WordPress 6.6 Features

More Useful and Previewed Site Editor

Note: I was using the word Pattern in the newsletters, but this word is now defined as Model. That’s why I won’t use the word pattern anymore.

A structure where changes made to the site can be instantly visible is undoubtedly a feature that will make the work of WordPress users easier.

You can manage the model quickly and with as few clicks as possible. Likewise, navigation and bulk editing of pages are also possible with the new site editor. You can see the changes you make on the site directly in the site editor without opening them in a new tab.

More Useful Content Publishing Section

The content publishing section, which we used in parts before WordPress 6.6, has been made more compact and made available for use. The most important feature that caught my attention here is that the featured visual addition is located right under the title. In previous versions, doing this by opening the accordion seemed a bit ridiculous.

Overwriting-synchronized Patterns and Blocks

I understood the logic of the patterns in detail in WordPress Bulletin Issue 8. We can turn the overwriting feature on or off specifically per block or pattern.

As shown in the video, let’s say you have a hero block. You use this hero synchronously in many parts of your site, but you want to overwrite the structure on a special page and make changes specific to that page only. In this case, you can overwrite the synchronized feature of the hero block and make the change and edit the same block specifically there.

Creating Site Background from Images

Again, a feature that users who do not know how to code have been able to do with additional plug-ins is included in the core with WordPress 6.6. With this feature, you can upload an image you specify to the background of your site. This is a development that can be used for both design and advertising work. Of course, adding the image to the stem might not be very elegant, so you can also determine the position, scale and whether the image you upload should repeat or not.

Determining Negative Margin

With this new feature, as you can see in the video, you can make design changes within the site by giving negative margin to any object. A truly significant design improvement. In this way, you can make edits specifically to the background or the image next to it, as if you were working in Photoshop.

New Grid Structure

A great job has been achieved by integrating the grid structure, which you can normally create with additional library or plug-in support, into the Gutenberg editor. As we see in the example you can watch in the video below, we can easily create grid structures with different widths and features. Really big job.

Ready and Custom Shadow Options

Another nice feature included in the Gutenberg editor with WordPress 6.6 is the shadow options that we can set either predefined or custom. For example, you have a block and you want to add a shadow to this box. You can create your shading using ready-made or custom values from the Style section.

Special Style Arrangement for Sections

With this feature, which turns the Gutenberg editor into a monster in itself, you can make style edits for each section independently. This means you can make arrangements with unlimited variations.

Social Network Icons Block Updated

With WordPress 6.6, the Social Network Icons block has moved from the direct ul structure to the ul li structure with a new arrangement. In addition, the class of each network name was also included in this structure.

The Old Building Was Like This

<ul class="wp-block-navigation__container wp-block-navigation">
  <ul class="wp-block-social-links is-layout-flex wp-block-social-links-is-layout-flex">
  </ul>
</ul>

This is what happened in the new structure

<ul class="wp-block-navigation__container wp-block-navigation">
  <li class="wp-block-navigation-item">
    <ul class="wp-block-social-links is-layout-flex wp-block-social-links-is-layout-flex">
    </ul>
  </li>
</ul>

Theme.json has moved to the 3rd version

Theme.json file, which we can consider as the brain of Gutenberg themes, can accept two important parameters with its 3rd version. The first of these is fontSizes. With this parameter, you can specifically define the font sizes of your theme, as shown in the example below.

--- theme.json v2
+++ theme.json v3
@@ -1,24 +1,25 @@
 {
-   "version": 2,
+   "version": 3,
    "settings": {
        "typography": {
+           "defaultFontSizes": false,
            "fontSizes": [
                {
                    "name": "Small",
                    "slug": "small",
                    "size": "10px"
                },
                {
                    "name": "Medium",
                    "slug": "medium",
                    "size": "14px"
                },
                {
                    "name": "Large",
                    "slug": "large",
                    "size": "20px"
                }
            ]
        }
    }
 }

Another important parameter is spacingSizes. With this parameter, you can define spacing specifically, just like font sizes, as you can see in the example below.

--- theme.json v2
+++ theme.json v3
@@ -1,27 +1,25 @@
 {
-   "version": 2,
+   "version": 3,
    "settings": {
        "spacing": {
-           "spacingScale": {
-               "steps": 0
-           },
+           "defaultSpacingSizes": false,
            "spacingSizes": [
                {
                    "name": "Small",
                    "slug": "40",
                    "size": "1rem"
                },
                {
                    "name": "Medium",
                    "slug": "50",
                    "size": "1.5rem"
                },
                {
                    "name": "Large",
                    "slug": "60",
                    "size": "2rem"
                }
            ]
        }
    }
 }

Turning Automatic Recording Feature Off and On

As you know, WordPress has had a smart editor since its first versions, and with these editors it automatically saves the text you write in case you close the page or have a problem with your computer. This registration process is of course kept in the database in versions, and on sites with very high content, these records can negatively affect performance. In order to prevent this situation, with WordPress 6.6, you can turn off and on the automatic recording feature for all your content, including special content types. To do this, simply turn off autosave support to false for your specific content type.

function register_custom_post_type() {
    $args = array(
        'label' => 'Portfolio',
        'public' => true,
        'supports' => array('title', 'editor', 'thumbnail', 'autosave' => false),
    );
    register_post_type('portfolio', $args);
}

add_action('init', 'register_custom_post_type');

If you are determining custom content with an additional plugin such as ACF, as of today, ACF does not have an update that covers this feature. I’m sure they will soon release an update where you can turn the relevant feature off and on.

Models Link Added to Site Editor

Models link added to the site editor menu, you can edit the existing models on your site or add new ones.

Yes, these are the features I can gather for now. If you would like to get more and detailed information about WordPress 6.6 Dorsey, you can access it here.