The WordPress team has released WordPress 6.0 Beta 1 and it is ready for test purposes. It is an upcoming major version and it will bring a lot of new improvements to the widely popular website/content management system. WordPress 6.0 alpha has begun at the beginning of this year; it is being improved since then.
Block editor is in focus
There are a lot of changes with the WordPress 6.0; however, most of the noticeable changes are block-editor related. The WordPress team is pushing hard for the future of Gutenberg, it seems. Here are some of the highlights of WordPress 6.0:
- Style switching: Switch up the look and feel of your site, all in one block theme. No need to change themes.
- More template options: Use blocks to edit five more templates (author, date, categories, tag, and taxonomy).
- Multi-select: Easily select text across multiple blocks. Edit to your liking.
- Retain styles: Keep your custom styles in place, whether transforming between blocks or creating new buttons.
- More patterns in more places: The Quick Inserter surfaces patterns that might work well for the condition you’re in, baking in relevant patterns for template parts and pages you’re working on.
- List view improvements: New keyboard shortcuts (shift + click) let you select multiple blocks to modify in bulk (reposition, delete, etc.), see your content at a glance with a collapsed by default view, and more.
- Refined design tools: Explore a new color panel, transparency options, more group block variations to create new layout options (Stack, Row), the ability to set your featured image in a Cover block, control the exact size of your featured image, gap support for the Gallery block, and more.
- New blocks: Comments, Read More, No results in Query Loop, Post Author biography, Avatar blocks.
- Block locking UI: Choose to disable the option to remove a block, move it, or both, right in the editor.
- Export block themes: Explore the improved block theme export tool, as WordPress heads closer to codeless visual block theme building.
- Webfonts API: Manage local fonts with PHP or theme.json.
The WordPress team is planning to release two more beta versions before the release-candidate versions. After three release candidates, which will be released once a week, they are planning to launch WordPress 6.0 final on May 24.
WordPress 6.0 beta 1 is offered in three ways:
- Installing and activating the WordPress Beta Tester plugin and choosing Bleeding Edge channel, Beta/RC Only stream
- Directly downloading the beta version as a zip file
- Using WP-CLI: wp core update –version=6.0-beta1
The WordPress team warns users not to choose the third option, using WP-CLI, if they are using a case-insensitive filesystem. We also want to remind you that the beta versions are only for testing purposes; not for use in live environments. They might have crucial bugs and security flaws that may affect the installed systems in a bad way.