Yesterday saw the release of the newest version of WordPress – 4.2, also known as ‘Powell’, after the jazz pianist Bud Powell. There have been plenty of rumours about the new features and changes that we’d see in 4.2, and the official release posts confirms that the main emphasis has been on features that will help users communicate and share content, globally.
A new and improved Press This function allows us to ‘clip it, edit it, publish it’ easier than ever before. Install Press This on your browser or mobile device and share content whenever and wherever. ‘Sharing your favourite videos, images, and content has never been this fast or this easy.’
Increasing WordPress’ global reach, extended character support is a big feature of 4.2, so you can get the most out of WordPress, whatever your language. Native Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters are supported right out-of-the-box, as well as musical and mathematical symbols, and hieroglyphs.
Other changes include the ability to browse and preview themes from the Customiser, so you can check a new theme suits your content before you roll it out on your live site. Paste links to Tumblr and Kickstarter posts and they’ll come to life in the editor, and say goodbye to boring loading screens and welcome simple plugin updates.
Further technical improvements have been made, including utf8mb4 support, increased JavaScript accessibility and complex ordering now being supported by WP_Query, WP_Comment_Query and WP_User_Query.
A whopping 283 contributors (a new high!) were involved in the release, which was led by Drew Jaynes.
