Exploring WordPress 6.4

Upcoming and pending features

colorful-tones.com/exploring-wordpress-6-4

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Damon Cook

Developer Advocate at WP Engine

September 30, 2023

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Overview

WordPress 6.4 is the third major release of 2023.
Led by an underrepresented gender release squad. 👏
Primarily focused on extending existing features for block and site editors.
Includes the following Gutenberg releases: 16.2, 16.3, 16.4, 16.5, 16.6, 16.7.

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6.4 Features

Twenty Twenty-Four – new default theme

Style – Font Library, Global Styles Revisions

Interface – Write with Ease, List View, Command Palette

Blocks – Block Hooks, Query Loop, Group and List block

Patterns – Custom Categories and Import/Export as JSON

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Twenty Twenty-Four

New default theme

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Twenty Twenty-Four

New default theme

Call for testing Twenty Twenty-Four new default theme

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Style Enhancements

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Font Library

Style

Activating fonts in the Site Editor > Global Styles > Typography

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Font Library

Style

Once fonts are added to the library, they can be activated on any theme.

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Global Styles Revisions

Style

Global Styles Revisions ‘Reset to Default’ recognizes initial revision now

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Interface Enhancements

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Write with Ease

Interface

The toolbar location is attached to the parent for nested blocks: List, Navigation, and Quote block.

Navigation block before

Navigation block after

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Write with Ease

Interface

Easier access to the ‘Open in a new tab’ for links

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List View

Interface

List View – utilize the Esc key to deselect blocks

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List View

Interface

Rename the Group block in the List View, or under Settings > Advanced

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List View

Interface

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List View

Interface

Duplicate blocks in List View with keyboard shortcuts ⇧⌘D

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Command Palette

Interface

New commands for block transforms and options to duplicate, copy, remove, and insert after/before.

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Command Palette

Interface

Improved responsiveness to varying viewports for the Command Palette

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Snackbar

Interface

Adjustments to the Snackbar animation timing

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Block Enhancements

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Block Hooks

Blocks

Briefly referred to as auto-inserting blocks.

Allows developers to attach blocks and insert them in specified locations:

before – inject before the target block.
after – inject after the target block.
firstChild – inject before the first inner block of the target container block.
lastChild – inject after the last inner block of the target container block.

🔴 🟡 🟢

block.json

{
    blockHooks: {
        'core/verse': 'before'
        'core/spacer': 'after',
        'core/column': 'firstChild',
        'core/group': 'lastChild',
    }
}

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Query Loop Pagination

Blocks

Option to enable enhanced pagination on Query Loop block.

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Query Loop Pagination

Blocks

Ability to choose how many numbers to show in the Query Page Numbers block

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Group Block

Blocks

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Image Block

Blocks

Aspect ratio support for placeholder Image block state

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Image Block

Blocks

Lightbox toggle available for Image block (Global Styles and Block Settings)

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Patterns Enhancements

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Custom Categories

Patterns

Ability to create custom pattern categories

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Import / Export

Patterns

Patterns can be exported and imported between sites as JSON files

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More, more, more!

Preformatted: Add margin and padding support. (45196)
Social Links: Add Threads Icon. (52685)
Verse: Enable line breaks. (52928)
Details: Add block gap support. (53282)
File: Add margin and padding support. (45107)
Colum: Add stretch alignment (53325).
Image: Keep image size upon replacing an image (49982).
Buttons: Allow using a button element for button blocks (54206).
Post Content: Add block gap support (54282).
Post Content: Add color control support (51326).
Footnotes: Add link, background, and text color support (52897).
Footnotes: Add typography, dimensions, and border block supports (53044).

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Help with Testing 🐛

Join us in testing!

Weekly scheduled Test team meetings: make.wordpress.org/meetings/#test
Download and test on a local development and never in production!
- Local Blueprint – WordPress Beta Tester ❤️ wpeng.in/6-4_beta-1/
- WordPress Beta Tester plugin: wp.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester
- WP-CLI – wp core update --version=6.4-beta1
Make.WP.org – Test team “Help Test WordPress 6.4”

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Thanks

The WordPress community is us. Not “we”, or “I,” or “them.”

This presentation was created with the following:

Bounds theme – wp.org/themes/bounds/
Icon Block – wp.org/plugins/icon-block/

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