WordPress 6.0 beta 1

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WordPress 6.0 Beta 1 was released on April 12, 2022. Alpha, beta and RC versions should not be installed on online sites, only in test environments. The final version of WordPress is still a good 5 weeks away (probably May 24, 2022), so there is still plenty of time for extensive testing to identify and fix as many bugs and incompatibilities as possible before release. There are three ways to test WordPress 6.0 Beta 1:

  1. Using the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (here select the “Bleeding Edge” channel and the “Beta/RC only” stream)
  2. By directly downloading and installing the Beta 1 file as a ZIP,
  3. Using WP-CLI with the following command wp core update --version=6.0-beta1. This option should only be used on case-sensitive file systems.

more details

Details on the full 6.0 release cycle are available here. Stay tuned to the Make WordPress Core blog in the coming weeks for 6.0 development notes detailing all the upcoming changes.

Testing

For anyone who has never beta tested before, the WordPress core team has written a detailed guide (in English), but it’s also a good guide for anyone who wants to test, as it also specifically covers the testing requirements for the upcoming 6.0. Those interested in learning more about such trials can read posts on the Make WordPress Test site and join a public channel in the Making WordPress Slack workspace. To discover all the changes and features in Gutenberg versions since WordPress 5.9, read Gutenberg News 13.0, 12.9, 12.8, 12.7, 12.6, 12.5, 12.4, 12.3, 12.2, 12.01 and 1. In addition to these changes, which include more than 400 editor updates and 500 bug fixes, contributors have closed 189 tickets for WordPress core 6.0, including 91 new features and improvements.

Some of the innovations

WordPress version 6.0 will have many updates and changes, here are some of them:

  • style change: You can change the look of your website within a single block theme without switching to another theme.
  • Additional template options: Using blocks to edit five more templates (author, date, categories, tag and taxonomy).
  • multiple selection: Select text in multiple blocks and edit as you wish.
  • save styles: Keep your custom styles, whether you’re switching between blocks or creating new buttons.
  • More templates in other places: The Quick Inserter displays situationally appropriate templates and inserts appropriate templates for the parts and pages you are working with.
  • List view improvements: new hotkeys (Shift + Click) allow you to select multiple blocks to change them as a whole (move, delete, etc.), view content at a glance using the default collapsed view, and perform other actions.
  • Advanced design tools: discover a new color panel, transparency options, more variants of group blocks to create new layout options (stack, row), the ability to insert a featured image into the cover block, control the exact size of the featured image, Gap support for the Block gallery and more.
  • New blocks: Comments, Read more, No results in query loop, Author biography, Avatar blocks.
  • Locking UI: the ability to remove, move, or both blocks directly in the editor can be disabled.
  • Export block themes: A new block theme export tool has been enhanced to allow WordPress to create visual block themes without code.
  • Web Fonts API: Local font management using PHP or theme.json.