{"id":15718,"date":"2023-08-08T20:03:16","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T20:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/news\/?p=15718"},"modified":"2023-08-14T19:53:37","modified_gmt":"2023-08-14T19:53:37","slug":"lionel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/news\/2023\/08\/lionel\/","title":{"rendered":"WordPress 6.3 “Lionel”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Say hello to WordPress 6.3 \u201cLionel,\u201d named after Lionel Hampton<\/a>, the celebrated American jazz artist. A prolific jazz vibraphonist, pianist, and percussionist, Hampton gained notoriety working in harmony with greats from Charles Mingus<\/a> to Quincy Jones<\/a> and as bandleader of the eponymous Lionel Hampton Orchestra. His artistry and charitable work have been recognized with a Grammy, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the National Medal of Arts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be sure to turn up the volume of the musical stylings<\/a> of Lionel Hampton as you discover all \u201cLionel\u201d has to offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With \u201cLionel\u201d you can create beautiful and compelling websites more efficiently than ever. Whether you want to build an entire site without coding or are a developer looking to customize every detail, WordPress 6.3 has something to pique your interest. As you unpack and explore this latest release, you will discover updated functions and navigation designed to help you work and create with less effort, design tools that give you more control over layout, and added functionality enriching the site-building experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Lionel” marks a major chapter in the evolution of WordPress as a tool for expression. It\u2019s the culmination of years of work from hundreds of contributors, bringing a more powerful and cohesive editing experience for crafting websites with blocks. It continues the quest of making web publishing approachable for everyone\u2014so it\u2019s also just a new beginning!<\/p>\nMat\u00edas Ventura, WordPress 6.3 Release Lead<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Download WordPress 6.3 “Lionel” today<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s inside<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This momentous release opens new possibilities for the creative expression of designers, creators, and builders. Powerful tools and refined controls give users confidence and allow them to easily manage their sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do everything in the Site Editor<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

WordPress 6.3 brings your content, templates, and patterns together in the Site Editor for the first time. Add pages, browse style variations, create synced patterns, and enjoy fine-tuned control over navigation menus. Spend less time switching across different site areas\u2014so you can focus on what matters most. Creation to completion, all in one place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Do everything in the Site Editor<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Preview Block themes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Experience block themes before you switch and preview the Site Editor, with options to customize directly before committing to a new theme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Preview a new block theme before you switch and commit<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Create and sync patterns<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Arrange blocks and save them to the \u2018My Patterns\u2019 section for use throughout your site. You can even specify whether to sync your patterns (previously referred to as \u201cReusable blocks\u201d) so that one change applies to all parts of your site. Or, utilize patterns as a starting point with the ability to customize each instance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My patterns: All your patterns in one place<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Work faster with the Command Palette<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Switch to a specific template or open your editor preferences with a new tool that helps you quickly access expanded functionality. With simple keyboard shortcuts (\u2318+k on Mac or Ctrl+k on Windows), clicking the sidebar search icon in Site View, or clicking the Title Bar, get where you need to go and do what you need to do in seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Get to know the new Command Palette <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sharpen your designs with new tools<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

New design controls bring more versatility for fine-tuning, starting with the ability to customize your captions from the Styles interface without coding. You can manage your duotone filters in Styles for supported blocks and pick from the options provided by your theme or disable them entirely. The Cover block gets added settings for text color, layout controls, and border options, making this powerful block even more handy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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New design tools<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Track design changes with Style revisions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

With a new audit trail, you can now see how your site looked at a specific time. Visualize these revisions in a timeline and access a one-click option to restore prior styles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Style revisions: See your style revision history <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Annotate with the Footnotes block<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Footnotes add convenient annotations throughout your content. Now you can add and link footnotes for any paragraph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Add footnotes effortlessly with the new Footnotes Block<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Show or hide content with the Details block<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Use the Details block to avoid spoiling a surprise, create an interactive Q&A section, or hide a long paragraph under a heading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Display or hide content with the new Details Block<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Performance gets a boost<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

WordPress 6.3 has 170+ performance updates<\/a>, including defer and async support for the Scripts API and fetchpriority support for images. These improvements, along with block template resolution, image lazy-loading, and the emoji loader, can dramatically improve your website\u2019s perceived load time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accessibility remains a core focus<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Incorporating more than 50 accessibility improvements across the platform, WordPress 6.3 is more accessible than ever. Improved labeling, optimized tab and arrow-key navigation, revised heading hierarchy, and new controls in the admin image editor allow those using assistive technologies to navigate more easily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other highlights<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Set aspect ratio on images<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Specify your aspect ratios and ensure design integrity, especially when using images in patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Build your site distraction-free<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Distraction-free designing is now available in the Site Editor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rediscover the Top Toolbar<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

A revamped Top Toolbar offers parent selectors for nested blocks, options when selecting multiple blocks, and an interface embedded into the title bar with new functionality in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

List View improvements<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Drag and drop to every content layer and delete any block you would like in the updated List View.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Build templates with Patterns<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Create unique patterns to jumpstart template creation with a new modal enabling access to pattern selection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Changes in PHP support<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Support for PHP 5 is discontinued. The new minimum supported version of PHP is 7.0.0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Failed update safeguards<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

WordPress will now auto-restore the previously installed version of plugins or themes if something goes wrong during a failed manual update.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Learn more about WordPress and 6.3<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Explore Learn WordPress<\/a> for quick how-to videos, online workshops<\/a>, and other resources to level up your knowledge of the latest features in WordPress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out the WordPress 6.3 Field Guide<\/a> for detailed developer notes to help you build with WordPress and get the most out of the latest release. Read the 6.3 release notes<\/a> for additional technical details about this release, including feature recaps, installation information, file changes, fixes, and updates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read and subscribe to the Developer Blog<\/a> for even more helpful WordPress content. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To accompany this release, a new web experience<\/a> has been created to provide a more visual way of getting acquainted with the many improvements and new features of WordPress 6.3. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seeing WordPress 6.3 in action doesn’t stop there! Be sure to watch this brief overview video<\/a> to get a taste of the many things “Lionel” has to offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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