This monthly update is all about the latest WordPress release: WordPress 6.0 “Arturo”.
WordPress 6.0 was released on 24/05 and it is the second major release of 2022. As with every other major update, users can expect plenty of new features and improvements. All the great new features, enhancements and gains from Gutenberg 12.0 and 13.0 are included in this update. In fact, WordPress deploys over 400 updates, 500 bug fixes, and 91 new features in just this release.
This post will focus on several new features and enhancements that will have an impact on how users use WordPress. Read on to find out what’s new.
Enhancements to full-site editing
Full site editing (FSE) brought a major change to the WordPress platform in WordPress 5.9. The idea behind full site editing is to provide WordPress users with a collection of resources and features that allows them to build an entire website using Gutenberg blocks.
Following the footsteps of the previous major release, WordPress 6.0 continues to make improvements to full site editing and allows users to do more with this feature. Of course, you will need to use a block-based theme to take advantage of full site editing.
Theme style variations
With WordPress 6.0 comes global style variations to block themes. It’s now incredibly easy to apply a new style across your whole site. Many people are looking forward to this feature because it means you can change the look and feel of your site with just one click.
Block-theme export
In WordPress 6.0, users can easily export a block theme and apply that to a new site. Any edits, templates and changes can be saved and exported to a .zip file. This is quite an exciting update because it means WordPress users can now build themes in a visual way. Before this, you would need to have some coding knowledge to be able to build a working theme.
New template and theme patterns
WordPress 6.0 ships with more template options in the theme editor. There are several new templates for specific functions. These include templates for displaying posts from a specific author, category, date, tag, or taxonomy.
Next to that, developers are pushing for more block patterns to be used in themes. This is to further improve the visual-editing experience when it comes to designing WordPress websites. With WordPress 6.0, themes can easily register patterns from the Pattern Directory through theme.json. For more information regarding patterns, check out this WordPress core post.
Enhancement to the block editors
WordPress 6.0 brings numerous improvements and enhancements to the block editor. Some notable features and enhancements include:
New blocks
There are several new blocks coming in this major release, including post-author biography, avatar, no result in query loop, read more, and comment query loop.
Among these new blocks, the comment query loop block was the latest addition to WordPress 6.0. It is an advanced block that displays the comments of a specific post based on different parameters. Using this block, users will have more customization options to design the comment section to their liking.
A new list view experience
Working with list view becomes more intuitive in WordPress 6.0. Before this release, the list view would display every block you have on a page, resulting in a very long list of items. Now, items in the list view are grouped together and collapsed instead. Next to that, when you’re working with the list view open and you click on any blocks on the page, it will highlight precisely in the list view what you’ve clicked on.
Block-locking feature
Users can now lock a block so it can’t be moved or edited. A locked block shows a padlock when you click on it. You will also see this padlock indicating a locked block when you open the list view. This feature is especially useful when working with reusable blocks.
New features for the cover block
A new enhancement to the cover block is the ability to dynamically grab a post’s featured image and use that as a background image. When you insert a cover block, there should be an icon next to the ‘add media’ option that lets you toggle this feature. Next to that, there’s a new option to control the transparency of the background image.
Button style duplication
Creating multiple buttons with the same style becomes easier in WordPress 6.0. You can use a button block to create and customize a button. When you click on the plus icon to add additional buttons, those buttons will have the same style as the one you’ve created before. This is much more intuitive compared to previous WordPress versions because you would have to redo all the customizations for every new button.
Other notable enhancements and improvements
Writing improvements
Every major WordPress release comes with improvements and enhancements to the writing experience. This release is no different. Some of these enhancements are minor, but they can still have an impact on how users write content on WordPress.
In previous WordPress versions, it was quite inconvenient to select text across two different blocks. WordPress would end up selecting all the text from the two blocks instead of just selecting the text you want. This is fixed in WordPress 6.0. From now on, users can select and edit text across multiple blocks.
Another new writing feature in this release is a new link completer shortcut. The shortcut can be accessed by typing “[[”. It will then show you a list of links on your site. To find the link you need, simply type in a keyword from the title of the page/post you want to look for. This feature can be useful when doing internal linking.
New features in the design tools
There are several upgrades coming to the design tools. As with the writing improvements, the enhancements in design tools are minor.
Firstly, the group block has gained new layout options which include arranging blocks in a horizontal or vertical manner. Next to this, it is possible to modify the border of an individual block within a group, including its width, color and style. Block gap support is also introduced to the group block, allowing you to control the gap between individual blocks within a group. Lastly, gap support also arrives to the gallery block, which lets you control the spacing of images in your gallery.
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