Wordpress 6.0 released

[LeadCrow]

Wordpress 6.0 "Arturo"​

25 May 2022, by Matt Mulleweg

On 24 May 2022, WordPress 6.0 « Arturo » was released to the public. For more information on this release, read the WordPress 6.0 announcement.

Highlights​

Enhanced Writing Experience​

Writing improvements abound, whether you’re writing a brand new post or adding elements to an existing page. Explore more ways to streamline your content creation process, including:

• Select text across multiple blocks for easier copying and pasting.
• Type two open brackets `[[` to quickly access a list of recent posts and pages.
• Keep existing styles when you transform some blocks from one kind to another—from a Paragraph block to a Code block, for instance.
• Create customized buttons and any new buttons you make will retain the style customizations automatically.
• Make tag clouds and social icons even more appealing with updated settings and controls, and a new outline style for the tag cloud.

Style Switching​

Block themes now include the option to contain multiple style variations. This expands the new Style system even further and enables shortcuts to switch the look and feel of your site all within a single theme. In block themes that support this feature, you can change both the available settings, like the font-weight, and the style options, like the default color palette. Change the look and feel of your site with just a few clicks.

More Template Choices​

WordPress 6.0 includes five new template options for block themes: author, date, categories, tag, and taxonomy. These additional templates provide greater flexibility for content creators. Tailor each with the tools you already know or with the following new options in this release:

• Featured images can be used in the cover block.
• New featured image sizing controls make it easier to get the results you want.
• While editing a template, at the root, or between blocks, the quick inserter shows you patterns and template parts to help you work faster and discover new layout options.
• The query block supports filtering on multiple authors, support for custom taxonomies, and support for customizing what is shown when there are no results.

Integrated Patterns​

Patterns will now appear when you need them in even more places, like in the quick inserter or when creating a new header or footer. If you’re a block theme author, you can even register patterns from the Pattern Directory using `theme.json`, enabling you to prioritize specific patterns that are most helpful to your theme’s users.

Additional Design Tools​

Design tools grow more powerful and intuitive with each release. Some highlights for 6.0 include:

• A new color panel design saves space, but still shows your options at a glance.
• New border controls offer a simpler way to set your border exactly as you like it.
• Transparency levels for your colors allow for even more creative color options.
• Control gaps, margins, typography, and more on a collection of blocks, all at once, in the Group block.
• Switch between stack, row, and group variations to position groups of blocks with more layout flexibility.
• Use the gap support functionality in the Gallery block to create different looks – from adding spacing between all images, to removing spacing altogether.

Better List View​

New keyboard shortcuts enable you to select multiple blocks from the list view, modify them in bulk, and drag and drop them within the list. List View can be opened and closed easily; it comes collapsed by default and it automatically expands to the current selection whenever you select a block.

Top ↑

Block Locking Controls​

Now you can lock your blocks. Choose to disable the option to move a block, remove a block, or both. This simplifies project handover, allowing your clients to unleash their creativity without worrying about accidentally breaking their site in the process.

Improved Performance in WordPress 6.0​

This release includes several updates focused on improving the performance of WordPress. These enhancements cover a range of performance areas including improving the page and post-load speed, reducing the execution time of various query types, caching, navigation menus, and much more. The performance team working group is an important focus area of the core development team. For more information on this group’s work, please follow their work on Making WordPress with the #performance hashtag.

Enhancing WordPress 6.0 Accessibility​

Accessibility is an integral part of the WordPress mission of fostering an inclusive community and supporting users of all types around the world. With this in mind, WordPress 6.0 includes more than 50 updates specifically focused on enhancing the accessibility of the platform. You can read about these updates and learn more about the accessibility initiatives that are ongoing.

Learn More About WordPress 6.0​

See WordPress 6.0 in action! Watch a brief overview video highlighting some of the major features debuting in WordPress 6.0.
Explore learn.wordpress.org/workshops for quick how-to videos and lots more on new features in WordPress. Or join a live interactive online learning session on a specific WordPress topic.
Developers can explore the WordPress 6.0 Field Guide. It is overflowing with detailed developer notes to help you build with and extend WordPress.
Read the WordPress 6.0 Release Notes for more information on the included enhancements and issues fixed, installation information, developer notes and resources, release contributors, and the list of file changes in this release.

 

[FTL]

I've used WP a couple of years ago and really liked its interface and features in classic mode. It would therefore be great if XF would integrate it natively into the product giving us a badass CMS to go with a great forum. I could really use that. I can but dream. I know they can be integrated with add-ons, but it's really not the same.

 

[zappaDPJ]

I'm still running 4.x.x on all my sites, I had too many issues trying to update to version 5. I didn't realize 6 was so close to release but I will certainly be taking a good look at it.

 

[imandings]

Slowly all my sites have been upgrading to v6. No dramas from my end as I utilise Elementor (Pro, Essentials, Ultimate etc) and not Gutenberg.

 

[LeadCrow]

I'm still running 4.x.x on all my sites, I had too many issues trying to update to version 5. I didn't realize 6 was so close to release but I will certainly be taking a good look at it.

Have you considered actually migrating your content away from wordpress?
I mean in favour of a lower maintainance solution less dependant on 3rdparty plugins that you can safely update on your own terms.

 

[zappaDPJ]

Have you considered actually migrating your content away from wordpress?
I mean in favour of a lower maintainance solution less dependant on 3rdparty plugins that you can safely update on your own terms.

I have but a couple of the sites I run have hundreds, possibly thousands of lines of 3rd party code developed over many years and the (corporate) owners don't like change.

 

[Alpha1]

Too early to update yet. 5.9 is fine for now. WPML has warned they are not compatible yet.

 

[Papa Tango]

Have you considered actually migrating your content away from wordpress?
I mean in favour of a lower maintainance solution less dependant on 3rdparty plugins that you can safely update on your own terms.

If one is looking into a heavy CMS on the front end, what possible solid solution is there? Forget about Joomla, Mambo, etcetera. Too kludgy, too expensive, and stuck in the past.

I run 4 non-forum WP sites. Just updated all to WP6. Also, running them on PHP 8.1.5. A couple old plugins had to be discarded and a current replacement found--or the feature forgotten about. Also, still using the Classic Editor...

 

[Pete]

Drupal perhaps? But there’s many other choices depending on exactly what you’re doing.

 

[Kaelon]

Drupal perhaps? But there’s many other choices depending on exactly what you’re doing.

From 2010-2015, I built Drupal websites for a living as a project manager, strategist, and later, client principal for a small web shop. While Drupal is certainly very flexible, it takes an army of Drupal dev specialists to make it performant, to create the content types and views to really get stuff rendering properly. And it is very poor from a community engagement perspective and relies on a lot of third-party platforms for things like comments, forums, etc., because the built-in modules are so poor in both functionality and, frankly, performance.

WordPress isn't much better in this regard, but it has a much, much larger ecosystem of developers, designers, and providers; in 2015, 25% of the Internet ran off of a WordPress website. I am sure the number is similar or perhaps even higher today.

 

[feldon30]

Oh look. Material Design with Mystery Meat navigation that probably takes 10 times the browser resources as 5MB of libraries and boilerplate are loaded. WHY is everyone going to black and white icons and 4 colors for the entire UI? We have quad core phones with 6GB of RAM and gigabit internet and yet we are designing for dialup. WHY? How much is FontAwesome paying people?

 

[Pete]

From 2010-2015, I built Drupal websites for a living as a project manager, strategist, and later, client principal for a small web shop. While Drupal is certainly very flexible, it takes an army of Drupal dev specialists to make it performant, to create the content types and views to really get stuff rendering properly. And it is very poor from a community engagement perspective and relies on a lot of third-party platforms for things like comments, forums, etc., because the built-in modules are so poor in both functionality and, frankly, performance.

WordPress isn't much better in this regard, but it has a much, much larger ecosystem of developers, designers, and providers; in 2015, 25% of the Internet ran off of a WordPress website. I am sure the number is similar or perhaps even higher today.

I’ve seen varying estimates between 37% and 60%. 37% at least feels believable to me, but 60% isn’t inconceivable.

 

[Kaelon]

I’ve seen varying estimates between 37% and 60%. 37% at least feels believable to me, but 60% isn’t inconceivable.

I would agree with you. I believed 25% in 2015 because it was auditable and I remember we did a brief review back then. Websites both large and small used WordPress.

Today, I could believe ~37%. But 60%? That feels crazy to me, unless if they're given equal weight to all of the one-time setup-and-abandoned WordPress blogs on WordPress.com and the countless other Multi-WP-clone platforms out there.

 

[GoodKarmaKid]

According to an article on Kinsta from April of 2022.

• 43.3 % of all websites use WordPress
• 60.8 % of all websites with a CMS (Content Management System) use WordPress

Wild and Interesting WordPress Statistics and Facts

WordPress has come a long way since launching in 2003 & so have the WordPress statistics that help to define this powerful software tool.

kinsta.com

 

[Pete]

Seeing that Kinsta is a WP-specialist host, it suits them to pitch WP as more in use than not.

 

[rafalp]

I can believe those numbers. There's ton of sites that aren't blogs that use wordpress for CMS. I've been surprised to learn that webstore I've been buying plants for my home at was running WP.

 

[GoodKarmaKid]

Seeing that Kinsta is a WP-specialist host, it suits them to pitch WP as more in use than not.

Fair enough, but the flip side of that coin is Kinsta is a very well respected, very large, managed WordPress Host. I don't think it's in their best interest to get caught up in exaggerations or false info. There are probably other reliable sources with similar info. I'm not affiliated with Kinsta at all, other than being familiar with their Webhosting services and reliability, especially for e-commerce sites. I personally use FlyWheel for my WordPress Hosting as I am grandfathered into their old pricing.

The article referenced below from Search Engine Journal is a year and a half old, so not hard to conceive an additional 4% gain in the last 18 months.

CMS Market Share Trends: Top Content Management Systems In 2022

Looking for a CMS for your own or client websites? Check out which content management systems are most used today.

www.searchenginejournal.com

 

[Pete]

I'm not sure how 'well respected' Kinsta is. I'm currently a customer and I'm not impressed with what I get for the amount being paid. But that's another story for another time.

That's the thing about all these numbers, it's genuinely hard to define - because there are plenty of sites that go out of their way to hide their status as a WordPress and their stack in general.

There's also the question of what the minimal level of activity must be to qualify - because there must be any number of people who installed WP back in the day and forgot about it, or created an account on WP.com and forgot about it, or gave up, or lost interest.

I'd easily see any number between 30% and 50% as realistic for 'sites using WP' because I can well believe it.

But as a WP-specialist *it can't not* benefit Kinsta to push that agenda. In a world where we're outlining that somewhere between 3 and 5 out of every 10 websites on the *entire internet* is powered by WP, people are going to buy into the notion that 'if it works for 3-5 out of 10 websites, it can work for me'.

It's an easier sell if someone is undecided about platform - and when someone like Kinsta is saying '43% of all sites are powered by WordPress, we're a WordPress specialist' it's leading people who are decision-makers (but not necessarily decision-implementers) along a train of thought.

I see this kind of marketing in the agency I work for, where the people who are the 'right, this is what we need' people just see this kind of marketing and buy into it - because they must know there are any number of vendors out there that can do it, but someone who 'has their finger on the pulse' is going to be seen as more credible. To this mindset, saying '43.3% of sites' is more compelling a narrative than 'almost half' because the added precision, however arrived at, carries a certain 'we did our research, we're this specific' narrative.

The simple truth is that 43.3% might be dead-on accurate or it might well be a few percent out on any given day/week/month that you look at it because what really matters is how you define 'a site using WordPress'.

 

[LeadCrow]

I can believe those numbers. There's ton of sites that aren't blogs that use wordpress for CMS. I've been surprised to learn that webstore I've been buying plants for my home at was running WP.

I believe part of why the numbers are high is due to a number of services that are supposed to be blogging platforms actually using wordpress underneath. Statistic scripts tally every user "install" behind their own domain or even subdomain as one install, whereas it should normally be one big multi-install.

 

[Pete]

Statistic scripts tally every user "install" behind their own domain or even subdomain as one install, whereas it should normally be one big multi-install.

If a WPMU site is serving 3 distinct sites with different content for different audiences, is that 1 site or 3 for statistical purposes? Moreover, what *should* it be?