As a continuation of the previous post outlining the WordPress 5.5 Editor features, here’s an update on which of those features will be in 5.5, and which will not. In the previous post, there were two “sets” of features. The first was “definite for inclusion,” and the second was “features that need help.”
Currently the release includes the following list of new additions and improvements to the editor:
- A new block Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. editor design.
- Introducing block patterns and the block patterns APIs for themes and plugins.
- A new block inserter panel with streamlined categories, collections, native support for patterns, and block directory integration.
- An improved editing experience, with refined drag and drop, block movers, parent block selection, device previews, contextual focus highlights, multi-select formatting allowing changes to many blocks at once, ability to copy and relocate blocks easily, and better performance.
- An expanding set of design tools with inline image editing,
theme support for link color, multiple alignment options and customizable padding in cover block, mobile support for auto-playing videos, extended background and gradient support to other blocks (group, columns, media & text), broader unit control beyond pixels (rems, %, vh, vw), line height adjustments, and more. - Over 1500 additional changes to the editor experience.
That is an impressive list! It also includes most of the items that needed help: block patterns, block directory and block design tools. Keep an eye on this blog (versus network, site) in the coming weeks for dev notes Each important change in WordPress Core is documented in a developers note, (usually called dev note). Good dev notes generally include a description of the change, the decision that led to this change, and a description of how developers are supposed to work with that change. Dev notes are published on Make/Core blog during the beta phase of WordPress release cycle. Publishing dev notes is particularly important when plugin/theme authors and WordPress developers need to be aware of those changes.In general, all dev notes are compiled into a Field Guide at the beginning of the release candidate phase. detailing each feature listed above.
Thank you to every contributor that took the time to push these features over the finish line! 🎉
However, even though lots of work went into these features and considerable progress was made, there are some features previously planned for 5.5 that could not be included:
- The navigation block
- The new navigation screen
- The new widgets screen
To monitor progress and participate there are a few places to start:
- Navigation and the navigation screen issues are tracked in the Navigation project within the GitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ repository. There are also issues not tracked in the project but labeled accordingly.
To test the current status of these projects, remember to turn them on within the Gutenberg plugin experiments screen.
Thank you for your support, contributions, and all other kinds of participation in this amazing new incoming WordPress release!
Update July 15th 2020 – removed the “theme support for link color” feature as per this comment
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