{"id":278,"date":"2024-10-16T15:25:14","date_gmt":"2024-10-16T15:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revision.codesupply.co\/revision\/?p=278"},"modified":"2025-05-04T18:49:35","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T18:49:35","slug":"six-major-enhancements-in-wordpress-6-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sailexhost.com\/blog\/six-major-enhancements-in-wordpress-6-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Six Major Enhancements in WordPress 6.8"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On April 15, 2025, WordPress released its first and final major update of the year with WordPress 6.8. This is a departure from having three major updates in a year which has been the norm for many years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think of WordPress 6.8 as a polishing-up release. Many of its changes are subtle to the eye or under the hood, where parts of the underlying code will be changed. Much of this is to standardize code, making plugins and themes easier to create going forward. And since the Gutenberg project is now over five years old, some of that codebase has been updated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, as with all major releases, you can expect improved features, performance and accessibility improvements, bug fixes, and security upgrades, such as a more secure way to log into your WordPress admin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this article, we will demonstrate some of the new features and UI improvements coming in WordPress 6.8 using the default Twenty Twenty-Five theme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Changes to the Site Editor<\/h2>\n\n\n\n


WordPress 6.8 gives us a clearer view of the direction for the future of the WordPress Admin. The Site Editor continues to evolve gradually in appearance and with regards to its features. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Block themes now have a more uniform look with universal functionality. This is particularly the case with the Design section, which now looks the same as the Pages, Templates, and Patterns sections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Global Styles are also now positioned in the middle as an extension of the sidebar, allowing users to change their style easily and see the changes live on the preview screen to the right. Just like the Global Styles panel in the past, this panel also provides access to the Style Book, where you can adjust your colors, typeface, image, and other block styling preferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Viewing the Style Book in a classic theme\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While we are on the topic of the Style Book, WordPress 6.8 now supports viewing a rudimentary Style Book while using a classic theme. This continues the effort to lessen the differences between the classic and block themes to the extent possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mind you, you won\u2019t have styling functionality like you have with a Block Theme yet. For now, changing styles for a classic theme will still require using the Customizer settings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When using a classic theme, such as the well-known GeneratePress, you\u2019ll now see a Design<\/strong> option in the Appearance section of your WP Admin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After selecting the Design option, you\u2019ll see a page with two options. The Pattern<\/strong> option is not new, but the Style<\/strong> option is new for classic themes in WordPress 6.8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here you\u2019ll see the default styling of all the blocks that make up your theme, allowing you to have easy access to a design overview. However, you won\u2019t be able to make any styling changes yet. That is something you might see in a future version of WordPress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Query Loop fixes, enhancements, and a new block\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n


The Query Loop block, a critical block used for the presentation of a blog archive, got some attention in WordPress 6.8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Significantly, one of the bugs that got fixed was sticky post rendering. The known issue was that the sticky post wouldn\u2019t appear at the top of the loop while you\u2019re in the editor, but it would be rendered correctly on the site\u2019s front end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That issue created confusion, as there was a discrepancy between the editor and the site\u2019s front end. As you\u2019d expect, a sticky post will now reliably be located at the top of a blog archive during editing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While we\u2019re on the subject, there\u2019s now an easy way to ignore a sticky post in case you want to make an exception in a specific case. Find this new option in the Sticky Posts drop-down menu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Also, we now have the Query Total block, which is available only within the Query Loop block. This allows your site visitors to know how many posts (or pages) are in a given archive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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To use the Query Total block, make sure you are working in the Query Loop block. Select the plus icon that is at the bottom right corner. Search for Query Total. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Resetting the Color Picker\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The color picker reset is a small new feature that\u2019s easy to miss. However, I found this addition really convenient. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I have set the background color of a heading to a gray tone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If I ever want to reset the color, the usual way of doing this is by picking the default color manually. But you have to remember which default color it was on the color picker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In WordPress 6.8, there\u2019s now a minus icon (-) next to the Background<\/strong> label when you hover over it, which will automatically reset to the default color upon click.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As of now, this new feature applies only to paragraph and heading blocks. But we can expect more blocks to support this new feature in future versions of WordPress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n