It’s that time again. A new version of WordPress has just hit the digital streets and you need to upgrade. Well, probably. It may not be 100% necessary to upgrade right away, but you’re going to want these new features for sure. And, in general, upgrading your WordPress is usually a pretty good idea (unlike upgrading your Windows PC which has about a 50:50 chance of making you cry (I’m looking at you Windows ME, Windows Vista, and Windows 8.)
The first thing you should know about the new version is that while it is a whole number (4.0 as opposed to the previous version 3.9,) it’s not a not a significant update from the previous version. There are some nice, new tweaks and features, but it’s not the major update that version 3.0 was back in 2010.
Don’t let that make you think it’s not a worthwhile update. It is. Just don’t expect a whole slew of changes. Instead, look forward to several very nice updates.
Preview Embedded Content in WordPress Editor
Fully functioning videos and other embedded content
Oh man, this is my favorite. It may not seem like much at first glance, but it is so nice.
In previous versions, when you embedded a YouTube video, tweet, or other content in a post or page, you’d get that nice gray rectangle letting you know “something is going to go here.” But in order to see what you’d embedded, you had to either preview or publish the post (or page.) Now the content shows up right in the editor. You can even click play on videos. I love this.
Less Scrolling in the Editor
Second on my fav list is that when I’m writing a long post and I scroll down, the right-hand column containing my editing toolbar, Add Media button, publishing options, categories, tags, and featured image stay with me as a scroll. It used to be that I’d scroll down the page and those would disappear off the screen. Then I’d have to scroll up the page to change text to a subheading or click save draft so I could run off from my computer for a minute.
Again, this is nothing earth shattering, but it’s a very nice upgrade to the user interface and it saves me time and effort – which I appreciate.
Media Library Enhancements
Media Library in Grid View
The media library received a major facelift. Gone are the days of clicking through page after page of tiny thumbnails. The media library now features an infinite scrolling interface so that as you continue to scroll down, more media is brought in (similar to the way the News Feed in Facebook works.) Of course, if you prefer the paginated list, you can go back to it. It’s nice for searching and sorting, but I really like the big tiled images in the grid view when I’m just scanning back to find a recently used image.
In addition, from the grid view, you get a new attachment details screen when you click on a piece of media. This allows you to edit captions, alternate text, and descriptions, just as the list view’s edit media page does, but by using the attachment details screen, you can easily move forward and backard through your media. This is very handy for editing captions or other fields on several pieces of media for a single post.
Move back and forth through your media in the Attachment Details view
Plugin Makeover
The Add New plugin page looks much nicer now with a more modern interface that uses more visuals including plugin thumbnails. Once you click on a plugin from the list, reviews are included among the other details.
Security Upgrade?
Doesn’t look like much of anything was done in this department. That’s OK. I’m sure security will get it’s usual time and effort put into the next version.
The Quick Takeaway
As I mentioned earlier, this is not a revolutionary upgrade. But it’s very nice. I love the editor previews of embedded content as well as the slick new look and feel of the media grid view.
Will there be bugs in this version? Probably. So 4.0.1 will likely be right around the corner. You could wait for that if you want, but I’m glad I didn’t wait.
What’s your favorite feature of WordPress 4.0?