{"id":12463,"date":"2024-04-05T09:40:10","date_gmt":"2024-04-05T08:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/?p=12463"},"modified":"2026-02-20T09:33:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T09:33:37","slug":"wordpress-6-5-whats-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wordpress-6-5-whats-new\/","title":{"rendered":"WordPress 6.5: What’s new?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

The latest update to WordPress, version 6.5<\/a>, is here and packed with features designed to enhance your website creation experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s a breakdown of the key new features and how they work:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

Fonts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Google Fonts integration removes the hassle of adding yet another plugin and adding custom fonts<\/a> is easier than ever!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being able to upload .ttf, .otf, .woff, and .woff2 files is very simple. From your Dashboard, go to Appearance, Theme and click Customise on your active theme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click Style and then the little pen icon to edit the style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, on the right hand side in the Typography menu, press the toggle button to bring up this dialogue box:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Upload your fonts here in a similar way to how you would upload media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Google Fonts users there is a dedicated tab that will have Roboto ready in no time:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

Background image control<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Having more control over size, focal point and repeat options for your background images enables you to get your design looking just right on any user device.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once you have selected a block, go to add a background image as normal and click the three dots next to the Background heading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click Size and you will have access to the new options:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

Drop shadow<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

While not to everyone\u2019s taste, I love a bit of drop shadow!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It helps images and screenshots in particular to stand out, and it almost helps WordPress posts to follow material design principles<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With WordPress 6.5 you add your content to a page or post and navigate to the Styles submenu and click on the three dots within the Border and shadow section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ll see this drop down menu appear:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tick Shadow, and the control will appear at the bottom of the Styles submenu: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The default options are limited \u2013 but it is better than what was offered previously…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

Revisions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Staying on top of the work that has been done on a post or page, particularly when collaborating, is a very useful new feature for keeping track of developments on more involved projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See the breakdown of what has been changed by heading to the revisions panel as normal. With WordPress 6.5 you\u2019ll now see a more itemised breakdown of what specifically has been edited \u2013 not just the time of the revision:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

Linking<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Although it would be better to have all options available in the first instance (without having to click Edit) iterative change is still progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With our fingers crossed for this feature in WordPress 6.5.1; add a link in the usual manner and you will \u2013 after adding the URL \u2013 see the new user interface (UI) and link copy option:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The best new feature when it comes to the WordPress 6.5 links UI is definitely the Expand on click feature for images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was sorely missing from previous versions, and will make following tutorials and seeing fine details far easier \u2013 very helpful for users with moderate visual impairments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

Data<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There are a few new ways to visualise certain parts of templates and pages: with extra fields, sorting options and views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To take advantage of this new inclusion you\u2019ll need to head to the Manage Templates section. For this example I have selected the currently active one, and have changed the view to Grid and sort to by Author and by ascending:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Have a play around and see which layout you prefer. Let us know in the comments box below which one you picked and why! #TeamGrid<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

Performance <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

WordPress 6.5 purports to include more than 110 updates that, cumulatively, can knock up to 25% off your website\u2019s load times. Very impressive!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While we have not fully tested these claims, we are happy to report that speeds are up across the board with no conflicts with our server level optimisations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For website designers and developers; you can enjoy smoother navigation, faster block loading and a more responsive workflow within the WordPress editor. Your users will have a smoother experience when browsing your content. Win-win.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

Accessibility<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Users of assistive technology, particularly screen readers, will appreciate having the admin submenus unblocked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UI elements like contrast, layout and cursor focus indicators all make WordPress that little bit more user-friendly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many other improvements \u2013 65 in total \u2013 that collectively make this version the most accessible yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For guidance on making your website (WordPress based or otherwise) more accessible \u2013 check out this guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

API<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Interactivity API and being able to specify custom field connections are exciting prospects for more advanced web developers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WordPress have a demo site<\/a> showing how the Interactivity API can be used. They have even included the source code on GitHub<\/a> so we can have a look at how it all works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These features push the boundaries of what is possible with WordPress without relying on plugins.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

Final thoughts <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

These new updates bring some of the functionality that may webdevs, ourselves included, felt that WordPress was missing into the core product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As much as we love and use plugins; systems tend to be more reliable when they are simple. A faster, more feature rich, more accessible WordPress is only a good thing for us, for our customers and for all users.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"Managed<\/a><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The latest update to WordPress, version 6.5, is here and packed with features designed to enhance your website…","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":12497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"ub_ctt_via":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[60,293],"tags":[79,76],"class_list":{"0":"post-12463","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-web-design-dev","8":"category-wordpress","9":"tag-web-development","10":"tag-wordpress","11":"cs-entry"},"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/WordPress-6.5-whats-new.png","author_info":{"display_name":"Joseph Simpson","author_link":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/author\/joseph20i\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12463"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12755,"href":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12463\/revisions\/12755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}