Today marks the release of WordPress 6.6, named “Dorsey,” bringing a suite of new features and enhancements aimed at improving user experience and site performance. Here’s a breakdown of what’s new:
Enhanced Design Flexibility
• Color Palettes & Font Sets: Customize your block themes with unlimited individual color and font sets, providing extensive design options.
• Negative Margins: Create overlapping designs with negative margin controls.
• Custom Shadows: Edit shadows directly in the Styles section for precise visual effects.
Improved Site Management
• Quick Previews for Pages: New side-by-side layout in the Site Editor allows for easy preview and editing of pages.
• Rollbacks for Plugin Auto-Updates: Automatically revert plugin updates if issues arise, ensuring site stability.
• Refined Publish Flow: New design highlights essential information during publishing, enhancing clarity and ease of use.
Performance and Accessibility Upgrades
• Performance Updates: Significant improvements include removing redundant calls, reducing template loading time by 40%, and more.
• Accessibility Enhancements: Over 55 fixes and enhancements focusing on foundational aspects, especially in the data views component and Inserter.
New and Updated Features
• Overrides: Customize content in synced patterns while maintaining consistent styling.
• Modern Pattern Management for Classic Themes: Access to Site Editor patterns for a richer management experience.
• New Grid Block: Display blocks in a grid with visual controls for row and column spans.
• Aspect Ratio Presets: Customize aspect ratios for Image, Featured Image, and Cover blocks.
• Edit Custom Fields from Connected Blocks: Use the block bindings API to edit custom fields directly in the editor.
• Shortcuts for Editing: New shortcuts for grouping selected blocks and indenting list items.
WordPress 6.6 is a testament to the collaborative effort of over 570 contributors, reflecting the community’s dedication to innovation and user-centric design.
For more details and to download the latest version, visit the official WordPress 6.6 release page.