In Episode 127 of the GT Changelog podcast, Birgit Pauli-Haack and Jessica Lyschik dive deep into the upcoming release of WordPress 7.0, focusing on the features arriving with beta 2 and their impact on users and developers. They begin by emphasizing the importance of testing betas, especially for plugin and theme creators, highlighting how early testing helps prevent compatibility issues at launch. A walk-through of the beta testing process, tools like the beta tester plugin, and considerations for time zone differences during the official release (scheduled for April 9th) are discussed.<\/p>\n
The majority of their conversation centers around the headline features of WordPress 7.0. Real-time collaboration steals the spotlight, now allowing multiple users to edit posts and pages simultaneously\u2014streamlining workflows and minimizing version conflicts. The episode also celebrates the introduction of visual revisions within the block editor, making change tracking clearer and more intuitive. Other notable updates include responsive block visibility controls, enhanced navigation and submenu options, improved lightbox support for gallery blocks, and the long-awaited introduction of the icon and breadcrumbs blocks.<\/p>\n
Birgit Pauli-Haack and Jessica Lyschik also discuss the new content-only pattern editing feature, revamped backend color schemes, and incremental improvements for both end-users and developers, such as the font library UI and under-the-hood advances. They note that some planned features, like the playlist and tabs blocks, did not make the cut for 7.0 but might arrive in future releases. The episode ends with practical advice: test your sites early and stay informed to ensure a seamless transition to WordPress 7.0.<\/p>\n
Show Notes<\/a> \/ Transcript<\/a><\/p>\n Show Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n Stay in Touch<\/p>\n Transcript<\/strong><\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack:<\/em> So welcome to our 127th episode of the Gutenberg Changelog podcast. In today\u2019s episode, we will talk mostly about WordPress 7.0 because Beta 2 has been out and a little bit about Gutenberg 22.6, but most of what\u2019s in that release is actually coming to WordPress 7.0. <\/p>\n I\u2019m your host, Birgit Pauli-Haack, curator at the Gutenberg Times and a full-time core contributor for the WordPress open source project, sponsored by Automattic. And today, Jessica Lyschik is with me on the show again, and we will tackle most of the WordPress 7.0 updates. Jessica is a core contributor to WordPress, default theme co-lead for Twenty Twenty-Four, speed building champion Twenty Twenty-Five, and works as a senior developer for Grade, a company building WordPress products for agencies and large companies. And Jessica is a regular host on the Grade Conversations to be found on YouTube. How are you today, Jessica? Welcome to the show again.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik:<\/em> Thanks for having me. I\u2019m good. I\u2019m good. I mean, the sun is shining outside, so I\u2019m expecting hopefully a nice workday today and then catch some sun rays because it\u2019s been a long winter here. Yeah, it\u2019s been very cold, very moody, cloudy. So the sun is very nice. Having some sunshine is a very nice change.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack:<\/em> Yeah, I was walking the streets of Munich the other day and I saw the little plants kind of coming out, crocuses and whites and yellow. So spring is coming.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik: <\/em>Definitely, definitely.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack: <\/em>And it\u2019s\u2014 I actually saw a sunrise at 6:30 in the morning. So the days are getting longer too, which is part of my mood changing thing. Yeah. <\/p>\n So WordPress 7.0 comes in big steps and WordPress 7.0 Beta 2 was released just yesterday and we\u2019re recording this on February 27th. So let\u2019s go through the list of things that actually made it into 7.0. I\u2019m also sharing in the show notes, not only the list, but also a link to the help test WordPress 7.0 that the test team has put together with some nice instructions and videos on how things are supposed to work. And you have to\u2014 can go in and test if they\u2019re actually working like that or if something else is breaking. And you ask dear listeners to help do that. I also always kind of say, the best way to learn what\u2019s in WordPress 7.0 is to heed to the call of testing, because that\u2019s the first step to learn what\u2019s working for you, what works with your sites and with your plugins. And it will be really helpful to know this before the release comes out. So if you just follow the instructions on how to present feedback and bug reports. Your team has started testing. <\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: When you have a plugin and you do not look at the Beta versions or release candidates and suddenly the release date rolls around and you\u2019re not prepared and clients update their websites and then they say, hey, my site\u2019s broken, then you\u2019re in trouble. So avoid that as best as possible. That\u2019s why I\u2019m glad that we have Beta phase and release candidate phase so we can like really have a closer look. And it\u2019s so easy with the Beta tester plugin. To be honest, that\u2019s still the one way I\u2019m using it, just installing the plugin. I configure the default configuration a little bit differently only to show me Beta and release candidates versions. And then it\u2019s just hit update and go for it with whatever installation you have at the moment. So that\u2019s actually, I find this to be one of the easiest ways without needing to have big technical knowledge about that. Of course there\u2019s WP CLI, there\u2019s many other ways you can achieve that, but for me, this is probably the easiest and can be thrown on any installation, local or online, probably not live sites, but any staging or testing environment that you have.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: So exactly. And it\u2019s a good point. Don\u2019t test this on a live site.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: Yeah. Things can break. I mean, that\u2019s why it\u2019s called a Beta version or release candidate. Things are supposed to break. I spotted an issue this morning with something, not a big issue, but it is an issue. So we have to look into this, but we still have time. How long are we away? 6 weeks, I think about 6 weeks.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: So yeah, April 9th is the final release date. So we are a little bit 5 weeks more than 6 weeks.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: Yeah.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: And it will be, I just saw the note, will be released during Contributor Day at WordCamp Asia. So some of the release squad members will be in Mumbai to hit the big button. But of course, it\u2019s all remotely and you can do it from anywhere. So it doesn\u2019t really matter where the release squad is. The only thing that might screw it a little bit, skew it, not screw it, skew it a little bit is the time difference between where the other release squad members are and the ones in Mumbai. But for Europe, it\u2019s a 3.5-hour time difference. So it\u2019s not that big of a deal. You just need to organize it.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: Yeah, usually they are fast in Europe, their releases are in the evening. So something around 7 PM, 8 PM sometime. It depends on when the dates are announced and the times. So it will be a bit earlier for us in the day, but still like afternoon-ish. So not in the middle of the night. So, but of course, if you move further to US time zones, like East Coast, West Coast is particularly early for them, I guess. If it\u2019s fun, it could be like early morning for them.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: Yeah, could be in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: Oh no, no, we have to, we have to think backwards. It will be like, I don\u2019t know, but is it like in the afternoon on the 9th? Do you know more details about that?<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: I was looking for the release party. Post, but I haven\u2019t seen it.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: I mean, there\u2019s an overview post somewhere.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: Yeah. I remember that. Yeah. On the Make blog. Definitely. I\u2019m just looking at it when the release party schedule is.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: I\u2019ll see if, uh, there\u2019s only a date so far on the, on the overview.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: Yeah.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: Yeah.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: Yeah. Beta release was about 3 PM UTC. So that\u2019s 4 o\u2019clock in the afternoon in Europe. -9, that\u2019s about 7 o\u2019clock in the morning.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: It\u2019s early morning. Yeah.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: In Pacific time. Yeah. So about that time. Yeah. I\u2019ll get a better look at that when we get closer to see when they actually schedule the release parties. But it\u2019s always great fun to be in the core channel to kind of see it coming together.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: Yeah.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: Yeah. So that\u2019s about the process. April 9th, we mentioned it, is the release. We have release candidate. So Beta is the feature freeze. So after that, only bug fixes are going to be merged into core. Release candidate 1 is on March 19th, and that is considered a string freeze. There will be release candidate 1, 2, and 3, and only things that are\u2014 don\u2019t have a string. Well, the reason why they do string freeze is because then the translator can start translating the version or the new strings into their respective languages. And to give them about 3 weeks to 4 weeks is a good number. But when you don\u2019t do string freeze, then they have to start all over again when the new version comes out.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: So many things change. I mean, things will change. Maybe there\u2019s always the thing that a bug appears and maybe strings have to be changed. So there\u2019s always some moving parts, but it is way much reduced if you would just, if you\u2019re stopping to actually make massive changes so people can catch up with things and then when it\u2019s just a few more strings that need to be adjusted or retranslated, then it\u2019s not like 500 new strings, but only 5 the day before the release. So yeah, it makes total sense. I mean, it has worked great over the past many years that we\u2019ve been doing this like that.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: Absolutely. Yeah. So now with all the talk about the release, what\u2019s actually going to be in WordPress 7.0? And there have been quite a few. So there was a roadmap and then there were these tracking issues that are on the Gutenberg repo. So there is not a whole lot of mystery behind what\u2019s coming, but we definitely should talk through that. And one of the biggest features is the real-time collaboration. So now the message that somebody else is editing your post will go away, or it will still be there, but you still can access the post and then you can see who else is working on the post. And you can have more than one person in the post or in the page to actually edit that and not get into trouble with losing content. So that\u2019s a feature that has been a long time coming. And it\u2019s also something that has been tested already in the enterprise section for, I think, a little over a year or half a year since August last year. So, and now it comes to WordPress core. So it\u2019s really cool. I\u2019ve, I like it.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: I have not seen it in action yet because I mostly work on things where it\u2019s only me and rarely anyone else, but I\u2019ve seen the notes feature. This is like the kind of site quest, if you will, which has been already around since 6.9, if I remember correctly.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: Right.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: But yeah, I\u2019ve just opened the GitHub issue around it that is linked in the testing post. And it\u2019s quite interesting. It will be interesting to see. I think we have to spin up a session with my colleagues and all go into one page and see what it looks like, how it feels like.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: So yeah, there are some avatar bubbles showing up on multiple places. Yeah, it\u2019s kind of in the headline and also when they\u2019re both there. And also if they\u2019re the notes and the real-time collaboration are kind of merging now. So the same avatars that show up in the notes will also show up in the, in as where the cursor is. So it\u2019s kind of really interesting to see. I think it\u2019s not only for enterprise, it\u2019s also for if you have a blog site, you probably also have a designer or a person that manages your media. You can all be in the post and kind of do things just right before publishing and you don\u2019t have to coordinate, get out of the post, get into the post. What do we change? Yeah.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: Yeah.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: It will save things. Even if you have a team of two, it\u2019s still an interesting feature. And I\u2019m really hoping as working on the WordPress developer blog that we kind of cut out the step where we do everything in Google Docs, do all the comments there. And then once everybody kind of has their word and say to move it and that we actually start creating the post in the blog and then just do the reviews from there. The only caveat is that to review and help, you have to be a member of the blog. You have to be an editor of the blog. But I think everybody who\u2019s writing and reviewing either will be on the blog or will in the future or already has written a blog post. So they should be able to do it. <\/p>\n Right now it\u2019s only me doing it. Yeah, I publish in January and in February a post and it\u2019s only me doing it. But it\u2019s interesting to do this via notes. Yeah, because you get emails and all of that. Yeah, already. So it\u2019s a good feature. The real-time collaboration, I haven\u2019t done anything on that yet because it just came out. Yeah. So it\u2019s not yet implemented. Anything else about real-time collaboration? Oh yeah. At the moment, and that\u2019s with Beta 2, it\u2019s a setting that you can opt into. So you have to go to settings. Writing, and I think the fourth from the top is the enable collaborative editing or real-time collaboration. Otherwise it wouldn\u2019t work. I think for later versions it will be an opt-out, but it will be on the same space.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: Where do you put this? I\u2019ve just opened up the preferences. I have a test site which I spin this one up.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: But you go to the admin settings, the normal settings for writing.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: Ah, the normal setting. Okay. I was in the editor, so that\u2019s probably why I\u2019m not seeing it there.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: Yeah. It\u2019s not in the preferences. It\u2019s in the admin dashboard and then settings and then writing.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: Writing. Yeah. Oh yeah. There it is. Enable real-time collaboration. Let\u2019s just try this out, how it looks like.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: Yeah.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: I mean, I\u2019m curious to see.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: You don\u2019t see it when, when you are alone, all alone.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: Well, I could create a second user and then just\u2014<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: Yeah, and switch over in the second browser.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: Switch over in another browser or another incognito tab.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: I think it could be in a different browser window. I tested it with Firefox and Google just to kind of not get into the way of each other.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: Yeah, you need a different browser tab in the same browser. It\u2019s not going to work because then you\u2019re logged in with the same user, so you need to be logged in with two different users in order to make that happen.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: Yeah.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: So it\u2019s either an incognito window in the same browser or a different browser.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack: <\/em>Basically, you log in as admin, but you can switch the user over. There\u2019s a user switching plugin. That\u2019s what I\u2019m using by John Blackburn. He has a very easy user switching plugin, and I\u2019ll share the plugin link in the show notes. But then you can switch over to a different user. And then because I uploaded two avatars, so I can see the difference and all that. In the same note, another big feature, it\u2019s not a new feature, but it\u2019s a total revamp, is the visual revisions.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: Oh yeah. Yeah. This is a big change. I\u2019ve, I\u2019ve tested this out before we started because I was really curious to see and Yeah, this is no more text walls and complicated HTML tags to understand and everything like before. I mean, I think the old one does have an advantage for like someone like me who\u2019s used to looking at code all day and I can get my way around it. But I guess for many people who are not this, do not have an eye for this, this is like a massive wall of text and some green and some red stuff flying around somewhere. So I found it a very interesting way to create the revisions, to visualize the changes. I mean, I only made minimal changes to a page, like adding a paragraph, removing, removing a sentence and whatnot. But yeah, it\u2019s actually kind of interesting.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: So one of the major features is it\u2019s in the editor. You don\u2019t have to switch screens to see your revisions. That\u2019s also a plus. It knows what blocks are. So every change is filled in red and green. Red when you remove something, green when you add something. And it has a little banner on the right-hand side to outline.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: To indicate where on the page about where. I mean, I only had a short page, so it wasn\u2019t that big of a deal, but it kind of, I think it really showed where it was. Like if there\u2019s a specific paragraph you\u2019re looking at, then let me just open up this.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: Yeah, it\u2019s really nice. Ella did a fabulous job on that.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: And there\u2019s also not just red and green, but there\u2019s also yellow if something inside a paragraph changes that is not like completely adding or I think I know for this one, I added something inside an existing block. So the block itself is outlined in yellow. Hey, something changed here. And then the part where I added the words that is highlighted in green. So it\u2019s like also kind of detailed and not just red and green like before, but you have also yellow, which indicates some sort of change, maybe with either an additional removal.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: Yeah. Yeah. It\u2019s really nice. It\u2019s very visual and staying in the block editor is such a relief. You don\u2019t have to go back and forth and you have on the top of the screen. You also have the different versions of things. So you can, it\u2019s a slider with the dates attached. So you can kind of, and the publish button changes to a restore button. So you can select the version that you wanna restore here.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: And you can also exit there. So it\u2019s like you do not have the editing ability anymore. So the entire editing ability is stripped from that page. And instead you have either restore or exit. So I think this makes it distraction-free. So it\u2019s also good because then people will not start editing inside that. It\u2019s just a visual representation of things that have changed.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: Exactly. Yeah. Good. And then do you want to take the next feature or?<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: I have not. I have seen this. So I was curious to see because I saw something else down in the Gutenberg 22.6 Release notes, if you will. But I saw that when you\u2019re trying to hide any block, you can now hide them specifically either on desktop, tablet, or mobile. So it\u2019s not just on or off, but you can now, in WordPress core without any extra plugins, say this either show only on desktop, show only on tablet, show only on mobile. The little downside here is that if I\u2019m not mistaken, you can still not change the ranges of the viewports. You can?<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: No, no, that\u2019s still hard-coded. <\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: Exactly. So you\u2019re still tied to the default states of what is desktop, what is tablet, what is mobile. So that is the little downside, if I say so, because oftentimes, at least in my experience, people want to really hone in. I want mobile to go to up until this specific size and tablet to be in this range. And they often differ from what WordPress offers by default. So that\u2019s why many plugins have been popular in the past and many different integrations are there. So I think it\u2019s important to mention that it does work. I guess it does work because otherwise it wouldn\u2019t be in the Beta version, but it is restricted to what core says about the viewports.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: So yeah, yeah. And it\u2019s a, it\u2019s a range. It\u2019s mobile starts at 480 and desktop starts at 768 and in between is the tablet. So I have found that I cannot make my browser window small enough to see the mobile version, but that\u2019s, I think, a setting on my desktop. I\u2019m not quite sure, but if you use the developer tools, you can see it or the previews, of course. Yeah, the preview inside the block editor will show you yes or no. With 20.6, they also added a feature for the list view where you see the eye for visible or invisible. It also has a little tooltip saying, okay, it\u2019s visible on desktop or it\u2019s visible on mobile and hidden on tablet and these kind of things. So there\u2019s a little bit more visual support for figuring out why is that block not working. Yeah.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: Yeah, that\u2019s true. Yeah, it seems to work pretty well. So I just played around with it and put a paragraph to hide on desktop. It does no longer show at desktop, but once I make the browser smaller, it appears again. So seems to be working pretty well.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: Yeah. Yeah, the next feature is, well, it\u2019s kind of a set of features for the navigation block. That has been coming in. There are a few things that are making navigation easier. One is that you now have control for your hamburger menus, your mobile hamburger menus, or if you want them on desktop too. Yeah. So you can now create different overlays for your navigation. And 7.0 will come with a few patterns. So you don\u2019t have to do the whole creative work. You can just kind of say, okay, I will use this one and this one. It\u2019s on the basis of template parts, so it can be reused on other places and templates if you have different overlays. And so I really like that.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: Yeah, it gives more customization that wasn\u2019t there before because you just only had a mobile version of the navigation you created. And I know from our experience at Grade that people like to switch up things in this mobile view because they want to add a button or add information or whatever, or change the menu items by default to have less menu items than they would have on desktop. So this was only possible with other tools, and now it\u2019s in core as well. I also played around with it a bit, just adding random blocks to it. So it\u2019s not just limited to specifically a navigation, but can add anything you need into that because it\u2019s a template part, as you said.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: So yeah, right.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: Yeah.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: So it actually is then also possible to create mega menus, which is also something that a lot of people wanted to do with those template parts.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: Well, I haven\u2019t played with, played it that far so far. I haven\u2019t looked at the settings in detail, but. I guess I have to test this out.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: Yeah. Well, there are a lot of people who are going to be testing things and I wish they would share a little bit more about their successes or, well, they never really talk about their successes, mostly about, oh, this is a bug that needs to change kind of thing. But it would be really cool to see some other implementations. Yeah. <\/p>\n They also revamped the submenus a little bit with handling that. So it now defaults to open or closed states, and you have a place to put the close button for that. Yeah, the patterns we talked\u2014 the overlay patterns is kind of with a black background, with an orange background, with a side info as well. So it\u2019s pretty cool. Oh yeah, and what also changed in the navigation is that you can now\u2014 well, you always could add new pages when you create a navigation bar, create a new page, but now you can, you have a toggle switch that you can actually publish it. So the create a page is then available in your pages, but the menu works. And they did also a fantastic job making the links in the menu a little bit more smart. Yeah. So when you change the title or the slug of a page, it now reflects in the menu where it\u2019s actually used. So that is, was also a big big pain point that you always had to think about, oh, I changed the slug of my page or my post. Now I need to update two menu items because I have a header, a footer, a header menu and a footer menu. And yeah, it\u2019s all kind of a, it was a little bit.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: Or another five menus in different places that you all need to update and you forgot about them. So yeah, that\u2019s actually very nice. I just opened up also the, when you have a navigation block focused and go select one of the pages that is in there. It now shows a little, I\u2019m not sure how long this has been there, but there\u2019s a box popping out saying the title of the link and then it links to this specific page, which is a page. So the post type is shown and also what status it has. So it is published, is it draft or whatever. So there\u2019s, I think if I click on that, yeah, I can now go directly into editing and I can go back. Oh, this is fancy.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: Yeah. Yeah. That\u2019s also fairly new. I think it was in 22. So it\u2019s between 6.9 and 7.0. It\u2019s a new feature. It\u2019s a new feature.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: Yeah. I think this will definitely enhance the whole working with navigation, with navigation in general, because to be honest, it has been a pain to work with navigation. So I\u2019m glad to see some improvements here. They\u2019re looking really good. Oh, you can even add more stuff, description and real attribute. Nice. That\u2019s looking good. I like that. I honestly like that.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: Awesome. Very good, Birgit. What\u2019s next on the list?<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: Next on the list is gallery block add lightbox support.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: Ooh, that\u2019s my personal favorite. Yeah. Well, lightbox support was there before, right?<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: I was just saying that the lightbox has been around for a while. But yeah, not only for images, right? Not for the gallery.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: It was for the gallery, but it only added the click to open big. It wasn\u2019t a real lightbox. It kind of\u2014 you needed to close it and then look at the next picture and open it up again. And now you actually have navigation with next and previous, so you could actually have a really nice gallery viewing experience. And I was waiting for this for quite a while. Not that I didn\u2019t find any plugins that do that, but yeah, to have it in the browser.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: I think that\u2019s a very nice feature because it reduces the need for a plugin if the functionality is enough for the user. I mean, there will always be plugins that enhance this functionality or create another variation of a lightbox with even more features. There\u2019s always like that, but it\u2019s, it\u2019s good to have that because it\u2019s just, I\u2019ve never really worked so much with galleries in the past, but probably I will do more because now you can continue switching to the other images without even having to close that. So I think that\u2019s really a good quality of life improvement.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Those sites that have big visual assets on there, like pictures and they have portfolios or they want to show a decoration or be it food. Yeah. Each one of the sites. And what I like about it is also that you can swipe it on mobile. You don\u2019t need to\u2014<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: Oh, nice.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: It\u2019s not animated, but it\u2019s definitely there. <\/p>\n So the thing that moved to the next version in WordPress is showing the captions somewhere on that. Yeah. Right now it\u2019s just a picture and the navigation, but that\u2019s a huge step forward. What also is new for the gallery block and many blocks is that the sidebar where the settings and the styles are now also have a content tab where you can see, for instance, all the pictures in a list and then just open it up and add an alt text to it, for instance. So you can have an easier way to update the content of things. You\u2019ll see that also on other blocks that are kind of multi-blocks, like the social icons or the buttons or the list, that you get now a little content section on the right-hand side. And you don\u2019t have to, for that, open up the list view. It\u2019s a little bit of duplication, but I think it\u2019s a different mindset when you just want to edit that particular group of blocks and see it in one view.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: Yeah, but you can, I just created a gallery on my test site and picked some of the pictures. And when you are in this content section and you click on an image, you are put to the specific image block within the gallery. So I don\u2019t think this is too much of a crazy thing. Yeah, you are right about the duplication that if you are on the gallery block itself, you can add something. That\u2019s probably easier on the right side now to add something. But you also get the context options that you would have in the list view. So this is the duplicated part. But to be honest, I mean, I work a lot with the list view. I always\u2014 the first thing I do when I come into a brand new editor is go to preferences and say, list view, always show list view. Because I still don\u2019t get why this is not the default. But yeah, for people who may be not using the list view too much, I think this is a pretty nice way to work with the gallery block. Yeah.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: And there are also people who are overwhelmed by the list view. Yeah. So kind of, they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: Yeah, I can understand. But yeah, I\u2019m a big fan of the list view.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: So yeah, there will be two new blocks. There\u2019s a breadcrumbs block and the icon block. And the icon block just made it out of experimental with 22.6. <\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: I think this was a very close call, right? I just saw Ryan\u2019s post the other day. It\u2019s like, we made it. And I was like, oh, that\u2019s close. Isn\u2019t Beta 1 already out yet?<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: Yeah, no, it was, uh, actually in Beta, but the discussion was about\u2014 not about the icon block per se, but it only has limited functionality. When you\u2014 for a designer, you cannot register your own icon collection.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: That would have been my question. Yes.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: And that has been the API that was too close to be comfortable in creating a new API at the last minute, so to speak. And they said that needs to be similar for a moment. And that was pushed in 7.1, but you still can use the icons that are in the block editor already.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: It mostly, it will be arrows or the chevrons or maybe something like pencil or image or home. Yeah. The default ones are there. So it\u2019s, I would say for, for the, for the beginning, it\u2019s fine. And I think for the extensibility, it\u2019s definitely needed that we have an API to add any kind of icon that we want or that the user needs because people work with the most different things. I think the same, we had the same thing with the social icons block, if I remember correctly, like you had a fixed set, but then later on. It was added the ability that you can upload your own icons, if I\u2019m correct.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: Yeah.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: So I would very much look forward to potentially in 7.1 that we get the ability to extend this icon library to whatever icons we need, have an upload.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: Yeah. Yeah. I think designers really work, love working with icons and when they design sites, it would be really helpful to actually have the branded icons, whatever they have to be uploaded. But yeah, in the release post of 22.6, Bernie Reiter, who was a release lead, he uploaded an implementation which makes perfect sense, which is the location for a map, kind of, yeah, what\u2019s the address, what\u2019s the link for Google Maps, and what are the ratings, so to speak. And you can all do that with the icon set that\u2019s already in the block editor. It was worth it, even with not registering the API, to put that into a core. And it\u2019s still helpful.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: I mean, the icon block has been long awaited, so it was about time.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: Yeah. And the other block is the breadcrumbs block, which I\u2019m really happy that it made it because that\u2019s a very versatile block. It has a lot of smartness behind it where you can put it on any page and then it figures out what are the breadcrumbs to get to that page and also to get back again. So you could do categories, archives, subpages, parent pages, child pages. It\u2019s all picking up those things. And it\u2019s a really nice addition for larger websites to have a user find their way back or orient themselves on the website.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: Yeah, I think there\u2019s also enough settings to work with it. So it\u2019s looking good. I just added it to my test page. You have all the color, typography, dimensions, border. So there\u2019s, there\u2019s something to do with it. I would say.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: Yeah, you can definitely work with that. So then the existing blocks obviously also get some improvements. Do you have any favorite of those? I do. So the paragraph has two new things. One is the indentation. So you can make a paragraph or on a page manage the indentation of the first line in a paragraph. There are two versions of it that you need to handle in the settings page. One is to have the first paragraph not indented, but all the subsequent paragraphs. And then if you toggle that off, then also the first paragraph is indented. And that is that it\u2019s in the English-speaking countries, the first paragraph is not indented. But in the right-to-left and other countries, even if they are left-to-right, they always want all the paragraphs indented. So it\u2019s a different standard for publications in different countries. So they needed to take care of that. But the default is to have the first paragraph not indented and all the subsequent paragraphs are.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: Interesting.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: Yeah.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: It\u2019s like I usually do not come around that the need for this. But obviously if there\u2019s a need for it.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: Yeah. A lot of publications have that as standard, especially those that are in the news and long-form content publications like essays and that kind of thing.<\/p>\n Jessica Lyschik<\/em>: Apparently I do not read those, so I do not have any experience with that.<\/p>\n Birgit Pauli-Haack<\/em>: Or you just haven\u2019t noticed it because it feels natural.<\/p>\n\n
Special guest: Jessica Lyschik<\/h2>\n
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WordPress 7.0<\/h2>\n
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What\u2019s Released \u2013 WordPress 7.0<\/h3>\n