What WordPress 4.0 Has To Offer Us

With WordPress 4.0 being released on September 4th, I decided to write a quick ’round-up’ type post mentioning the latest features. This latest version was given the name “Benny” after the famous jazz musician Benny Goodman. Whilst these new features are by no means groundbreaking, they add to WordPress’s already extensive list of features.

Multi-language installation

WordPress now presents you with a drop-down language selector box at the beginning of the installation process. Though this isn’t a major feature, it does make the installation process much more accessible right from the start, making it suitable for people who can’t understand English.

Media Library Improvements

The Media Library now has a grid view which allows you to view all uploaded media (pictures, videos etc.), similar to the view you would get if you clicked ‘Add Media’ within a WordPress post or page.

Content Editor Improvements

As you scroll down the page, the editing buttons will ‘stick’ to the top of the screen, saving you from having to scroll back up if you need to make an edit. The TinyMCE update (mentioned further down) also brings a few minor updates too.

oEmbed Previews

For added ‘preview-ability’, WordPress now displays previews of embedded media such as videos using oEmbed code. oEmbed is supported by a number of sites, including:

• CollegeHumor
• YouTube (Playlists)
• Mixcloud
• Polldaddy Short URLs
• TED Talks

Simply paste in the URL of the talk into the HTML editor as shown below:

Then if you change to the visual editor, you’ll see a live preview of how the video will look embedded on the page.

Improved Plugin Browsing and Installation Experience

Image thumbnails have now been introduced into the plugins area, making the whole experience more interesting.

As a result, WordPress plugin creators should make sure their plugin has a high-quality image to help it stand out when users are searching for a suitable plugin to use on their WordPress site.

You can also search for Beta plugins.

Updated Libraries

Lastly, three libraries used by WordPress have been updated in this release:

• jQuery 1.11.1
• TinyMCE 4.1.3
• MediaElement 2.15

How to Update To WordPress 4.0

To update, simply hit Update in the yellow banner. Do be sure to create a full site backup, including your database, before going ahead with any WordPress upgrade.