On November 7, 2023, WordPress released version 6.4, fulfilling the promise they made in October. They had previously announced that we could expect version 6.4 following the release of version 6.3.2, which addressed the vulnerabilities of CVE-2023-45603.
WordPress introduced the new version, 6.4, and named it “Shirley” in honor of the iconic Jazz artist “Shirley Horn”. Known for her extraordinary piano skills and distinctive vocal talent, Shirley Horn left a lasting impact on the Jazz genre.
The “Shirley” version boasts several exciting new features. It offers a more versatile default theme, enhances content writing capabilities, and provides streamlined site editing tools.
The Executive Director of WordPress has this to say:
“Many of the features and enhancements in WordPress 6.4 fall in the “small but mighty” category. Along with the adaptable beauty of the Twenty Twenty-Four theme, these updates help content creators and site developers alike save time and effort while delivering the high value, low hassle WordPress experience the world has grown to expect.”
NEW FEATURES INSIDE WORDPRESS 6.4:
The new WordPress 6.4 has the following features:
Twenty Twenty-Four:
With the Twenty Twenty-Four, Writers, artists, and entrepreneurs can take pride in a versatile default theme. Over 35 templates and patterns are available, which facilitate easy and creative site editing. Furthermore, WordPress now provides flexibility to content creators, allowing it to adapt to various site types. More context about this can be found in the demo.
Seamless Content Composition:
With the WordPress 6.4 update, you can now enjoy a seamless content creation experience. This update introduces new keyboard shortcuts, enables intelligent list merging, enhances link control, and provides a unified toolbar for Navigation, List, and Quote blocks.
A Much Better Command Palette:
The enhanced Command Palette in WordPress 6.4, initially introduced in WordPress 6.3, now empowers content creators to perform tasks more efficiently and accelerate their workflow. The new update also includes support for block-specific actions.
Custom Categories and Filter Patterns:
With WordPress 6.4, content creators have the ability to streamline their site-building process. They can categorize patterns and use advanced filtering in the Patterns section, enhancing pattern organization and discovery.
Boosting Creativity With Additional Tools:
WordPress 6.4 comes with New additional design tools, that now boost the creativity and layout design options of content creators. These tools allow them to create unique designs in Group blocks using background images and easily add buttons to their Navigation block without any coding.
Image LIGHTBOX Functionality:
When the image lightbox feature is enabled in WordPress 6.4, it allows visitors of the content creator’s website to interact with images in full-screen when they click on them. Content creators have the flexibility to apply this feature across their entire site or selectively to specific images, tailoring the viewing experience to their preference.
Renaming Group Blocks:
Content creators now have the ability to assign personalized labels to Group blocks, enhancing content organization and differentiation. These names will also be visible in the List View.
Image Preview in List view:
Gallery and Image blocks provide enhanced previews in List View. In the new WordPress 6.4, this gives content creators a quick and visual way to identify the placement of images within content.
Reuse of Patterns Across sites:
In the new WordPress 6.4 update, content creators gain the ability to reuse their custom patterns on different websites. They can now import and export these patterns as JSON files from their Site Editor’s pattern view.
Block Hooks:
In the new WordPress 6.4, Block Hooks auto-insert dynamic blocks, providing developers with enhanced flexibility for block themes through plugins. Although this feature is developer-centric, it also accommodates user preferences by offering full control over the customization of auto-inserted blocks.
THE NEW UPDATE SUPPORTS:
Website administrators using the CMS platform are advised by WordPress to ensure their websites are running on PHP 8.1 or PHP 8.2 before upgrading to WordPress 6.4. This precaution facilitates a seamless transition to the new version.
CONTRIBUTORS AND VOTE OF THANKS:
WordPress has thanked over 600 contributors from 56 countries for their invaluable contributions that made this new update possible. In this post, we will spotlight a few of these contributors.
At Fixitgearware, we not only recognize WordPress for its outstanding performance as an open-source community but also commend its impressive speed in addressing reported or discovered issues.
Put your comments below in the comment section on your thoughts about this.
