The new WordPress release 4.2.1 is now available. WordPress 4.2 is nicknamed “Powell” in honor of jazz pianist, Bud Powell.

Since 4.2 is considered a major update (ie. not a minor security update), you might need to manually run an update on your WordPress sites unless you have a hosting account that handles it for you. If you are not sure how to update your WordPress, refer to this step by step article.

This Short Video to Shows You Highlights of WordPress 4.2

Preview Your Site with Different Themes

Have you ever wondered what your site will look like with a different theme that you already have?  With WordPress 4.2, you can preview what your website will look like with a different theme right in the Appearance – Customize screen without having to make that theme active.

theme-preview
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Improved Press This

“Press This” tool (available in your Tools menu in the WordPress Admin panel) has always been a not-so-obvious convenient tool for people to quickly create and publish a blog post. Now, you can use Press This to easily grab the content of a web page you visit and repost it to your own blog to share. It grabs images and videos, too! If you see something you just can’t wait to share with others via your blog, this can be such a handy tool.

press-this
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Emoji and More Foreign/Special Characters are Now Available

Emojis are fun. ✨

People use them all the time when texting on mobile devices, but WordPress wasn’t supporting them… until now. With WordPress 4.2, you can use emojis in pages and posts.  Big smiles here 🙂 😀

Also, the character options for special characters and foreign languages have increased with this release. A big sign that the WordPress users are still increasing all over the world.

One-click Plugin Update

You can update plugins more quickly with WordPress 4.2. When you click on the “update now” link, the update will be done right on the same page. You’ll simply see the “Updated!” message right in the same plugin area. Easier and faster!

plugin-update
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At WordCamp San Diego that I recently attended as a speaker, Andrew Nacin, a Lead Developer of WordPress shared some exciting updates are yet to come with WordPress updates this year. I just love that WordPress keeps adding new features to make things easier for the users!

Curious if there is any feature you’d like to see in the future releases. Please share in the comment section below.