WordPress 6.0 Major Update Called “Arturo”
A new major release for WordPress happened on May 25th, 2022. The new WordPress 6.0 released today, and it’s called Arturo, after the famous Jazz Musician. This comes as no surprise as all WordPress versions are named after Jazz musicians.
This eagerly awaited new WordPress version offers tons of important functionality improvements, in hope of recapturing its lost market-share to competitors like Wix, Squarespace, Shopify and other emerging web platforms.
Josepha Haden Chomphosy, Executive Director of the WordPress project said this:
Expanding Gutenberg into a full site editing experience in WordPress means that all of the problems the community had to address were complex and far-reaching. WordPress 6.0 is an example of the community’s commitment to tackling these tough challenges together. With thoughtful updates to the writing experience, building better block functionality, and adding a new intuitive style switcher, I’m really proud of the work that’s been done in this release to make a great site editing experience.
WordPress 6.0 Editing Changes
Enhanced Editing Experience
The ‘Full Site Editing’ experience was introduced in WordPress 5.9, and now, WordPress 6.0 enhances this experience ever further by introducing new features like site-wide blocks, customizable templates, patterns, and more!
Switching Theme Styling
WordPress 6.0 introduces a feature that lets you switch the style of your theme with the push of a button! Instead of choosing a new theme, or making countless CSS changes, you’re now able to choose a different “version”, or style, of your theme. Note that you need a compatible theme in order to do this.
Template Editing In WordPress 6.0
With the new WordPress 6.0, you will have the ability to edit templates right from the theme editor! Instead of downloading your child theme to your local PC via FTP, or risking breaking your site using the Theme Editor, you can now simply edit templates like the Category Archive template, directly from the WordPress Editor!
Built-in Page Patterns
Compatible WordPress 6.0 themes now include patterns for common pages (pages you find on every website) such as the About page, or the Contact page.
The WordPress ‘Add New Page’ now pops up a list of available patterns to choose from to quickly style your common pages.
A Few Design Improvements
These new design changes made to improve user experience are now available:
- The panel to choose colors has a new design to save space.
- The border controls now offer a more simple way to change your borders and give you better control.
- Better transparency control.
- Group Blocks offer control gaps, margins, typography, and more.
- Better layout flexibility can be achieved by switching between stack, row, and group variations to position groups of blocks.
Brand New Blocks in Block Theme Editor
Here are the new blocks available in WordPress 6.0:
- Comment Query Loop
- Read More Block
- No Results in Query Loop
- Post Author Biography
- Avatar
Select Multiple Blocks
WordPress 6.0 includes keyboard shortcuts that allow you to choose multiple blocks from the list view at the same time, edit them in bulk, and drag-and-drop them wherever.
Block Locking Controls
Now, you can also choose to lock or unlock blocks in the WordPress editor to help prevent clients breaking your site, while giving them more creative control!
Improved Performance and Accessibility in WordPress 6.0
The new release promises instant speed improvements that will be noticeable right away. There are many development changes that are meant to help with this, and the official WordPress team release article suggests following them with the #performance hashtag.
Accessibility improvements are also at the forefront of this release and WordPress has made over 50 updates specifically focused on enhancing the accessibility of the platform. You can read about these updates here.
Conclusion
WordPress 6.0 is indeed a game-changer that now restores its past glory and enhances website editing to a new level that puts its competitors to shame. By making WordPress faster, safer, more intuitive, scalable and more accessible, it elevates the aging web platform and gives it new life!
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