Why WP 4.5 Is Generating a Lot of Buzz on the Web
Great news for all the WordPress addicts! WP 4.5 is on its way! The beta version is fresh from the oven, so you are welcome to try it here. While you are trying it out, we offer you to check what to expect from the latest WordPress version. And if you forgot how to reinstall WordPress manually, feel free to check our manual.
WordPress 4.5 Improvements
Theme Logos Support
WP users, rejoice! We all have been waiting for this feature and now it’s officially integrated. Previously one would need to upload a logo via the options panel. But everything’s changed now. It’s worth mentioning that the core logo support really simplifies the customization process for an average user. Now you go to Appearance>Customize>Site Identity and voila!
Visual Editor after the WordPress Update
- Adding Links
If you are obsessed with improving your writing productivity and like everything to be user-friendly, then this one is for you. We all use this CTRL+K shortcut to insert links and the pop-up really distracts and even annoys a bit, doesn’t it? With the WordPress update you can stay focused on developing your brilliant idea and add the link at the same time. When you press the above mentioned shortcut, an inline insert link menu appears so that you can type the required URL.
- Inline Editing in the Latest WordPress Version
Can’t live without text formatting? Now you can do it so much faster in WordPress 4.5!
Wrapping the word in asterisks will italicize it, using two asterisks will make it bold and adding apostrophes will indicate the code excerpt.
- Simplified Comments Moderation
When someone leaves a comment, you are notified immediately via e-mail. Then you go to the moderation screen via the link provided in the message. You approve it. If you are not in the mood, you send it to trash or spam (just joking).
In the enhanced version you can edit comments directly from this screen.
- Preview Your Responsive Design in Customizer
To improve UX, developers included this feature so that users were able to check the way their website’s layout looks on multiple devices. You can access it via the customizer panel.
- Better Image Size Optimization
Though many of you know how to compress pictures for web, WP team tries to improve your experience. Images are now reduced up to 50 % of their initial size without major loss of quality.
- Email Login
Devs really value our time, don’t they? No need to keep all those lengthy logins in memory anymore, simply type in your e-mail and access your admin panel easily.
Developer Features in WP 4.5
Devs were not left unnoticed and there is something they can be excited about as well.
- Refresh Customizer Updates Optionally
Every time you made some changes, you had to reload the whole page? No more suffering with a new framework! Make the adjustments, refresh the piece selectively and preview it live.
For example, a partial refresh will enable you to check navigation menu updates. A response followed by an Ajax request will substitute initial menu.
- Customize Embed Templates
Lucky you are as from now on you have an opportunity to personalize embed pages. Templates are now divided into parts and can be customized according to a particular theme.
- WP_Site Class
A new specific class is introduced to WP. It will be a major improvement for anyone who needs to setup and manage their own multisite network.
- Script Loader
Adding inline scripts is now possible with the help of wp_add_inline_script(). No more generation and shipping of wp-admin.min.css and wp-admin-rtl.min.css files. Instead we can now rely on load-styles.php.
Excited about new features same as we are? Feel free to leave a comment and share your thoughts with our team!
WordPress 4.5 Bugs
As users started eagerly testing a new version, it became possible to discover an array of bugs and fix them. Here is a short list to help you out.
Visual Composer
If your website runs the Visual Composer plugin and after the last update suddenly nothing displays in the editor mode, this is most definitely caused by the new version. There are several options you can choose. If you have a stock plugin, simply update it. If you got your theme with a customized VC, there are other ways to fix that:
- WP’s updated, everything’s broken, nothing seems to be right anymore? You have to roll back to 4.4.2.
- If you waffle and stall with the upgrade, first check for the fresh theme update which is compatible with 4.5.
- If neither WP nor your theme is updated, at least do not forget about the recent WordFence upgrade.
Divi Theme
Due to the jQuery problem, it might not work properly. Update it or get in touch with your theme vendor.
MySQL warnings
If you started stumbling upon errors or warnings, this is not caused by the update. This happened as WP stopped hiding them. Basically, they were there all the time, you simply didn’t see them.