The latest and greatest version of WordPress was released a few weeks ago. Named “Pepper” in honour of jazz baritone saxophonist Park Frederick “Pepper” Adams III, it’s available for download from WordPress.org or you can update in your WordPress dashboard. As is usual, whenever a major version of WordPress is released I also update the Easy WP Guide to include all the new features and changes.
Streamlined Updates
WordPress 4.6 provides a simpler workflow when adding and activating themes and plugins on your site. Everything is now completed on the one screen, rather than across multiple.
Native Fonts
The Dashboard now uses native system fonts, rather than using the Open Sans web font making it load faster.
Inline Link Checker
When adding content now, the Visual Editor will let you know if you mistype a URL when adding a link. With the built in Inline Link Checker, WordPress will validate that the URL you enter is formed correctly. If you make a mistake with the URL, such as adding a space in the middle of it, WordPress will highlight the link with a red dotted outline.
Content Recovery
Content drafts are now saved locally to your browser in the event that you lose your internet connection. When you return to edit your page, WordPress will let you know if there's a more recent version of your content saved locally.
Additional Features
Behind the scenes, both the Meta Registration API and the Customizer API have been updated and improved and standard JavaScript libraries like Masonry, MediaElement and Backbone have been updated, along with a few others. If you run a Multisite network, you should also find significant speed improvements in your network admin experience due site query improvements.
Latest Guide Updates
With this latest version of the Easy WP Guide, every single screenshot has been updated making sure that what you see in the guide is exactly what you see when using your Dashboard.
Head on over to the download page to download the latest version of the Easy WP Guide, or if you want to get stuck straight into it, you can read it online.
