Latest WordPress offers nearly 300 new features and fixes

Last Tuesday, the long-awaited WordPress 5.8 update was released, which includes a wide range of additions and tweaks to help improve your website, and enables you to have more control over your WordPress website.

Let’s explore some of the latest features:

A new way to manage widgets

The Widgets section under both Appearance in your WordPress admin dashboard and the Customize section of WordPress has now changed to a new format that enables you to use the Block editor to create widgets on your website. This enables more flexibility in the content you show in widgets, and allows you to have full control over what is shown in your site widgets.

Support for WebP images to be uploaded

WebP images are a great way to help improve the site speed of your website, as they load much more quickly than normal JPEGs and PNGs. In the past, WordPress would block you from uploading images that had been converted to WebP, but in this brand new version, WebP image files may be uploaded to your website.

The Query Loop Block for more customisation

A great new feature has been released in the Block editor called ‘The Query Loop Block’ which enables you to filter the posts shown in the posts widget. For example, you can filter the block to only show posts in a specific category.

Media Library changes

There are now big changes in the way you explore the Media Library in the admin dashboard of WordPress. Previously, the media library would use infinite scroll when loading images in the grid view. However, this has now changed to a button at the bottom that enables you to see more images.

At Engage Web, we believe the new features released on WordPress will help us deliver even better websites to our clients. If you are looking for a new website for your business, we offer traditional and website leasing services to help your business improve its online presence. Have a chat with our friendly team today.

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Jonathon Roberts

Jonathon lives and breathes marketing, boasting a degree in Business Management and Marketing Management and a diverse list of experiences both professional and voluntary. Having grown up in the thick of the digital and social media age, he has been quick to dive into online marketing and search engine optimisation in his career and spare time, spanning such fields as academics, local business and sport.

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