What’s New in WordPress 6.0 Update
The latest version of WordPress is out now and in this article we are going to discuss what’s new in WordPress 6.0.
WordPress 6.0 was released on May 24th 2022 and it is packed with new features and enhancements.
This WordPress update is focused on further improving the full site editing will mark the conceptual wrap of Gutenberg phase 2.
It is important to know, conceptual wrap does not mean completion of this phase of Gutenberg. However, with the release of WordPress 6.0, all of the major features would have been added.
And these will require a bit of polishing before it is marked over.
Keeping this in mind, we have tried to cover everything you need to know about what’s new in WordPress 6.0 update.
What’s new in WordPress 6.0- Features and improvements
As mentioned above, WordPress 6.0 is packed with features and it includes everything from new blocks to template types to style options and more.
We have touched on these changes before in our article on what’s coming in WordPress 6.0.
And in this we have covered it in more detail and below are all the topics.
New template options in Site Editor
In WordPress 5.9, full site editing was introduced which allowed users to build / design their site from scratch using the new site editor.
During its initial release, the site editor came with a limited number of template types / options.
And in WordPress 6.0, a few more Template types or options have been introduced such as
- Author
- Category
- Date
- Tag
- Taxonomy
Using these you can easily create templates for all the necessary pages on your site using block editor.
Global Style variations in WordPress 6.0
If you have been using block themes then you must be familiar with the fact that it lets you customize every aspect of your site.
However, there is a single style variation available that you can edit or customize.
As you can see in the screenshot above, in WordPress 5.9 you get all the options to customize your site or theme.
However, there is only a single global style variation available.
In WordPress 6.0, this has changed and now the theme authors can bundle multiple Global Style variations with block based themes.
This will allow you to switch between styles and refresh the look of your website with just one click.
It is important to know that WordPress wants to make the website creation process as simple as possible.
And WordPress 6.0 is focused on just that.
Now coming to how you can switch Global Styles,
For this you need to click the Style Settings on the top right and if your block theme comes with multiple Global Styles then it will show you a new Browse Style option.
Clicking it will show you all the styles.
Now you can select one of the Style Variations and the changes will be reflected instantly.
Before we move forward, it is important to know that WordPress allows you to customize or make changes to these Global style variations as well.
For example, if you want to change the Typography then you need to click Typography settings and you will be able to set it according to your requirements.
Addition of Code Editor to Site Editor
If you have read our article on WordPress 5.9 then you must be familiar with the fact that the code editor was missing in the site editor options menu.
In WordPress 6.0, code editor has been added to the site editor and now you will be able to edit the code of entire template.
Once you have made the changes, you can switch back to visual mode by selecting Visual editor in the options menu.
Improvements to Theme export
As mentioned above, WordPress is continuously working to make the website creating process as easy as possible and another step that has been taken in this direction is the improvement to the Theme Export option.
Before WordPress 6.0, when you used the theme export feature in the site editor, the zip file only contained templates and template parts.
This has changed after the released of WordPress 6.0 and now on exporting it will export all the theme files along with the changes / edits you have made to it.
It is important to know that – this improvement makes it possible for you anyone to build and share their very own custom block theme.
Improvements to Block Patterns
Block Patterns were introduced in WordPress 5.5 and have been receiving updates in almost every WordPress release.
In WordPress 6.0, there are quite a few changes that have been introduced and the first one we are going to discuss is
Prioritization of Block Patterns
If you have been using the block editor then you must be familiar with the fact that until now on clicking the quick inserter, it allowed you to add blocks only.
And to use patterns you will have to go to the block inserter and then select the Patterns.
This has changed in WordPress 6.0 and when editing / creating templates it prioritizes patterns over blocks.
It is important to know that this will only happen when you are using quick inserter on the top layer which means the block is the direct descendant of the document.
And in between 2 roots template parts such as header and footer.
This makes the task of creating a template much easier if you are not familiar with blocks.
Register patterns using Patterns sub folder
Another new feature that has been introduced in WordPress 6.0 update is that- now you can define or implicitly register block patterns for your themes by declaring them as php file is the patterns directory.
For this the first step is to create a pattern or in simple words add a block
Once done you need to Edit it as HTML and then copy and paste the code in a notepad / code editor of your choice.
In the next step you need to add the below mentioned code snippet and save the file as PHP.
<?php
/**
* Title: Hello
* Slug: my-theme/hello
* Categories: featured, text
*/
?>
After adding code
After this you need to head over to the root directory of the theme, add a new patterns folder and move the php file you have just created.
And that’s it you have successfully explicitly registered a pattern and you will be able to add it using the inserter.
Page creation patterns in WordPress 6.0
Carrying on with the theme of prioritizing patterns, the next new feature that has been introduced in WordPress 6.0 is page creation patterns
Until now when you used to create a new page in WordPress, the editor would start with an empty canvas and at time it would leave a user hanging on which block to use or add first.
It is important to know here that WordPress has a huge patterns directory where you can find patterns for different pages.
And in most situations people completely forget about this.
Keeping this in mind, to improve the page creation experience, WordPress has introduced a new feature where a set of patterns will be displayed in a modal when you will add a new page.
For this feature to work, it is required that support for core/post-content block type is declared by at least one pattern.
As of now, WordPress does not include any of these patterns so the modal will not appear.
Now in case you want to try this feature and want to add support for block types then below is an example.
<?php
/**
* Title: Hello
* Slug: my-theme/hello
* Block Types: core/post-content
* Categories: featured, text
*/
?>
<!-- wp:heading -->
<h2>Hello</h2>
<!-- /wp:heading -->You will have to create a php file just like above and the only difference will be the addition of support for block types.
Once you are done declaring support and creating this file, you need to add the php file to the pattern directory in the root of the theme you are using.
Now to check if it works you will have to add a new page and see if the modal appears.
Navigation block in WordPress 6.0
When it comes to full site editing in WordPress, Navigation block plays an important role and in WordPress 6.0 it has received quite a few improvements.
Improved loading and placeholder states
If you are using Navigation block then you must have noticed that on adding, it does not clearly show if it is loading.
This has changed in WordPress 6.0 and now you will clearly see if it is loading
Success message
The next change that you will come across in the navigation block is that when you will start empty and create a new menu, it will show a success message.
Block Lock in WordPress 6.0
In WordPress 6.0 update, an interesting feature known as Block Lock has been introduced and using it you can disable various actions such as
- Movement
- Removal
It is important to know that, this feature might not look useful as first if you are using single blocks.
However, if you are creating complex layouts using container blocks and groups or are using reusable blocks then this is feature is for you.
In case you want to completely disable block locking in WordPress then you can do so by adding the below mentioned code snippet in the functions.php file.
// Disable for posts and pages
add_filter(
'block_editor_settings_all',
function( $settings, $context ) {
if ( $context->post && $context->post->post_type === 'post' || 'page' ) {
$settings['canLockBlocks'] = false;
}
return $settings;
},
10,
2
);Block markup update for image, quote, list and group
- In WordPress 6.0, the extra <div> wrapper around the figure tags have been removed for themes that support the layout feature.
- In WordPress 6.0, <blockquote>, <ul> and <ol> tags now come with box-sizing:border-box. This change has been introduced as a bug fix for quote and list blocks using background color and padding
Select text across multiple blocks
In WordPress 6.0, text selection feature has received a major change where now you will be able to select parts of text across multiple blocks.
Before WordPress 6.0, when you used to select text across multiple blocks, it used to select complete blocks.
See the below screenshot for reference.
This has changed in WordPress 6.0 as now you will be able to select fragments to text across multiple and can copy and paste them as per your needs.
Introduction of this change has enhanced the writing experience by bringing WordPress editor a step closer to any of the routine writing software / apps that you use.
Retain Style on Block transformation in WordPress 6
When creating pages and posts in WordPress, there are chances that a block that you were using at first might not be the best fit now.
In this situation, you can transform that block into another in just one click.
Before WordPress 6.0, if you have implemented any styles on this block then on transforming, the block will not retain styling.
And this means if you want the same styles on transformation then you will have to apply it again which can be a bit of a hassle.
This has changed in WordPress 6.0 update and now blocks will retain style on transformation.
New shortcut to access recent posts and pages
In WordPress 6.0, a new shortcut has been introduced using which you can access a list of recent posts and pages.
This shortcut is “[[” and when you will type it in the WordPress editor, a popup will appear displaying a list of recent pages and post.
You can select any of them and add as internal links.
New buttons retain styles
While we are on the topic of retaining styles, you must have noticed that if you add multiple buttons on a page or a post before WordPress 6.0 then the new ones will not have the same style.
By this I mean after you have customized a button and then you add a new one, it will not have the same style which means you will have to customize it or apply styles again.
In WordPress 6.0, this has changes and now the button will retain style customization when you add new ones.
This means once you have customized a button, the new button will automatically inherit the style.
Style setting in Tag Cloud block
If you have been using the Tag Cloud block then you must be familiar with the fact that it does not come with any styling option before WordPress 6.0
In WordPress 6.0, this has changed and a new styling option has been introduced using which you can add an outline on the displayed tags.
Apart from this another new option that you will see in the Tag Cloud block is the Smallest and Largest size.
And using it you will be able to control the font size.
This option was also missing in versions of WordPress before 6.0.
Improvements to Social Icons block
In WordPress 6.0, Social Icons block has received a few improvements and the first one is – Style option now does not display a Preview.
Before WordPress 6.0
After WordPress 6.0
As you can see the options look much better now.
Please note- The Preview option has been replaced by just Style names in several blocks and you can see the preview on hovering your pointer over the styles outside the sidebar.
The second change that you will comes across is the addition of Show Labels option in the link settings.
Before WordPress 6.0
After WordPress 6.0
Enabling this option will display labels of the social media platforms along with the icons.
Addition of Featured image in Cover block
Cover block is one of the most commonly used block in WordPress using which you can create hero sections or call to actions easily.
Before WordPress 6.0, this block did not come with the feature to use the featured image.
And this has changed in WordPress 6.0 update and the option to use featured image has been introduced in the cover block.
You will find this option on clicking Add Media option in the Cover block toolbar.
Query loop block in WordPress 6.0
In WordPress 6.0, Query loop block has received quite a few changes and the first one we are going to discuss is
Support for customization when empty
In Query Look block, the first improvement that you will notice is the introduction of color support for when there are no results to display.
Using this option you will be able to change the text and background color with just a few clicks.
Improvements to filters
The next change that you will see in the Query Loop block is the introduction of support for filtration using Tags and custom taxonomy.
Before WordPress 6.0, you could only filter using Categories, Author and Keywords
But after WordPress 6.0, you will be able to filter using Custom taxonomies and tags as well.
Filter using multiple authors
While we are on the topic of filters, some of you must have noticed that the drop down to select Authors is missing in WordPress 6.0. See the below screenshot for reference.
Before WordPress 6.0
After WordPress 6.0
In WordPress 6.0, the author filter in Query loop block has received a massive improvement where instead for filtering using a single author.
Now, you will be able to filter using multiple.
For this all you have to do is add multiple author names separated by commas.
Featured image dimensions in WordPress 6.0
The last improvement that you will find in the Query Loop block is the introduction of dimension control for featured image.
Using this option you will be able to set the height and width of the featured image
Improvements to color panel in WordPress 6.0
In WordPress 6.0, the color panel has received an improvement where the option to adjust transparency has been introduced.
Before WordPress 6.0
After WordPress 6.0
Using this option you will be able to control the opacity of the color and will be able to create unique designs.
Another change that you will come across in the color panel is that now it displays the name of the color if known or just custom color if it is unknown.
Before WordPress 6.0
After WordPress 6.0
Changes to Group block in WordPress 6.0
Group block has received a major overhaul in WordPress 6.0 and you will notice quite a few changes
Group block variations
The first change that you will notice in Group block is that it has listed both its variations in the Group block settings
- Row
- Stack
These variations of Group block are available as individual blocks as well.
And if you want to transform from one variation to another all you have to do is head over to Group block settings in the sidebar.
And it will show you the option.
With the addition of these variations in Group block settings and toolbar, a lot more can be done using Group block because of the improved flow.
Typography option in Group block
Another change that you will see in the Group block is the introduction of Typography settings.
This was missing in version of WordPress before 6.0
And in WordPress 6.0, it has been added to the Group block.
Dimensions in Group block
Another new option that you will find in Group block is dimensions and it contains settings that will allow you to add padding, margin, block spacing, set border style, colors and more.
These options were missing in the version of WordPress prior to 6.0. See the screenshot below for reference
Before WordPress 6.0
After WordPress 6.0
Block spacing in Gallery block
If you have been using Gallery block in WordPress then you must be familiar with the fact that before WordPress 6.0 you could not control spacing / gap between the images.
This has changed in WordPress 6.0 and a new control block spacing has been added using which you can add spacing between the image blocks in Gallery block with just a few clicks.
Using this feature you will be able to use Gallery block more creatively.
List view in WordPress 6.0
In WordPress 6.0, list view has received quite a few changes and the first improvement that we are going to discuss is
List view collapsed by default
As the name suggests, list view displays a complete list of all the blocks that you have used on your page, post or template.
And using it you can navigate to different sections on the page with just one click.
Before WordPress 6.0, when you opened the list view it was expanded by default which made it difficult for users navigate the page using it.
This has changed in WordPress 6.0 as all the nodes / groups / containers are now collapsed by default making the list view easy to use or user friendly.
New shortcuts for List View
The next improvement that has been released for the list view is the introduction of keyboard shortcuts to select multiple blocks and modify selection.
The first shortcut is shift + home and using it you will be able to select all the blocks above the block you are on.
The second shortcut is shift + end and using it you can select all the blocks below the block you are on.
To modify selection you can use shift + up arrow or shift + down arrow.
Automatic anchor text generation in WordPress 6.0
Automatic anchor text generation is a feature that was released in Gutenberg 11.8 and it automatically generated anchors for headings.
This feature was first released in WordPress 5.9 but was rolled back because of issues.
Keeping this in mind, in WordPress 6.0 this feature has been re-introduced as an opt-in and to enable it you can add the below mentioned code snippet in the function.php file of your site.
add_filter(
'block_editor_settings_all',
static function( $settings ) {
$settings['generateAnchors'] = true;
return $settings;
}
);We have created a tutorial for this and you can follow how to enable automatic anchor text generation for headings in WordPress.
Post Date block in WordPress 6.0
In WordPress 6.0, Post Date block has received an update where a new Default format option is added along with a few more formats. See the below screenshots for comparison
Before WordPress 6.0
After WordPress 6.0
Media and text block in WordPress 6
In WordPress 6.0, Media and Text block has received a minor improvement where it now displays the media while uploading.
Before this update, it just showed the loading animation. See the screenshot below for reference
Before WordPress 6.0
After WordPress 6.0
Border styles in Column block
Column block is one of the most commonly used container block and some of the thing it was missing was margins, padding and borders.
Before WordPress 6.0
This has changed in WordPress 6.0 and now you will be able to add padding, set border width, select style color and radius.
It is important to know that you will find these options in Group block as well.
Paragraph block in WordPress 6.0
In WordPress 6.0, Text Settings have been combined with the Typography Control and now you will find the Drop Cap option hidden in the ellipsis menu.
Before WordPress 6.0
After WordPress 6.0
To activate Drop cap all you have to do is select the drop cap option and it will show you the toggle button to enable it.
It is important to know that in case you site does not have the support for Drop cap then you will not see this option.
See- How to fix missing drop cap in Twenty Twenty Two theme
New blocks in WordPress 6.0
In WordPress 6.0, quite a few new blocks have been introduced and some of these blocks are a part of already existing complex blocks.
And the first one we are going to discuss is
Comment query loop
Comment query loop is a advanced block using which you will be able to display comments on a post.
This block is a combination of multiple blocks such as
- Comment title
- Previous page
- Next page
- Page numbers (collectively make comments pagination)
- Post comments form
Being a combination of different blocks, every aspect / element of this block can be customized to fit your design.
Read more block
As the name suggests, read more block lets you link to a page or post within the query block.
When a user will click on this Read More block, it will take them to the connected page or post.
The release of this block makes it easier for you to customize the read more button or link that you see after the page or post.
Post author biography block
Post author biography block is a component of already existing Post Author block.
And it lets you display biography of the author on a page or a post.
The biography displayed is fetched from the user profile of the author in WordPress.
Kindly note as of now you cannot edit the biography that is displayed using this block and to make changes you will have to go to author’s profile in WordPress dashboard.
No results block
No results block is a part of the Query Loop block and it allows you to display text or a block when a query has no result.
As of now this block is not available outside of the Query Loop block.
Core block recategorization in WordPress 6.0
Since the release of the new site editor, quite a few blocks have been recategorized.
Continuing on this trend and to encourage correct usage, a few more blocks have been recategorized as theme blocks in WordPress 6.0.
These are
- Post Template
- Pagination
- Next Page
- Page Numbers
- Previous Page
Preview Drafts after saving
Draft is a commonly used feature and in WordPress 6.0, it has received an improvement where you will be able to Preview it after saving.
Before WordPress 6.0, when you used to save a page or a post as draft, it just displayed Saved at the bottom left.
And there was no option to Preview it.
In WordPress 6.0, this has changed and now you will see a View Preview option that will allow you to see the Preview of the saved draft.
Categories reminder on post publish panel
In WordPress 6.0, the post publish panel has received an update where it will now suggest you to assign it to categories and tags.
This feature was missing in versions of WordPress before 6.0
After WordPress 6.0
It is important to know that the suggestion of tags already exists and it is just categories that has been added.
WordPress 6.0 Release date
- 12th April 2022- Beta 1
- 19th April 2022- Beta 2
- 26th April 2022- Beta 3
- 2nd May 2022- Beta 4
- 3rd May 2022- Release Candidate 1
- 10th May 2022- Release Candidate 2
- 17th May 2022- Release Candidate 3
- 23rd May 2022- Dry Run
- 24th May 2022- WordPress 6.0 release day.
How to update to WordPress 6.0
Updating to WordPress 6.0 is a simple process and the first step is to see if the stable version is available for update.
If it is then in the next step you need to take a complete backup of your site for safety reasons.
For this you can use Updraftplus
It is important to know that if your site is hosted on managed WordPress hosting then the company will take care of updating for you.
You do not have to do anything.
Keeping this in mind, once you have taken a complete backup, the next step is to head over to Update section in your WordPress dashboard.
And click Update to Version.
This process will take a few minutes and once done it will take you to the about page of WordPress 6.0.
Having said that,
I hope you will find this article helpful and now know all about what’s new in WordPress 6.0.
In case you have any queries feel free to get in touch.
To stay up to date with our content we recommend you subscribe to our YouTube channel and email list.
Also, don’t forget to join our Facebook group.