This is a working document where I’ll keep you up to date with the most exciting features that will hopefully be coming in WordPress 6.6. WordPress 6.6 is scheduled for a final release on July 16, 2024, following a Beta 1 release on June 4, 2024. The information below is based on my current research of what’s in the development pipeline. As soon as the WordPress 6.6 release plan is available I’ll update this post.
Summary of WordPress 6.6 Release
Release Date: July 16, 2024
Overview:
WordPress 6.6 brings significant improvements in design tools, user experience, and technical features. This update focuses on enhancing the overall design capabilities, unifying user experiences, and introducing new features for both block and classic themes.
Key Updates:
- Design Enhancements:
- Grid Layout Support: Adds flexibility with auto and manual options for creating grid layouts.
- Style Variations: Allows mixing and matching typography and color palettes across different variations, significantly expanding design possibilities.
- Section-Specific Styling: Enables theme authors to define style options for sections of blocks, providing a more systematic approach to styling.
- Background Images: Extends support for setting background images site-wide through the Site Editor or theme.json.
- Negative Margins: Introduces the ability to set negative margins for blocks directly in the editor.
- Box Shadows: Adds support for box shadows in the Featured Image block, aligning with the Image block.
- User Experience Improvements:
- Unified Publish Flow: Streamlines the publishing process with a cohesive design and workflow across post and site editors.
- Pattern Management: Modernizes pattern management for classic themes, integrating it with the Site Editor’s experience.
- Starter Patterns: Introduces starter patterns in the Site Editor for easier layout creation.
- Inspector Enhancements: Allows browsing and switching templates and template parts directly within the Inspector.
- Technical Advancements:
- Data Views: Enhances UI for managing templates, patterns, and more, with an emphasis on extensibility.
- Block Bindings API: Improves the editing experience of dynamic data within blocks.
- HTML API Update: Refines the HTML Processor for better handling of HTML documents.
- Token Map: Introduces a new utility for efficient string parsing and replacement.
- PHP Support: Drops support for PHP 7.0 and 7.1, raising the minimum supported version to PHP 7.2.24.
- Additional Features:
- Custom Field Editing: Allows direct editing of custom field values in the block settings.
- Pattern Shuffling: Adds a shuffle button for cycling through similar patterns.
- Bulk Export of Patterns: Facilitates the export of multiple patterns as JSON files for easy transfer.
- Indentation in List Block: Supports indenting and outdenting list items using the tab key.
- Performance Improvements: Includes various optimizations, notably a 40% reduction in template loading time.
Adoption Strategies:
- Many new features are available automatically, with some requiring theme.json configurations or minor adjustments.
- For developers, the release offers new APIs and extensibility options to enhance plugin and theme functionality.
Punted Features:
Some anticipated features like the zoom-out view for pattern composition and preferred languages selection have been postponed for further refinement.
Conclusion:
WordPress 6.6 is a comprehensive update that enhances design flexibility, unifies user experiences, and introduces new technical features, making it a significant step forward in the platform’s evolution.
WordPress 6.6 is set to introduce a series of exciting updates aimed at enhancing the user experience and expanding creative possibilities for developers and designers.
Further details on features 👇
| Improvement | Link |
|---|---|
| Content only editing | GitHub Issue #60021 |
| Zoomed out view | GitHub PR #56806 |
| CSS Grids (including column and row start and end) | What’s New for Developers April 2024 |
| Color and typography presets in Global Styles | What’s New for Developers April 2024 |
| Root support for background images in theme.json | What’s New for Developers April 2024 |
| UI for custom fields | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7M4mBVgP3Y |
| Featured image support for media and text | What’s New for Developers April 2024 |
| Pattern overrides | GitHub PR #59268 |
| Playground plugin to create a sandbox of your website | What’s New for Developers April 2024 |
| Custom Post Type Creation? | https://x.com/dbchhbr/status/1769684867820757284 |
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