WordPress 6.2, named “Dolphy” in honour of the woodwind jazz wiz, and multi-instrumentalist, Eric Allan Dolphy Jr, was released back in March. It’s available for download from WordPress.org or you can update in your WordPress dashboard.
This latest update sees more work on the Full Site Editor, improved menu management using the Navigation Block, and new Settings and Styles tabs in the Settings Sidebar. Along with general Block Editor updates, there's also performance increases for Block Themes.
Redesigned Full Site Editor
The Full Site Editor (Appearance > Editor) has been given a small redesign. Rather than jumping straight into the editor when clicking on a template, you're now shown a preview of that template (or template part). This allows you to ensure that you're editing the correct template.
It's worth reminding you that you will need a theme that is specifically built for use with the Full Site Editor (FSE), before you're able to use the FSE. If you don't have a theme that is built to use the FSE, you won't see the Appearance > Editor menu within the Dashboard.
Easier Menu Management
I think everyone can agree that managing menus within the Navigation Block, isn't the easiest thing to do. Thankfully, this has been improved in WordPress 6.2. You can now add and edit your menu items from within the settings sidebar. While the UI still isn't as user friendly as the original “Classic” menus edit screen, it is a significant improvement from trying to edit the menu within the Navigation Block itself.
Block Inserter Redesign
A redesign of the Block Inserter now allows you to browse all your media files. This means you can now quickly drag and drop content from your Media Library, straight into your content, from the Block Inserter.
Block Controls redesign
The controls within the Settings sidebar, for a number of blocks, have changed so that they are now separated into individual Settings and Styles tabs. Unfortunately though, this hasn't been done for every single block, making it a little inconsistent when editing your blocks across your site.
When you're editing a Block, if you don't see all the controls that you previously saw, look for the Settings icon (
) and the Styles Icon (
) in the Settings Sidebar, after you've clicked on a block.
Performance Improvements
WP 6.2 also includes some performance improvements. The load times for block themes has been improved 14% to 18%, and for classic themes, there's a 2% to 5% speed increase. Server-side performance has also been improved for both Block themes and Classic themes as well.
Latest Guide Updates
In this latest version of the guide there's new images for every single block, reflecting the UI changes in the Dashboard. There's also updated descriptions, for new blocks and a significant number of existing blocks, to help better describe their usage. All these updates ensure that what you see in the guide is exactly what you see when using WordPress. I hope that you'll find this update makes it easier for you, or your clients, to work with WordPress.
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 always read it online.
