What’s New in WordPress 4.8?

The WordPress 4.8 is released. It will be the first major WordPress release of 2017. We have been following the development closely

By Claudio Pires
Updated on July 25, 2022
What’s New in WordPress 4.8?

The schedule for WordPress 4.8 is released. It will be the first major WordPress release of 2017. We have been following the development closely, and we are excited to report that the final version is expected to be released around June 8, 2017. In this article, we will show you what’s coming in WordPress 4.8 with features and screenshots.

Note: You can try out the beta version on your computer or a staging environment using the WordPress Beta Tester plugin.

The official beta release will happen on May 12th, which means no more new features will appears until the final release of WordPress 4.8. However, some of the features in beta may not make it into the last release.

Visual Editor in The Text Widget

By default, WordPress comes with a plain text widget. This widget contains a simple text box where you can add text and HTML code.

Beginners who are not familiar with HTML could not add links or use basic formatting in the text widget. This will change in WordPress 4.8.

The new text widget comes with a simple visual and text editor. Similar to the one you see on the post edit screen.

This will allow beginner users to add links easily, create lists, or make text bold/italic without writing any HTML code.

The New Image Widget

Right now, if you want to display an image in the WordPress sidebar, you will have to write HTML or use a plugin.

WordPress 4.8 will introduce an image widget that will allow users to add images into the sidebar easily. You will upload an impression right from the gadget or select any image from the WordPress media library.

Clicking on the select image will open the WordPress media uploader popup to upload or select an image. After inserting the image, users will see a preview of the image in the widget area.

The New Video Widget

Similar to the image widget, WordPress 4.8 will also introduce the Video widget. It will allow users to easily upload videos to their sidebar or display any video from YouTube, Vimeo, or any other oEmbed provider.

What’s New in WordPress 4.8?

Note: we recommend that you should never upload videos to your WordPress site. Instead, it would be best if you used a video hosting provider like YouTube or Vimeo. Click on the ‘Select Video’ button in the widget, and then click on the ‘Insert from URL’ link.

What’s New in WordPress 4.8?

Add the URL of the video you want to embed, and then click on the ‘Add to widget’ button. The media uploader popup will disappear, and you will see a thumbnail preview of your video inside the widget.

WordPress News and Events Dashboard Widget

WordPress 4.8 will also introduce the WordPress Events and News dashboard widget. It will appear on your WordPress dashboard page and will contain information about WordPress news as well as WordPress events near your location. It will replace the older WordPress news widget, which only showed WordPress news.

What’s New in WordPress 4.8?

If you have multiple users on your website, then the widget will show them events based on their location. It will automatically detect a user’s location by sending their timezone, locale, and IP address to api.wordpress.org.

Users can also edit the location to manually enter their location or view events from any other place.

Under The Hood Improvements

Firstly, these updates improve significant parts of the WordPress core but are mainly for developers. Secondly, the customizer pane will now be proportionally sized on larger screens. #32296

The user’s name prominently appears on the edit user screen. #28182

A new function get_term_parents_list() will be introduced as a taxonomy agnostic version of get_category_parents(). #17069

We hope this article helped you learn what’s coming in WordPress 4.8. Finally, let us know which features you find exciting and what you would like to see in future releases of WordPress?

 

What’s New in WordPress 4.8? – source http://www.wpbeginner.com/

Claudio Pires

Claudio Pires is the co-founder of Visualmodo, a renowned company in web development and design. With over 15 years of experience, Claudio has honed his skills in content creation, web development support, and senior web designer. A trilingual expert fluent in English, Portuguese, and Spanish, he brings a global perspective to his work. Beyond his professional endeavors, Claudio is an active YouTuber, sharing his insights and expertise with a broader audience. Based in Brazil, Claudio continues to push the boundaries of web design and digital content, making him a pivotal figure in the industry.