WordPress 6.2 “Dolphy”has been available since April 5, 2023, and brings a host of new features and improvements.
WordPress 6.2 is a major step forward, with over 900 optimizations and bug fixes. This latest version introduces many evolutions such as better navigation blocks, a more pleasant experience of the block insertion tool, an improved interface for Full Site Editing (FSE) with block settings, new ready-to-use headers and footers, a distraction-free mode, and much more.
All these features offer even more control, flexibility and customization options for your website. We’ve tested all these new features for you. Let’s explore them together!
A new default theme: Twenty Twenty-Three
This modern, elegant theme, adaptable to all types of sites, features a minimalist design, with bright colors and varied typography. Focused on speed and accessibility, it’s a very clean theme that comes with ten global style variations. Each variation has its own color and font combination.
It’s based on the Gutenberg block system, so you can easily customize your site with the new WordPress editor. This means you can create original, dynamic layouts with all the blocks available.
Full Site Editing out of beta for enhanced site creation
As a reminder, Full Site Editing is the ability to edit the entire look and feel of your site directly via WordPress administration. To use it, of course, you need an FSE-compatible theme like Twenty Twenty-Three. Other compatible themes can be found here on the WordPress Repository.
One of the great new features of WordPress 6.2 is the site editor, which lets you modify the entire structure of your site, using templates. You can access all the templates and parts of templates in your theme, and customize them with the blocks of your choice.
Select templates and modify them with preview
From this screen, you can build your site using the various templates (home page, blog post, archive page…) and template elements (header, footer…). You can modify all parts of your theme, so you can build the site that suits your needs.
Choose the template you want to edit, then click on the “Modify” button to start working on the selected template.
Once you’ve finished working on the template, don’t forget to save it by clicking on the “Save” button to save your changes.
To continue building your theme, click on the “WordPress” logo in the top left-hand corner of the screen to return to the template browser sidebar and continue with another template. Or if you’re done, simply click on the “WordPress” logo again to exit the site editor and return to your dashboard.
Color framing of template elements and reusable blocks
Template elements are global elements found throughout the site, such as headers and footers. If you modify these templates, your changes will be reproduced throughout the entire site. The same applies to reusable blocks: if you change their appearance, this modification will be reflected in all the places on your site where you have used them.
In WordPress 6.2, we’ve made it easy to identify global elements. Now all these elements are easily identifiable because they’re highlighted with a different color frame from the other blocks, so there’s no way to get confused 🙂 .
This differentiation is done in both the site editor and the page editor.
Stylize your theme or specific blocks with custom CSS
Until now, you could add custom CSS for your entire site via the customizer or stylesheet of your child theme. Now, with an FSE theme, you can save the CSS that applies to your entire theme directly from the site editor.
On the other hand, we regret that CSS insertion doesn’t include the syntax coloring and suggestions that existed in the customizer. We very much hope that this additional CSS insertion text field will be further improved!
And the icing on the cake 😍 you can also add custom CSS for each of your WordPress blocks. Want all your images to look the same every time you insert them into your post?
Nothing could be simpler: still in the same “Style” panel , click on the Blocks menu (1) under the basic style settings. Choose the block you wish to modify and open the “Additional CSS block” tab (3). Now all you have to do is style it to your liking.
Modify your entire theme with the style guide
Another exciting new feature is the Style Book.
With the Style Book, WordPress lets you modify each block style in an interface that brings together all the blocks in your theme. You’ll be able to modify all the blocks you want to create your own personalized theme. All your modifications will apply globally to your theme, so you won’t need to modify the block every time you use it on your site.
To access the “Style Guide”, go to the “Styles” panel by clicking on the icon (1), then click on the “Style Guide” eye icon (2). You’ll then have access to all blocks organized by genre in tabs (3).
Now all you have to do is modify the block you’ve selected, as described in the previous paragraph. The Style Book helps you to create a consistent visual identity for your entire site, and to harmonize the appearance of your different blocks.
New distraction-free mode
WordPress 6.2 introduces a new distraction-free editing mode, so you can concentrate on creating your content. Distraction-free mode makes all side columns and top toolbars disappear, so you can focus your attention solely on your content.
To activate distraction-free mode, click on the three dots in the top right-hand corner to open the options panel. You can also combine it with full-screen mode to make the WordPress interface disappear completely.
This is a visualization we frequently use when proofreading an article before publishing it. Focusing solely on the content allows us to concentrate on the essentials. Handy for correcting spelling mistakes!
To exit this viewing mode, simply bring your mouse to the top of the screen, and the basic settings will be displayed, allowing you to return to the classic mode.
New sub-panels for settings and block styles
WordPress 6.2 separates block settings into 2 sub-panels for settings and styles. With WordPress 6.1, all settings were grouped together in the same panel within tabs, as we explained here in this guide to adding images to your posts. To help users better understand where the controls for modifying blocks are located, WordPress 6.2 has separated the types of settings into two sub-panels.
Copy and paste block styles
A handy new feature, already available in some Gutenberg block plugins like Spectra or Elementor, has finally arrived in native WordPress blocks: copy and paste styles!
No need to duplicate an element or reproduce styles every time you customize a block for your layout. This saves time, even if copying and pasting is less straightforward than with Spectra or Elementor. In fact, you still have to open the options in the block toolbar to access them, whereas with Spectra the command is directly accessible from the toolbar (an idea for a future editor?).
Openverse image library integration
Openverse is a project that provides access to open license or public domain images for free use by all.
WordPress 6.2 has integrated this library directly into the block insertion tool. You can now access it via the “Media” tab in the block insertion sidebar. Search for an image to illustrate your content and choose from the thumbnails provided. You can insert your image by dragging and dropping, or simply click on it to add it to your article. The image will also be uploaded to your WordPress media library.
We advise you to search in English for best results.
Improved composition insertion
WordPress offers a collection of pre-designed block compostions (Patterns) that you can use to more easily create custom layouts. There are even more in the WordPress Template Directory, which you can simply copy and paste into your site.
Document structure and list view panels merged
These panels already existed separately, but now you’ll find them grouped together in a single panel. As a reminder, the “List view” panel lets you see which blocks make up your page, while the “Structure” panel gives you the details of the document: the outline with titles and paragraphs, the number of words, the number of characters and the estimated reading time.
Our review of WordPress 6.2 “Dolphy
Packed with all kinds of new features, WordPress 6.2 brings a host of improvements to your WordPress site. Perfected design tools for Full Site Editing, extended capabilities for blocks that have been enriched with new options and functionalities. It’s all good stuff (or almost 😉 ), and of course there’s more to come in future versions. We can’t wait to see what surprises WordPress has in store for us in the next version. In the meantime, we invite you to explore and experiment with this latest version, which holds many new discoveries and editing experiences in store for you.
