On Tuesday 24th May 2022, WordPress released version 6.0.
Named ‘Arturo’ after the Grammy-winning jazz musician Arturo O’Farrill, this release introduces almost 1,000 updates and enhancements to make WordPress more intuitive for developers and users. WordPress 6.0 improves the editing experience for end users by making writing easier. It also includes multiple accessibility enhancements.
Note: the Full Site Editor is currently labelled as Beta. Always remember to create a complete WordPress backup before updating.
Switch Theme Styles
You can now easily switch your entire theme style by clicking on the ‘style’ button in the top right corner and switching to the ‘Browse Styles’ tab to see available styles for your theme.
Export Theme Block
The new update allows you to save and export all the changes made to your block theme, with a ZIP file and you can then download and install the theme on other websites.
Read More Button Block
You can add the ‘read more’ button to your post excerpts allowing you to apply more styling options.
Author Biography & Avatar
The new post author biography can be used alongside the post author and avatar blocks, which allow users to show their avatar profile picture.
Page Pattern
You can now include patterns on your pages. Note that this is something that theme developers need to build into their themes.
Block Locking
You can lock a block to prevent users from removing it or changing its position. This feature is great for reusable blocks, as any changes made to these can change everywhere on the website.
Text Selection
It is now easier to select text between multiple text blocks and move the selection cursor across the blocks smoothly. This means that you can select the content you want to edit, contributing to a more intuitive writing experience.
Responsive Group & Row Blocks
You can choose how you want blocks to behave on different screen sizes, and with group blocks you can display inside a row or stack.
Quick Shortcut for Internal Links
You can quickly add links by adding two square brackets ‘[[‘ which will show a list of recent posts and pages.
Select Multiple Blocks in List View
You can select multiple blocks in the list view to move them up or down and perform other actions.
Adding A Border
You can add borders around the column block – allowing you to set colours, width and styles.
Gallery Image Spacing
You can now edit the space between thumbnails on image galleries.
Accessibility Improvements
Each WordPress release brings improvements to the software to make it more accessible for all users. This is because Wordress takes accessibility seriously, and is always improving its features and functionality to allow everyone to access websites online.
New accessibility improvements include:
- If no ALT text is provided on featured images, they will automatically use the post title
- Better tabbing in blocks with placeholder elements
- Search announcements in block search
- Read description for blocks with a placeholder setup
- Admin bar text labels will be readable by screen readers on smaller screens
- More descriptive announcements for screen readers when a draft is saved
Copy Image URL from Media Library List View
Although there is currently a ‘Copy URL to clipboard option’ on the individual image page, this feature will now appear on the media library when viewing in list view.
Text Style Variations
The new Global style variations feature allows authors to change the look and feel of their website without having to edit CSS. You can quickly change things like font weights and colours in a cohesive way without CSS.
Website owners and admins should upgrade their WordPress version now to take full advantage of the many stability, performance, and usability enhancements.
We offer WordPress website design and development, as well as WordPress support for your existing website. For more information, contact our friendly team now.
