What’s New in WordPress 6.7 (Features and Screenshots)

WordPress 6.7 was just released today. Like many of you, we get excited about new WordPress releases, and 6.7 is no exception. It’s packed with exciting new features that we can’t wait to share with you.

This release builds on user feedback, bringing updates to boost your site’s performance, usability, and accessibility. The site editor has received many enhancements, and there’s even a brand-new default theme.

Join us as we dive into WordPress 6.7 and explore its standout features and improvements designed to enhance your WordPress experience.

Now, let’s look at what you’ll find in WordPress 6.7 after the update. Here is a quick list of the major features we will explore:

Introducing the Twenty Twenty-Five Theme

WordPress 6.7 brings a brand-new default theme: Twenty Twenty-Five. WordPress releases a fresh theme each year, focusing on simplicity and ease of use.

The theme follows a straightforward approach: “Simple things should be easy, and complex things possible.”

Twenty Twenty-Five comes with multiple pre-designed block patterns and style options, making it easy to customize a website without starting from scratch.

Designed with Bloggers in Mind

Unlike recent default themes focused on business and multipurpose use, Twenty Twenty-Five’s default layout is tailored for bloggers.

We liked the simplicity of a simple blog theme as the default experience. This signals the growing trend of building online communities and blogs as hubs for independent publishing and human-generated content.

Responsive and Customizable

The theme is lightweight and works smoothly on any device, focusing on accessibility.

Customizing Twenty Twenty-Five is easy—you can adjust colors, fonts, and layouts with just a few clicks. It’s designed to help you create a personal, polished look without hassle.

We felt that it goes very well with WordPress’s site editing tools. Its plain layout acts as a canvas for users to fill with their designs.

Site Editor Improvements

WordPress 6.7 brings a ton of improvements and new features to the full site editor, making it even easier to use.

These enhancements provide consistency between site editing and content editing areas. They also improve user navigation to help new users quickly find their way around.

New Zoom Out View for Easier Editing

As we’ve worked with long pages with many sections and patterns, we’ve often found that all the scrolling makes editing challenging. WordPress 6.7 addresses this with a useful new “Zoom Out” feature.

Now, with a simple click on the Zoom Out button in the top-right toolbar, you can see a bird’s-eye view of your content.

This view lets you manage the overall layout and patterns on a broader scale instead of focusing on each individual block.

We also noticed that when you open the Patterns tab in the block inserter, the editor automatically switches to Zoom Out mode.

This change streamlines the process of adding or adjusting pre-designed patterns, making it faster and easier to shape your content layout.

Enhanced Data Views for Better Content Management

With WordPress 6.7, the Data Views feature has become even more powerful.

Originally introduced to help users manage content within the editor, Data Views now offer even more control and flexibility.

One of the biggest improvements we’ve noticed is the ability to reorder fields directly in the Data View settings.

This makes it so much easier to customize the display of content, letting you arrange information in a way that suits your needs.

We also found the updates to bulk actions to be a great addition. The bulk actions menu is now in the footer, combined with the sticky toolbar for a cleaner interface.

This small change really enhances usability, especially when you’re managing a lot of content at once.

Overall, these enhancements in Data Views simplify the process of organizing, filtering, and acting on content, giving users more power and productivity within the editor.

Improved Font Library and Typography Controls

WordPress 6.7 brings exciting updates to the ‘Styles’ interface, especially for customizing fonts. As we worked with the new tools, we found that font control is now more intuitive and flexible than ever.

One standout improvement is the addition of font size presets. These presets let you easily create and apply custom font sizes across your site.

It’s a real-time-saver, especially for users who want consistent typography without setting up sizes manually every time.

We’re also excited about the introduction of fluid typography.

This feature automatically adjusts text sizes based on the screen, keeping your content readable and responsive on any device.

The management of fonts has also improved with the new Font Library. Now, you can organize fonts by source and easily activate or deactivate multiple fonts at once.

For anyone managing a variety of custom fonts, this feature makes the process much simpler and more efficient.

New Additions and Improvements in Block Library and Patterns

WordPress 6.7 introduces a range of new features and enhancements to the block library and patterns, making it easier to create and customize layouts.

These changes, from updated block options to improved pattern designs, give users more flexibility and control over their content.

1. Background Image Support for Quote and Group Blocks

You can now add background images to the Quote and Group blocks. This feature makes it easy to add visual interest to your blog posts.

2. Improved Social Icons

The “Add New Icon” button is now easier to use, and you can add borders around the Social Icons block for a customized look.

3. Customizable Buttons Block

You can set a background color for the Buttons block, giving you more control over its appearance.

4. Enhanced Image Block

Now, when you drag and drop multiple images onto an Image block, it will automatically convert into a Gallery block.

5. Simplified Query Loop Block

Setting up a Query Loop block in the past required a lot of manual work. In WordPress 6.7, the Query Loop block inherits queries from the template by default.

This makes it much easier to display your posts automatically in the editor and on the front end.

6. New “Human-Diff” Date Format

Previously, users had to use a plugin to display relative dates in WordPress. This release adds it to the ‘Date’ block options as a format.

7. Toggle for “Choose A Pattern” Popup

When creating new pages, a pattern selector popup usually appears if the page content is empty. In WordPress 6.7, you can turn this popup on or off.

To do that, simply edit any page in WordPress. Now click on the three-dot menu at the top right corner of the screen and select ‘Preferences’.

In the block editor preferences, you will find the option under the General tab’s interface section. Simply toggle on/off the ‘Show starter patterns’ option.

Expanded Design Tools for More Blocks

WordPress 6.7 continues the effort to bring consistency to the design tools available across different blocks. This update introduces more ways to customize blocks, allowing for greater control over your site’s look and feel.

Some of the major updates include:

Border Controls: Many blocks, including Button, Columns, and Cover blocks, now allow you to customize border color, width, and style.

Background Image Support: The Quote and Group blocks now support background images, adding more visual interest to these blocks.

Writing Mode: The Site Title, Site Tagline, Verse, and Button blocks now offer a writing mode option, which lets you change text orientation for a unique layout.

These additions provide more flexibility when designing within the block editor, helping you create a consistent and visually appealing layout.

Managing Block Bindings in WordPress 6.7

The Block Binding API, first introduced in WordPress 6.5, gets a major update in WordPress 6.7. This update improves developers’ ability to manage custom fields and attributes within blocks.

One of the biggest changes is the new user interface (UI) that lets users create and manage bindings directly within the block editor.

You no longer need to use the Code Editor to link block attributes to custom fields. Instead, you can simply select metadata from the new UI in the block settings.

Preview Options API

WordPress 6.7 brings the new Preview Options API, which aims to help developers create better writing experiences for different types of content in the block editor.

The API will allow developers to add custom preview settings to the block editor. For instance, they can show users contextual options for the type of content they are editing.

In our testing, we found that this API allows for smoother workflows. It will be interesting to see how developers use the new API in their plugins and themes.

Interactivity API Enhancements

WordPress 6.7 includes updates to the Interactivity API, first introduced in WordPress 6.5. These enhancements make it easier for developers to manage asynchronous tasks.

This release makes the API more stable and efficient, supporting features like lazy loading and code splitting for faster performance.

Users can try it out by adding a Gallery block with a few images linked to ‘Expand on click’.

Then, preview your gallery in a browser tab and click on an image.

Images set to expand will show an ‘enlarge’ icon, and clicking on them opens them in a lightbox popup.

The updates improve the Interactivity API’s performance, and we expect more plugins and themes to use it for dynamic features in the future.

Media File Improvements in WordPress 6.7

If you’ve ever tried uploading photos directly from your iPhone, iPad, or other Apple devices, then you know HEIC files can be tricky to manage.

One of the big updates in WordPress 6.7 is support for HEIC image uploads. Now, your WordPress website will automatically convert HEIC images to JPEG for better compatibility across devices and browsers.

This feature does require your server to have Imagick installed with HEIC support, but most WordPress hosting providers already include this.

You can check if your website supports HEIC conversion by going to the Tools » Site Health page and switching to the ‘Info’ tab.

Scroll down to the Media Handling » ImageMagick supported file formats section and look for HEIC.

Our testing found that the image quality didn’t degrade during conversion, which is great for users who want to share high-quality photos.

WordPress will display the JPEG version of your image, but if you link to the attachment file, users can download the original HEIC image.

Another improvement we appreciated is the enhanced control over background images. You can now adjust background images globally and at the individual block level.

Lastly, WordPress 6.7 further refines lazy loading, helping boost performance by loading images only when needed.

These media updates improve compatibility and performance, making it easier to manage your content without technical hurdles.

Under the Hood Changes in WordPress 6.7

WordPress 6.7 brings a range of behind-the-scenes improvements focused on performance, stability, and new API features for developers.

These changes enhance the overall experience for both developers and site administrators:

• Block Hooks Updates: WordPress 6.7 enhances Block Hooks, providing more control over block placement and ensuring single-instance blocks stay unique within templates. (Details)
• Improved iFraming for Block Editor: This release includes iframe support in the post editor, giving users a more accurate preview of their content on a live site, even when meta boxes are present. (Details)
• Editor Components Updates: Various updates to editor components to enhance dropdown menus, spacing controls, time pickers, and overall layout consistency, creating a smoother editing experience. (Details)
• PHP 8.x Compatibility: This release includes additional refinements for PHP 8.x support, removing outdated code specific to older PHP versions and ensuring compatibility with modern PHP environments. (Core Trac: #59654)
• Template Registration API: A new API simplifies template and template part registration, removing the need for filters and making it easier for plugins to handle custom templates. Learn more about the API.
• Script Loader Enhancements: Obsolete polyfills, including wp-polyfill and regenerator-runtime, have been removed, reducing unnecessary script dependencies for modern browsers. (Core Trac: #60962)

We hope this article gave you a helpful look at the new features in WordPress 6.7. As you explore the new tools, you might also want to check out our ultimate WordPress toolkit for pros or see our complete WordPress security guide to keep your WordPress site safe.

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The post What’s New in WordPress 6.7 (Features and Screenshots) first appeared on WPBeginner.