The latest WordPress update, WordPress 6.0 ‘Arturo’ has been in the spotlight for nearly a couple of weeks now, gaining unimaginable hype and popularity. All major WordPress updates are named after a jazz artist, and WordPress 6.0 ‘Arturo’ has been named after popular Grammy-winning jazz musician Arturo O’Farrill. 

This update is meant to aid an artist to unleash her creative spirit and help in an innate site-building experience. Over 500 WordPress community members from across 58 countries helped build this version of WordPress.

It is unlikely that the platform that hosts more than 42% of the world’s websites is going to slow down anytime soon. An official announcement from WordPress explains, “The latest version of the software takes full site editing one step further and looks to consolidate the ‘no code’ experience for site-building, expanding upon the existing customization tools, bringing new blocks, and focusing on the writing and design workflows.”

An example of this is the new style switcher for block themes, one of the most anticipated features for the flexibility and creative opportunities it introduces without having to switch themes.

“With thoughtful updates to the writing experience, building better block functionality, and adding a new intuitive style switcher, I’m really proud of the work that’s been done in this release to make a great site editing experience,” says WordPress’ Executive Director, Josepha Haden Chomphosy.

WordPress 6.0 – What’s New?

WordPress 6.0 is the second update released by the company in 2022. More than 1000 changes and bug fixes are a part of this update. The new version is available to download from the official WordPress website in the release archive section. Step-by-step guidelines on update installation are available on the WordPress website under the “Updating WordPress” tab. Let us now find out what is new in this new WordPress 6.0 update!

1. Improved Performance

Improved post-loading speed, page speed, reducing query execution time, caching, and navigation are among the many changes that have come in with this new WordPress update. Since this update is mainly focused on improving WordPress website performance, it has come with several enhancements that help in the process. 

2. Enhanced Accessibility

WordPress believes in making the platform accessible to everyone, and thus, fosters an inclusive community. Accessibility is an important part of WordPress’s mission. Around 50 WordPress updates in the latest variant focus only on the platform’s accessibility, and that shows how dedicated WordPress is to accessibility.

3. Superior Writing Experience

Be it editing, deleting, or adding new shiny content to your website, WordPress has got you covered! It has writing enhancements for every purpose, which helps one streamline his creative process with:

• More appealing social icons and tag clouds with updated controls and settings.
• Type two open brackets ‘[[‘ to open recent posts and pages.
• Text selection across multiple blocks to ease the copy-paste process.
• Customized buttons retain their style personalizations.
• Do not lose existing style changes when transforming blocks. 

4. Style Switching

Change the look and feel of your entire website within a single theme! A few clicks of your mouse and keyword will allow you to change both settings and style options. Minute options like the default color palette and the font-weight can also be changed easily. 

5. 5 Brand-New Templates

The WordPress 6.0 ‘Arturo’ has five new template options, mainly for block themes namely, date, author, tag, category, and taxonomy. This is a blessing for content creators who have gained flexibility from this change. All templates are customizable, and that allows website customization. 

6. Integrated Patterns

Patterns are found in places like the quick inserter, or while creating a new header/footer. You can use ‘theme.json’ to register patterns. In this, specific patterns are prioritized, which is very helpful to the users.

7. More Design Tools

WordPress is known for releasing potent and inherent design tools, and this one is no different. Have a look at its latest design tools and features – 

• Adding and removing space between images and text, and creating new looks – Everything is just a piece of cake with the gap support functionality present in the Gallery block. 
• Group block permits the controlling of margins, gaps, and typography, all at once.
• New border controls allow border-color customization.
• All options are shown at a glance in the new color panel, thus saving space.
• A new color transparency level feature has been added, thus producing more creative options for artistic people.
• Easily switch between row, group, and stack variations to place groups of blocks with more layout flexibility. 

8. Easy List View

The brand-new keyboard shortcuts released in WordPress 6.0 enable users to do the following with just a keyboard click – 

1. Select numerous blocks from the list view

2. Bulk-modify blocks

3. Use drag-and-drop on blocks in the list

4. Open and close the list view with no difficulty

5. Expand to the current selection whenever a block is selected

9. Block Locking Controls

WordPress 6.0 allows users to lock and unlock blocks. Users have the option of disabling the option for moving or removing a block. This relieves creators of the constant need to worry about not accidentally breaking any website element while working on other elements of their webpage. Also, it simplifies the project and its handover and allows clients to explore their creativity without damaging any element of the page. 

What Should You Consider Before Upgrading To WordPress 6.0?

• Always have a backup of your site ready before upgrading it to WordPress 6.0 ‘Arturo’.
• Ensure that there are no broken elements on your page.
• Briefly go through instruction articles and videos to ensure you don’t have any surprises during the upgrade.
• If you are not clear on the upgrade and its features, join an interactive learning session to clear your doubts.
• If you are a developer, explore the field guide prior to the upgrade.
• Refer to WordPress 6.0 release notes for extensive data.

Conclusion

It is suggested that website administrators, especially online store owners, upgrade to the new version of WordPress to take full advantage of the manifold stability, performance, and usability enhancement as soon as possible. Content creators using WordPress will be euphoric about the new hamper of features accessible to them to improve their designing and writing experience.