All you need to know about WordPress 6.1

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WordPress 6.1 is available to the public as of now and was code-named Misha after the jazz musician Mikhail “Misha” Alperin. This release is the last of three major WordPress releases in 2022.

A new default WordPress theme, Twenty Twenty Three, is released annually. This year’s focus is on Style Variations, which are swappable color and design options contributed by volunteers.

Now is the time to start ensuring your website builds and maintenance are up to par, or you can hire WaasHero for top-quality website maintenance and future WordPress projects.

Installation/Update Information

WordPress 6.1 is now available for download! To update automatically from the Dashboard > Updates menu in your site’s admin area, or visit the release archive to get started today.

What’s New in WordPress 6.1

WordPress versions continue to grow in popularity. Our latest release powers 43% of websites worldwide. As of today, Download it now!

Site owners and administrators should upgrade to take full advantage of the many stability, performance, and usability enhancements today. Furthermore, WordPress content creators will enjoy a suite of new features geared toward improving the writing and designing experiences.

A new default theme with 10 unique style variations

WordPress site builders can now look forward to the new default theme, TwentyTwenty-Three, which is powered by 10 unique styles. The variety of style options available allows users to apply a different appearance to their site with just a single click—all while using only one theme.

At WaasHero, we provide custom Theme Development that is lightweight and powerful. Our themes are made specifically for WaaS Owners, WordPress developers, and Design Agencies.

New templates to help make your experience better.

With these new updates, site builders have more power over their website’s design. Find a post or page template in the Site Editor that better suits your needs, then edit it to perfection with the new search-and-replace tool. You can also now easily view your newly updated site.

Improved Design Tools

Upgrades to the controls for design elements and blocks make it easier to lay out and build your site.

Make menu management simple with easy-to-use tools.

The new fallback options in the navigation block make it easy to edit the menu that’s open; no searching is needed. Plus, you can customize the controls for choosing and working on menus in the block settings. The mobile menu system also gets an upgrade with new features, including different icon options, so you can make it your own.

Cleaner interface with intuitive controls for customizing your document’s appearance.

The new and improved display makes it easier to view and manage post and page settings, as well as useful features like the template picker and scheduler.

One-click lock setting for all inner blocks

The new toggle makes it possible to apply your lock settings to all the blocks in a containing block, including group, cover, and column blocks.

Improved block placeholders

With the help of various blocks, you can design your site and content more efficiently. As an example, the Image block placeholder now displays custom borders and duotone filters- making it easier for you to select the perfect image.

Fluid Typography and Improved Inner Blocks

Fluid typography enables you to automatically resize fonts for reading ease on any screen size.

The List and Quote blocks now support inner blocks, allowing you to create more flexible and rich compositions. For example, you can add headings inside your Quote blocks.

Add starter patterns to any post type

The WordPress 6.0 update brought with it the ability to see suggested patterns when creating a new page so that you’re not staring at a blank canvas. In 6.1, this same functionality will be available for all post types.

Find block themes faster

The Themes Directory has a filter for block themes, and a pattern preview gives a better sense of what the theme might look like while exploring different themes and patterns.

A streamlined style system

The CSS rules for margin, padding, typography, colors, and borders are now all in one place within the styles engine. This reduces time spent on layout-specific tasks and helps to generate semantic class names.

Updated interface options and features

Some of the new updates include global styling changes for buttons, citations, and links; controlling hover, active, and focus states for links using theme.json (not available in the interface yet), and customizing outline support for blocks and elements.

Content-only editing support for container blocks

Content-only editing settings allow you to lock layouts within container blocks. In a content-only block, its children cannot be seen in the ListView and cannot be edited at all. This way, you can control the layout while your writers only have to focus on the content. If you combine it with other block-locking options, you’ll have an even greater degree of control over your blocks.

Other Key Updates to Look For

• Developers now have the ability to control full-width content by overriding default dimensions set in themes. This gives builders greater power over how their site looks.
• You can now include block template parts in classic themes by adding the appropriate HTML files to the `parts` directory at the root of your theme.
• Leverage filters in the Styles sidebar to control settings for your site at four levels: core, theme, user, or block. The more specific you get with your filter choices, the more targeted and effective your styling will be.
• Don’t waste time by coding margin and padding values into a theme for individual blocks–use presets instead.
• WordPress 6.1 enables a new feature that shows content authors the average amount of time required to read pages, posts, and custom post types.
• The site tagline is empty by default in new sites but can be modified in General Settings.
• The new modal design allows you to keep your focus on the task at hand with a soft background blur.

WordPress For All

Since accessibility is key to the WordPress mission of inclusivity, nearly 60 updates earmarked for enhancing platform accessibility have been included in WordPress 6.1.

Improved Performance with WP 6.1

With WordPress 6.1, we took care of more than 25 performance-related requests to make your site faster no matter what type of website you have. A full breakdown can be found in the Performance Field Guide.

Looking ahead to WordPress 6.2

Although an official release date has not yet been announced, work for WordPress 6.2 will begin shortly. A variety of improvements are anticipated, such as additional performance and accessibility updates, as well as more consistent design tooling controls. Have no fear – even though classic themes may eventually phase out, they will stick around for quite a while longer. If you want to learn more specifics about what’s coming down the line for WordPress, be sure to check out the WordPress Roadmap

If you’re looking for an experienced & affordable WordPress development company then consider hopping on a video chat with us! You will be surprised how easy it is to get started! Our support channels are ready and standing by!

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