WordPress released a long list of improvements for WordPress 6.0. This article highlights important upcoming changes to the block editor that will make designing web pages and websites not only so easy, but also inspiring.
In many ways, WordPress 6.0 achieves many of the goals promised by Gutenberg’s block-based editor, finally delivering an easy-to-use user interface that helps end users design web pages and edit text more easily.
A member of the WordPress design team commented:
“I think some of the features released in 6.0 will definitely empower end users.
Especially around design tool improvements and some quality of life improvements.
For example, partially select across multiple blocks and be able to partially select text there.
This type of thing really makes the editor writing experience on par with how you’d expect a text editing experience to work. “
WordPress Gutenberg Block
The WordPress block system has received complaints from some in the past that they thought it wasn’t ready.
To a certain extent, this view is not only plausible, but widely accepted.
WordPress 6.0 offers significant improvements that bring it into line with what many have come to expect from a visual website editor that should be easy to use.
The main improvement is the development of an intuitive user interface that allows end users to easily create content and design websites.
However, many of these improvements rely on theme designers to accommodate these changes, especially when providing theme.json configuration files, which provide users with a way to easily switch between different types of page modes and styles.
While WordPress 6.0 is not the ultimate goal WordPress is working towards (there are more improvements to come), WordPress 6.0 represents an important milestone.
Page Creation Mode in WordPress 6.0
WordPress 6.0 introduced page modes, a way for users to choose from a range of modes to help them start designing web pages. For example, a user can choose a page schema suitable for a contact page, an about us page, an article page, etc.
Page mode is not shipped with WordPress core.
Page Mode is a feature now available to theme designers.
The Page Mode feature works with non-Gutenberg themes as well as Gutenberg block themes.
(Read more about page creation mode)
Global style switcher
With WordPress 6.0, theme developers can now include a variety of style presets that can instantly change the look and feel of a web page.
This is arguably one of the most important changes to WordPress.
The global style switcher is a key feature of WordPress because it gives theme designers a way to let their clients (WordPress end users) easily change the look and feel of their site and then make it unique.
In a recent official WordPress briefing podcast, Episode 30: Sneak Peek WordPress 6.0a member of the WordPress design team explains why the style switcher is an important advancement for WordPress 6.0.
Channing RitterAutomattic’s Design Director and sponsored design team member explains why she’s so excited about the Style Switcher and how it will positively impact end users.
“I’m most excited about the style switcher in the Global Styles panel.
Hmm, so if people still don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s the ability to change between different variations of theme.json without actually switching themes.
So it’s a way to get a very different look and feel on your website with just one click.
And I think it’s a really fun place to experiment and get inspired by the different ways your site might appear without changing your theme.
But now, with 6.0, I think it’s starting to show the real power of block themes and what can actually be done there.
The style change is the first step into this new block theme world and starts to really open up the possibilities and all the flexibility you have out there. “
A configuration file (called Theme.json) controls colors, fonts, custom CSS, page width, and other factors that create the look and feel of a web page.
These custom JSON files allow users to switch between different design options to find an appealing look.
Code improvements for images, quotes, lists and chunks
One of the improvements is getting rid of the DIV tags surrounding each image. This makes the code a little bit leaner, the less code the better.
Old way:
<div class="wp-block-image alignleft"><figure><img src="https://www.searchenginejournal.com/new-details-of-wordpress-6-0-reveal-major-changes/448508/someimage.jpg" alt="" width="100" height="100"/></figure></div>
New way:
<figure class="wp-block-image alignleft"><img src="https://www.searchenginejournal.com/new-details-of-wordpress-6-0-reveal-major-changes/448508/someimage.jpg" alt="" width="100" height="100"/></figure>
This change only applies to themes that support the new theme.json file.
Another change is to remove the name “div” is automatically added to any block to which alignment is applied.
And many more improvements
WordPress 6.0 deserves a major release
The above changes are just a few of the upgrades that WordPress 6.0 will introduce.There are also improvements WordPress accessibility, Performance improvements for Bootstrap/Load, Cache API, Performance improvements in how media is handled Plus a total of 97 enhancements and 131 bug fixes.
WordPress 6.0 will be released on May 24, 2022.
