You’ll find everything you need there. However, keep in mind that the site editor is only available on sites that use block themes.
An updated block inserter
WordPress improved its block inserter by focusing on ease of use. With this update, you can simply drag and drop blocks, patterns, and media directly into your content. It also gives you a preview of your work, while keeping the menu visible. For example, if you’ve added an image, you’ll be able to see what it looks like on the page and still have the media menu visible. You’ll be able to easily pick and choose what looks best.
Give users a sticking point
First, what’s a “sticky” component? It’s a piece of content that stays at the top of your page, no matter how far you scroll down. This can be very useful for your headers and menu. Because users won’t have to scroll all the way up again. But it can also be useful for important announcements or promotions.
Introducing the Style Book
In WordPress 6.2, a new feature has been added to the global styles interface: The Style Book. This feature provides an at-a-glance preview of how global styles will affect the display of any block. So you don’t have to insert blocks into your template anymore! For example, if you change the text color or font size on your site, you’ll be able to see how that affects every block. In other words: This update will make it so much easier to edit all the elements on your site, while keeping your styling consistent.
So, how do you access the Style Book? Simple! Click on the Styles icon at the top of your page, then select the style book icon.
Better performance
The WordPress 6.2 release also brought a lot of performance enhancements to the WordPress core, visible in the benchmarks for both Web Vitals and Server Timing metrics. In addition, block themes will be around 20% faster TTFB (time to first byte) and 14% faster LCP (how long it’ll take the largest piece of content to appear). On pages with hero images, the LCP improvements are even greater at around 19%.
And much more!
The WordPress 6.2 release is a big one, with something fun for everyone. So we recommend you update your site and click around to see what’s been improved. You can always take a look at the WordPress 6.2 field guide if you want an extensive overview of what the new release entails.
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