WordPress 6.2 is Coming Soon! Here’s Your First Look

On February 6, 2023, the WordPress core development team published its Roadmap to 6.2, which includes a wealth of exciting details about the key sections of work expected to be completed for WordPress 6.2, the next iteration of WordPress that’s planned for a March 28 release. This release, like the ones that have come before it, looks to offer features that make working within the content management system more user-friendly and promises to help make you more productive than ever.

Refinements and significant improvements, as well as ease of use, are the main focus areas of WordPress 6.2. Among those improvements are a revamped approach to navigating between templates and template parts, an additional way to manage menus with the navigation block, and the ability to import widgets to block themes.

The base block experience will also receive improvements, including features like a new distraction-free writing mode and a scaled block settings experience.

Let’s dive right in and check out what you and other WordPress users have to look forward to!

Full Site Editing Becomes a Breeze

The Site Editor will now center the entire structure of your site starting with the homepage. Whereas in the past when you’d be dropped into a single template, various features will now come together to make it easier to navigate across your site and take the actions you want. In addition, you’ll be able to:

New Site Editor Features

• Experience a refreshed Site Editor with the new Browse mode.
• Easily identify template parts and reusable blocks with added colorization.
• Write without interruption with the specially designed distraction-free editing mode.
• Insert media directly from your Media Library using the Inserter.
• Quickly add images from Openverse to your posts using the Inserter, with the option to disable this feature.
• Keep an eye out for the updated Block Settings icon, an indicator of additional forthcoming changes.
• Migrate your widgets to block themes with ease.
• View your list view and document information all in one unified panel.

Distraction-Free Mode

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Reimagined Site Editor

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Leveling-Up Individual Blocks

Individual blocks, particularly the Navigation block, have also received some desperately needed upgrades. Like many other features and functions of WordPress, their capabilities and the user experience have continued to improve. Furthermore, overall block settings have been iterated upon with more complex blocks in mind, with a split between Styles and Settings tabs.

New Block Features

• Enhance your editing experience with the new list view for the Navigation block, accessible within the block settings sidebar.
• Limit editing of the Navigation block’s inner blocks (links and submenus) for a more curated experience.
• Enjoy the convenience of various in-built fallbacks for the Navigation block.
• Elevate your block customization with split Styles and Settings, optimized for compatibility with a growing range of design tools.
• Keep blocks at the root level in sight with the “Sticky” block position option in the inspector.
• Fine-tune the width of blocks within a Row block.
• Easily choose between a row or stacked layout during Group block setup.
• Utilize the aspect ratio tool for custom image dimensions.
• Modify captions for Audio, Video, and Image blocks directly from the block toolbar with ease.

Design on Your Terms With Updated Block Patterns

Since they were introduced, Block Patterns have been one of the most popular features of WordPress. They’re a collection of predefined blocks that you can insert into pages and posts and customize with your own content. They make it possible to quickly and easily create standout pages on your WordPress site with very little effort.

Now, in WordPress 6.2, a redesign of the patterns Inserter makes it easier to pick and choose between patterns, including newly bundled Header and Footer options. Developers and Site Builders who create and provide patterns can expand where they can be used, including an option to register patterns specifically for templates.

New Block Patterns Features

• Streamline your pattern selection with the improved Pattern Inserter and refined categorization.
• Effortlessly switch between Header and Footer patterns bundled with Core.
• Specify the templates where patterns can be used by registering them for specific template types. For instance, an Error 404 pattern should only be used with the 404 template.
• Select from a growing collection of Query Loop patterns directly from the block, with a more streamlined setup process.

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Design Takes Center Stage

If you’ve struggled with site design in the past and felt overwhelmed by the learning curve of previous WordPress releases, don’t panic! WordPress 6.2 takes the strong foundation provided by theme.json and the Styles Engine to new heights.

The new features and enhancements will allow users to experiment with different styles, preview the changes in real-time, and apply them globally or locally as needed, making the entire design process more intuitive and efficient. So, even if you have never felt confident in your site design skills, WordPress 6.2 is here to help.

New Design Features

• Create a cohesive look for your site with the Style Book, which allows you to view and style all blocks at once.
• Preview the impact of your design changes with an inline view of blocks while working with Styles.
• Get a more comprehensive glance at your template when choosing a style variation.
• Quickly make sitewide changes to a single block across your site using the “Apply Globally” control in the Advanced block settings.
• Speed up your design process by copying and pasting block styles for consistent designs.
• Customize your entire site or individual blocks with custom CSS controls.
• Make edits to block style variations from within Styles.
• Set a minimum fluid font size in theme.json for more flexible typography.
• Add shadow preset support via theme.json.

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More to Come in WordPress 6.2

In addition to all of the refinements and improvements coming to WordPress 6.2 that we’ve laid out above, there will also be a number of performance improvements, a faster plugin and theme upgrade process, further iteration on PHP 8.2.x support, and all of the expected general bug fixes and enhancements to look forward to.

Altogether, these will help take the WordPress experience to new heights! Stay tuned for more updates by subscribing below.