This new version contains a lot of improvements, many focusing on the WordPress block editor. This also contains long-awaited features which make their debut with this update.
Lets explore below
Enhanced Block Editor in WordPress 5.5
The block editor is the place to create content for your WordPress blog most of your time .. It was updated periodically and any WordPress update provides the block editor with enhancements. WordPress 5.5 makes several essential improvements that allow you make more efficient use of block editors.
Newly Added Block Directory
WordPress 5.5 has a built-in block list. This ensures you can also receive recommendations from the block list if you choose to attach a block that is not accessible on your website. In general, Block Directory is a list of plugins for WordPress that you can attach to your site’s various styles of blocks. It will not provide plugins for block libraries filled with many popular WordPress components, but can be accessed by downloading a single plugin right away.
Block Editor Interface Improvements
The visual changes to the block editor may be the most significant aspect in WordPress 5.5. Borders and highlights have been enhanced to maximize responsiveness to the block editor. The latest block (+) icon is more evident now and acts as a black context circle.
Within Box Editor, Edit Photos
Users will modify the photos within the Block Editor using WordPress 5.5. Without leaving your post-editor, you can change picture height, distance, look ratio, crop and rotate. In the media library you can of course also do simple picture editing. Inline picture editing also lets users experience such advanced editing tools effortlessly.\
Block patterns implementation
There were already reusable blocks and groups in the block editor that enabled users to use it and reuse items. The latest function named block patterns is introduced by WordPress 5.5. Such blocks with pre-configured configurations are sometimes included, and can be applied instantly. This helps you to easily build page templates while retaining the design theme constant. Many of them will be accessible in 5.5 now. More should come as WordPress themes and plugins start capturing their own trends.
Improved mobility and control in the Block
Block navigation is a common concern with many beginners. It was especially hard to pick a parent block or push a child’s feature inside it if you are using nested blocks like columns or classes.
WordPress 5.5 comes with much improved block searching such that the parent block or the item within can be found more quickly. You can even take the handle and push and drop objects. You can shift objects.
Auto update the theme and plugins of your WordPress
In adding automated WordPress updates of plugins and themes, WordPress 5.5 takes a huge leap towards health! Now you can easily navigate the Plugins tab and automated notifications on every WordPress plugin built on your website. With WordPress themes, you may even do the same thing. Only go to the themes tab » and select the theme to pick it. You can find the choice for automatic updates to this theme in the popup theme overview.
This feature was available in WordPress but you had to either change WordPress settings or use a third party plugin to administer automatic updates. WordPress 5.5 now makes sure the website always runs on the current release exceptionally easy.
Upload latest version to update plugins
In general, WordPress plugins would be updated by means of automatic updates or by clicking the notification for update. Often, though, you might need to manually update a module.
In this scenario, the only way you could update the latest edition was via an FTP client. You should now go to the Plugins » New Tab to upload a fresh update if you want to update any plugin ZIP file. This issue has been fixed by WordPress 5.5.
WordPress senses immediately that this module has already been enabled and that the latest file includes a new edition. You may then substitute the existing edition with the uploaded one. The same thing you should do with themes too. Just visit the » appearance tab and press on the ‘Add New’ button at the right. Press the Upload Theme icon to save the theme zip file afterwards. The existing themes are automatically detected by WordPress and the “Replace current by uploaded” version is available for you.
Lazy Loading for Images
WordPress 5.5 now lazy loads pictures on your site. This implies that the photos visible to the user will only be displayed on screen and that other photos will be delayed.
The default feature for WordPress now for all sites is to add a ‘load’ to img tag. Both modern web browsers (except Safari) support this attribute.
This greatly boosts the site speed and output. It’s perfect just for WordPress servers, ISP’s and interwebs as a whole.
The big performance increase would save more bandwidth, server resources and energy. WordPress drives more than 35% of the websites on the Web.
The Default XML Sitemaps in WordPress
WordPress 5.5 releases XML sitemaps for the domain now automatically. An XML sitemap is a file specified in XML format for your website. This allows search engines such as Google to locate and filter the links quickly.
Sitemaps are a vital aspect of WordPress SEO and this functionality helps other companies that don’t follow SEOs practices.
The default features and capabilities of WordPress XML Sitemaps are therefore very restricted. This is why both of the top WordPress SEO plugins, All in one SEO and Yoast SEO continue to provide XML maps of their own.
You don’t need to do some research if you already have an SEO plugin or sitemaps framework. The default XML sitemaps for WordPress would be immediately removed.
