WordPress

Take the 2020 WordPress Annual Survey (and view the 2019 results)! For many years, WordPress enthusiasts have filled out an annual survey to share their experiences and feelings about WordPress. Interesting results from this survey have been shared in the annual State of the Word address and/or here on WordPress News.  This survey helps those who build WordPress understand more about how the software is used, and by whom. The survey also helps leaders in the WordPress open source project learn more about our contributors’ experience.   To ensure that your WordPress experience is represented in the 2020 survey results, Take the 2020 Annual Survey! (English) You can also take the survey in French, German, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish! The survey will be open for at least 6 weeks, and results will be posted on this blog. 2019 Survey Results [ more… ]

WordPress 5.6 Beta 2 WordPress 5.6 beta 2 is now available for testing! This software is still in development, so we recommend that you run this version on a test site. You can test the WordPress 5.6 beta in two ways: Try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (choose the “bleeding edge nightlies” option). Or download the beta here (zip). WordPress 5.6 is slated for release on December 8, 2020, and we need your help to get there! Thank you to all of the contributors that tested the beta 1 development release and provided feedback. Testing for bugs is an important part of polishing each release and a great way to contribute to WordPress. Some highlights Since beta 1, 53 bugs have been fixed. Here is a summary of a few changes included in beta 2: 6 additional bugs have been fixed in the block editor (see #26442). Unified design for search [ more… ]

WordPress 5.6 Beta 1 WordPress 5.6 Beta 1 is now available for testing! This software is still in development, so we recommend that you run this version on a test site. You can test the WordPress 5.6 beta in two ways: Try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (choose the “bleeding edge nightlies” option). Or download the beta here (zip). The current target for final release is December 8, 2020. This is just seven weeks away, so your help is needed to ensure this release is tested properly. Improvements in the Editor WordPress 5.6 includes seven Gutenberg plugin releases. Here are a few highlighted enhancements: Improved support for video positioning in cover blocks. Enhancements to Block Patterns including translatable strings. Character counts in the information panel, improved keyboard navigation, and other adjustments to help users find their way better. Improved UI for drag and drop functionality, as [ more… ]

The Month in WordPress: September 2020 This month was characterized by some exciting announcements from the WordPress core team! Read on to catch up with all the WordPress news and updates from September.  WordPress 5.5.1 Launch On September 1, the  Core team released WordPress 5.5.1. This maintenance release included several bug fixes for both core and the editor, and many other enhancements. You can update to the latest version directly from your WordPress dashboard or download it directly from WordPress.org. The next major release will be version 5.6. Want to be involved in the next release?  You can help to build WordPress Core by following the Core team blog, and joining the #core channel in the Making WordPress Slack group. Gutenberg 9.1, 9.0, and 8.9 are out The core team launched version 9.0 of the Gutenberg plugin on September 16, [ more… ]

WordPress 5.5.1 Maintenance Release WordPress 5.5.1 is now available! This maintenance release features 34 bug fixes, 5 enhancements, and 5 bug fixes for the block editor. These bugs affect WordPress version 5.5, so you’ll want to upgrade. You can download WordPress 5.5.1 directly, or visit the Dashboard → Updates screen and click Update Now. If your sites support automatic background updates, they’ve already started the update process. WordPress 5.5.1 is a short-cycle maintenance release. The next major release will be version 5.6. To see a full list of changes, you can browse the list on Trac, read the 5.5.1 RC1 and 5.5.1 RC2 posts, or visit the 5.5.1 documentation page. Thanks and props! The 5.5.1 release was led by @audrasjb, @azhiyadev, @davidbaumwald, @desrosj, @johnbillion, @planningwrite, @sergeybiryukov and @whyisjake. Thank you to everyone who helped make WordPress 5.5.1 happen: Amit Dudhat, Andrea Fercia, Andrey “Rarst” Savchenko, Andy Fragen, Angel Hess, avixansa, [ more… ]