The WordPress 6.0 “Arturo” brings some really cool new changes and features. The question on many community members’ minds: is it really a major release or not?
Well, I believe it deserves to be categorized as a major release.
So what is new and better, and why do I believe it’s a major release?
Previously, major release 5.9 brought us Full Site Editing, which allowed us to edit everything on the website through Gutenberg Blocks.
In 6.0, this functionality is even more extended and easier to use since 5.9 had some limitations.
The New Patterns
We had seen patterns in 5.9, but they’ll have extended functionality and ease of use now.
When you’re adding a new block, you are offered patterns as well. You can easily use the Browse option to import any pattern you need.
If you would rather browse for a pattern, open the drawer on the left-hand side and search there.
In WordPress 6.0, you will be able to edit patterns to your needs completely.
Some Cool Full Site Editing Changes
WordPress 6.0 release lets you create a template for Author, Categories, Date, and Tag.
Also, there is a new way to edit navigation menus where each item is converted to an isolated post type.
Last but not least, the Full Site Editing now opens up the possibility of switching global styles.
When you’re done creating a new style or template, you can easily export everything and reuse it on some other website with the same theme.
There’s Block Editor News, Too!
The Read More block now lets you edit it, make it look like a button, and add styling to it.
There is also a new Comments Loop block that will query all comments for a specific post.
And the Post Comment form block so you can fully stylize the look and feel of it.
Is There Something New for Developers?
There are some minor changes and news. Developers will be able to manage local fonts in PHP or theme.json with Web Fonts API, which was planned for 5.9 but postponed for 6.0.
Besides that, because of the legacy code, Gutenberg will now be able to stop blocks appearing in widgets by providing API.
Did the Block Editor Improve?
For sure, the Block Editor has some really cool fixes in WordPress 6.0 release, which will make everyone’s life easier.
For instance, you can add a link to any post/page by typing [[page/post title]]
Or just [[ when you will be presented with pages and posts to link.
Another useful feature is editing the part of the paragraph by selecting it, and earlier, when you select the paragraph, it selects the whole paragraph.
I found locking blocks really useful if you don’t want other editors to make changes to your blocks.
Finally, you can add spacing between images in the gallery block element by simply setting the value in px.
Accessibility Matters
Accessibility isn’t just required by law as well, but about inclusivity so that more people can easily use WordPress
By visiting the Preferences option and activating the “Show button text labels”, all icons will be changed to text.
Before >
After >
Also, the page title will be automatically set as the alt tag for the featured image even if you don’t set the alt tag on the image itself.
Because of all of this, WordPress 6.0 release definitely deserves to be a major version of WordPress and not just an update or minor version change.
Constant upgrades and improvements of both block editor and site editor are opening many opportunities for easier theme development and advanced usage for the end-user. Achieving final results while keeping a good performance score is now easier.
If I’ve missed anything in this review, please comment below so I can edit the post and add your feedback as well.
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WordPress Developer, Lecturer, the product guy interested in Agile product development. WordCamp and WP/Woo Meetup speaker and Organizer, and Community Manager at Cloudways. Also, a Formula 1 and MotoGP freak.
This content was originally published here.