Today’s WordPress 6.3 release, affectionately named “Lionel” after the legendary jazz artist, Lionel Hampton promises to make your website editing experience groove more than ever. Let’s look at what’s in this latest exciting update
The All-New Template Editor
First off, let’s talk about my personal favourite – the template editor. Gone are the days of juggling between different sections to manage your site’s layout. With WordPress 6.3, everything’s right at your fingertips. From navigation menus to style customisations, it’s all in one place. Not only that, but the header and footer components finally have a home and can be easily controlled in a familiar way to update both structure and content.
Command Palette: Your Site Editor’s Magic Wand
Ever wished for a quicker way to navigate through the site editor? Enter the Command Palette. A few keyboard shortcuts, and voilà! You’re where you need to be. We’ve seen this type of control available on Mac, Windows and popular IDEs for sometime, so introducing it to WordPress will feel natural for most.
Press Ctrl+K on Windows, or Cmd+K on Mac to activate the prompt.
Distraction-Free Mode: For Those ‘In the Zone’ Moments
Sometimes, less is more. With the expanded distraction-free mode, you can focus solely on your content, giving you the space to be creative with your writing. This is ideal for crafting out a long blog post without the editor items peering over you the whole time. All you have to do is type and no editor distractions will popup to interrupt your flow.
Preview Block Themes Before Committing
Ever tried on an outfit before buying it? Now, you can do the same with block themes. Preview, tweak, and once you’re head over heels, make it official! The great thing about this feature is you can prepare necessary adaptations during the previous nice, so if changing the theme means certain content has to change, then you can do your updates and publish both the updated theme and content updates together
Aspect Ratio Controls & The Details Block
Maintain design integrity with the new aspect ratio controls for images. This is a long overdue addition to the image block and it’s something we’re already used to in the GeneratePress Image Block version. You can now define the type of space you are trying to fill with an image by specifying a ratio and whatever image you put in will scale to fit. CSS fans will recognise the “Cover” and “Contain” keywords and their relevance to background image placement.
Plus, the Details block is here to add a sprinkle of mystery to your content. It’s effectively a collapsed accordion that the user can open when they want to drill down into the content. My first though is whether this could be adapted for use as an FAQ block, but I don’t believe there are any plans to include the FAQ schema at this stage.
Footnotes: Because Details Matter
Add that extra layer of information with the new footnotes feature. Simply select a bit of text and choose Footnote from the text menu selector to drop an index in the text and include the footnote citation or reference at the bottom of the article. Hyperlinks included!
Mobile Preview: Because Size Does Matter
Last but not least, resize your Site Editor to see how your site looks on smaller screens. It’s all about getting the perfect fit and you can see instantly how your site will appear in any size. This is something Google Dev Tools users will be familiar with when viewing responsively and it’s a welcome editor to the WordPress experience.
WordPress 6.3, In Conclusion…
WordPress 6.3 is here to jazz up your website editing experience. So, whether you’re a seasoned developer or a hardcore content writer, there’s something in this update to get your toes tapping.
Alpha Labs are WordPress Development specialists and available for hire should you need any assistance getting your WordPress website updated to the new smooth version of 6.3
