We're thrilled to announce the release of WordPress 6.6, affectionately named “Dorsey” after the iconic American Big Band leader, Tommy Dorsey.
Known for his smooth-toned trombone and captivating compositions, Dorsey's music filled dance halls with energy and emotion. In the same spirit, WordPress 6.6 brings a dynamic suite of features and enhancements to elevate your site-building experience.
Rollbacks for Plugin Auto-Updates Enjoy the convenience of automatic plugin updates with the peace of mind that comes from the new rollback feature. If an update fails, your site will automatically revert to the previous version, ensuring your site remains secure and operational.
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Add More Design Options to Block Themes Expand your creative toolkit with new capabilities for block themes. Theme authors can now create and deploy unlimited colour palettes and font sets, providing more specific design possibilities within the same theme. This means more visual variety without compromising the overall site aesthetics. Quick Previews for Pages Simplify your workflow with the new side-by-side layout in the Site Editor. This feature allows you to see all your pages and preview any selected page before you make edits, streamlining the editing process and ensuring consistency. |
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Customisable Content in Synced Patterns With the new override capabilities, you can customise specific pieces of content in synced patterns while maintaining a consistent style. This is particularly useful for Heading, Paragraph, Button, and Image blocks, allowing for nuanced changes across your site.
Performance Enhancements WordPress 6.6 delivers substantial performance improvements, including the removal of redundant WP_Theme_JSON calls, disabling autoload for large options, and eliminating unnecessary polyfill dependencies. Additional highlights include lazy-loading post embeds, a new data-wp-on-async directive, and a 40% reduction in template loading times in the editor.
Accessibility Improvements This release includes over 55 accessibility fixes and enhancements, focusing on foundational aspects of the WordPress experience. Key areas of improvement include the data views component powering the new site editing experience and the Inserter, which is crucial for interacting with blocks and patterns.
And Much More WordPress 6.6 also introduces new features such as negative margins for overlapping designs, refined publish flows, and modern pattern management for classic themes. Additional tools include set styles for groups of blocks, custom shadow creation, a new grid block, aspect ratio presets, and shortcuts for editing.
WordPress 6.6 is a testament to the collaborative efforts of the global WordPress community. With contributions from over 630 individuals in at least 51 countries, this release showcases the power of open-source collaboration. The 6.6 release squad, led by a dedicated team of cross-functional contributors, has worked tirelessly to bring this version to life.
Dive into the new features and enhancements of WordPress 6.6 by downloading the latest release today. Explore the improvements and see how “Dorsey” can take your site to new heights. As always, Encode is here to support you on your WordPress journey, committed to making the web work for you.
Looking forward to WordPress 6.7!
Sincerely,
Jacob Batchelor,
Encode.
