WordPress 5.9 Release – Updates and New Features

It is exciting to hear all about the new WordPress 5.9 features, but it is also important to consider the impact on all existing websites and WordPress development agencies who have tons of customers to look out for.

WordPress 5.9 release date is around the corner. The Gutenberg blocks editing experience will be improved and further customized with enhancements to Full Site Editing. These are just some of the WordPress 5.9 features that we are going to talk about and get released.

In this article, we would like to discuss WordPress latest version 2022, WordPress 5.9 release, and answer some common questions you may have about WordPress 5.9 release date. So without further ado, let’s begin.

When will WordPress 5.9 become available?

WordPress 5.9 with the Twenty Twenty Two theme was originally planned to be released on December 14, 2021.

Full Site Editing was delayed, and it was decided that the release would be delayed until the issues were resolved. WordPress 5.9 release date is January 25, 2022.

What is Full Site Editing?

Full site editing takes WordPress and Gutenberg blocks to a new level. FSE allows you to style blocks for any part of your website, not just the content area.

These are the key concepts:

• Templates for full-page layouts, including site header, content, and footer areas.
• Template editor to create and edit page and post templates.
• Blocks to be used in site construction, including site title and site logo.
• A theme configuration file that contains defaults for global styles.
• Template parts are structural blocks you can combine to create templates.
• It is an advanced site editor that allows you to create, preview, and modify templates.
• Global styles interface to select site-wide styles for blocks

Fullsiteediting.com has many more detailed details than the list above.

WordPress 5.8, released in July 2021, opened the first doors to full site editing. Version 5.9 promises to increase the flexibility and useability of these features.

What specific features will WordPress 5.9 include?

WordPress 5.9 will, as mentioned previously, focus on improving the FSE features and the Gutenberg user experience. These are some of the areas that need improvement:

Block themes

• You will need a block theme that allows you to edit the entire site in order to take advantage of all the enhancements.
• You can now edit every part of a website page using the theme editor, including the header and footer.
• The WordPress 5.9 release will include a default theme block theme, Twenty Twenty-Two
• Additional 30 blocks available for use

User Editing Experience

• Enhancements to the Listview make it easy to drag and drop.
  • Sections that can be collapsed
  • HTML anchors are used for link generation and labeling

Styles interface

• Ability to modify style elements (fonts and colors, etc. globally)
  • This allows even the default theme for a website to look completely different across applications

Design tools

• To fine-tune design elements, additional controls were added:
  • Typography
  • Attributes for featured images
  • Button arrangement
  • Borders
  • Image filters

Navigation block

• A new block that allows for the direct editing of navigation items
  • When working with a template, the editor makes it easy to access these files
  • Style and layout controls
  • Optional overlay menu and controls for responsive (mobile-friendly) or default

Block Pattern Explorer

• Block patterns can be described as a collection of pre-ordered blocks, similar to templates.
• WordPress 5.9 will have a better interface to explore these patterns and implement them on your website

WordPress.org offers a great overview video that explains these updates.

Can our current theme be used with WordPress 5.9?

If your theme is running at 5.8 or earlier, it is likely that WordPress 5.9 will not have any impact on your theme.

Popular themes like Divi and Avada that have been around for a while have had their page-builders incorporate them, and they will not use full site editing. They will disable full site editing by the code they are built on, and the user experience will be the same as before the release.

What can we do to test it before its official release?

It is still early enough to test WordPress 5.9 stable pre-releases as of December 20,21.

Beta 2 was released on December 7 and can be downloaded from the WordPress.org Beta Download page.

Beta versions should only be used for testing purposes and should not be used in production environments.

It is best to wait for the official release before testing.

Do we need to install WordPress 5.9 as soon it becomes available?

WordPress 5.9 should be seen and treated the same way as other major releases. It is a good idea to wait a few days or weeks before updating your websites.

This buffer allows bugs to surface and allows plugin and theme developers to post additional updates to maintain compatibility.

Check your current plugins to ensure compatibility. It is best to test any updates on a local copy of the website or staging area before you make the final decision to update.

You should make sure you backup your site and database, verify that all plugins and themes are compatible, and ensure you do quality control after any updates.

Conclusion

It is becoming clear that Gutenberg and native site editing are the main priorities of the WordPress core team with WordPress’s latest version 2022.

Many WordPress developers and development agencies still create websites without the use of a block theme, Gutenberg plugin, or even a Gutenberg plugin. We believe that the WordPress team will continue to ensure that themes and plugins work with every new release over the next few years. We believe that Gutenberg and FSE native themes will become more dominant as more features are released.