Photo by Brianmcmillen

WordPress 4.8 is now available. This is the first major WordPress update in 2017!

WordPress comes out with major updates a few times every year to add new features, improve performance, and more. WordPress 4.8 is nicknamed “Evans,” honoring jazz pianist and composer William John “Bill” Evans.

The WordPress 4.7 is a “major” update (ie. It’s not a minor security update.). You will most likely need to do your update manually by logging into your WordPress admin panel. (Please note some hosting companies may handle it on their end.)

Not familiar with updating WordPress? Check out my easy-to-follow step by step guide and video on How to Update WordPress to the Latest Version.

Here are the Highlights of WordPress 4.8

4 New & Updated Widgets

1. Image Widget

Gone are the days when you had to use some codes or plugin to insert an image in the widget area. With this simple Image Widget, you can now insert an image easily without any coding.

2. Video Widget

With the new Video Widget, you can add any video from your Media Library to the widget area of your site. Pretty simple.

3. Audio Widget

Just like the Video Widget, the Audio Widget lets you put an audio player in the widget area with any audio in your Media Library.

4. Text Widget with Rich-Text Editor

The text editor is so much easier to use now with rich-text editing capabilities! You can now format the text in the Text Editer with formatting tool buttons. (Again, no more having to deal with codes!)

 

Link Boundaries

Have you tried editing a link, only to end up messing up exactly which part of the text should be hyperlinked? The new Link Boundaries feature will help you visually identify the start and the end of a link.

Fun Nearby WordPress Events

This new section in the WordPress Admin Dashboard lets you know about the upcoming WordPress-related events. WordCamps and WordPress Meetups provide wonderful opportunities to learn more about WordPress (at all levels). Find if there is any WordPress event coming to your area that you might want to attend.

 

Customizer Sidebar is Now Responsive

The sidebar of the Customizer had a fixed width regardless of the screen size. It worked fine if you are using a standard size screen, but not well especially for high-resolution/widescreen display users. They solved this problem by making the Customer Sidebar responsive. The sidebar width is now between 300px and 600px, depending on the screen width. 

You can also read more about WordPress 4.8, from the official WordPress.org’s blog post here.

Are you ready to update your WordPress site to WordPress 4.8?

If you are not comfortable updating your WordPress, and you would like some hand holding on updating your site, check out my step by step guide and video on How to Update WordPress to the Latest Version.

 

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