WordPress has come a long way from the boring old 2.0+ version to the much more optimized and streamlined version you see today. With the ...
WordPress has come a long way from the boring old 2.0+ version to the much more optimized and streamlined version you see today. With the 3.9+ update, WordPress greatly improved the media experience for users, letting you create audio and video playlists on your site to enhance the user-experience. WordPress continues its rapid stream of updates, and has announced that WordPress 4.0 is now in open Beta. It boasts of many new features.
Note: It is an open Beta, and not a final release. So it is not recommended to run on a production site yet. You should run it out on a test environment first because there might be bugs / incompatibilities with existing plugins.
The final stable release is expected to be rolled out next month. Until then, you can help test the new features they've been working on!
What's new in WordPress 4.0?
Preview Embedded URLs
Now you can see previews of embedding via URLs in the visual editor and the “Insert from URL” tab in the media modal. Paste in a URL, such as a YouTube video, onto its own line in the visual editor and see a live preview of what it will look like! Pretty cool, right?
Media Library Grid View
In addition to the standard list view, the Media Library now has a “grid” view. Clicking on an item takes you into a modal where you can see a larger preview and edit information about that attachment, and you can navigate between items right from the modal without closing it.
In addition to the standard list view, the Media Library now has a “grid” view. Clicking on an item takes you into a modal where you can see a larger preview and edit information about that attachment, and you can navigate between items right from the modal without closing it.
Plugin installation
WordPress has improved the user experience while installing plugins. When searching for plugins and viewing details, you’ll see some early visual changes as well as more information about the plugin itself.
Editor
The editor intelligently re-sizes and its top and bottom bars pin when needed.
Cursor improvements
WordPress has made some improvements to how the keyboard and cursor interact with TinyMCE views such as the gallery preview.
Widgets
Widgets in the Customizer are now loaded in a separate panel.
In addition to these, WordPress has also made some small changes, such as the option to select a language when you run the WordPress installation, and some changes to formatting functions.
Are you excited about these changes? You can use the WP Beta Tested Plugin to test the new update out! And don't forget to report bugs - this will help make WordPress better!
Go ahead and check out the new update now, and I'll do the same. Cheers ;)
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