WordPress 6.0 Update: What Are the Main Changes You Need to Know About?
Just a few months ago, WordPress introduced the sitewide editor in 5.9, but 6.0 is just released on May 24th, 2022, and it expanded site editing functionality among enhanced writing experience & other improvements.
Almost every section of WordPress has been updated, but some are more significant than others. As a result, we’ll try to stick to the major changes. We strongly encourage everyone to use the beta to investigate what makes the tools you normally use unique.
New and Improved Full Site Editing
WordPress 5.9 introduced a block-based theme editor as part of the latest Full Site Editing experience.
WordPress 6.0 update adds new site-wide blocks, customizable templates, and more patterns to the complete site editing feature.
To test all of its features, you’ll need to have a theme that supports full-site editing, such as the default Twenty-Twenty theme. Full-site editing is still in beta and requires additional development to compete with custom theme builder solutions.
Easily switch the theme styles
Theme devs can now include multiple style presets in WordPress 6.0, which can instantly change the appearance of a webpage.
This is among the most significant changes that arrived in WordPress.
Fonts, colours, and other CSS settings will be included in the global style settings. You can use this option to give different sections of your website a distinct appearance.
A representative of the WordPress design team explained why the Style Switcher is an important breakthrough for WordPress 6.0 in a recent official WordPress Briefing podcast, Episode 30: A Sneak Peek at WordPress 6.0.
“I’m most excited about the style switcher within the global styles panel.
Um, so if folks still don’t know what I’m talking about there, it’s the ability to change between different variations of the theme.json without actually switching the theme.
So this is a way to get a drastically different look and feels across your site with just a single click.
And I see it as a really fun place to experiment and kind of get inspired for the different ways your site could appear without ever having to change your theme.
But now, with 6.0, I think even more so it’s starting to showcase the real power of block themes and what can actually be done there.
And style variations is a huge kind of the first step into this new world of block themes and starting to really open up the possibilities and all the flexibility that you have there.”
Page Creation Patterns In WordPress 6.0
WordPress 6.0 includes page patterns, which allow users to choose from a set of patterns to help them start designing their web pages. Users can, for example, choose page patterns appropriate for a contact page, an about us page, an article page, and so on.
The page patterns are not included in the WordPress core.
The feature of page patterns is now available for theme designers to use.
The page patterns functionality will work for both non-Gutenberg themes and Gutenberg block themes.
Jorge Costa, a WordPress representative, released a brief about page creation and why the empty canvas looks strange, emphasizing that it applies to all themes, not just block themes.
WordPress 6.0 Deserves To Be Called A Major Release
The release is especially significant in the world of Blocks. The following is a list of enhancements.
- Export Your Block Theme Including All Changes. WordPress will generate a theme zip file containing all of the changes you made with the full site editor. The theme can then be downloaded and installed on any other WordPress website.
- New blocks have been added to the Block Theme Editor. WordPress 6.0 introduces a slew of new theme editor blocks, including the Comment Query Loop, Read More Block, No Results in Query Loop, and Post Author Biography.
- Changes to the Block Editor in WordPress 6.0. Most WordPress users spend the majority of their time in the block editor, writing content and creating pages for their websites. Every WordPress release improves the writing and content creation experience for WordPress users. WordPress 6.0 comes with some really cool features that can drastically improve the way you work on your website.
- Layout Options for Group Blocks that are Responsive Choose whether to display blocks stacked or in a row based on screen size.
- A panel of Colors A new color panel and transparency options will make it easier to style blocks to your liking.
- Gallery Dimensions. Adjust the distance between images in a gallery block.
- Cover Block with Featured Image. You can now configure the cover block to use the featured image from the post. If you change the featured image, the image in the cover block will also change.
WordPress 6.0 goes a long way toward fulfilling Gutenberg’s promise of making it simple to create websites and publish content on WordPress. WordPress has released major changes, and more tremendous changes are expected in the future.