The next major itineration of WordPress, version 5.4, released to the public on March 31, 2020. With 122 new features and 210 bug fixes, it brought about several major changes. What’s new in WordPress 5.4?
Gutenberg editor improvements
The first change you’ll notice in WordPress 5.4 is the addition of a new Social Icons block in the editor. Several additions have been made to the Button block as well. Buttons now support icons and gradient backgrounds.
Other changes and additions came to Gutenberg as well. The editor loads 14% faster. It also loads in fullscreen by default. You can also now create collections of blocks to make it easier for plugins to add groups of blocks. The Latest Posts block also supports featured images.
When you first use the Gutenberg editor, a new “Welcome to the Block Editor” popup dialog appears to help you better learn how to use it effectively.
Other minor changes
WordPress 5.4 also includes quite a few minor changes:
- Most notably, TikTok posts can now be embedded in a post or page simply by inserting the link. TikTok is the latest addition to 14 other sites you can embed with only a link.
- On mobile, the toolbar now stays at the top of the screen if you scroll down.
- You can choose background and text colors for all blocks inside of a group block or for a columns block.
- You can also change the text color for only part of a block.
- Table blocks now support captions.
- The Latest Posts block now supports featured images.
WordPress 5.4 also includes several developer-focused and under-the-hood improvements, as well as other improvements that are not listed here. Read the WordPress 5.4 Field Guide for a complete change log.
Released on March 31, 2020, WordPress 5.4 is the latest major update to WordPress. As such, it will not automatically install, so be sure to log into your site to update it if you haven’t already. The next major WordPress release, WordPress 5.5, is expected to release on August 11, 2020.
