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WordPress 3.9 - What's New?

Posted 09th April, 2014 by Aliysa

The latest installment of WordPress - 3.9 - is set to launch April 16th, one week from today. The last release in December brought significant visual changes to the admin area plus incorporated other ‘feature-as-plugins’ in the form of the theme management screen and dashboard overhaul. But what can you expect from WordPress 3.9?

Update to visual editor

TinyMCE is the name of the content editor built into WordPress. The new version of WordPress includes the latest version of the editor - TinyMCE 4. This update focuses mainly on media handling. You can drag and drop media straight into the editor and it will be uploaded, saving you time. You can also resize images directly from the editor as you work on your post, which is a handy addition. Gallery preview in the editor has been added, replacing the standard placeholder image.

Gallery preview

Playlists

It's now possible to create audio and video playlists from the Insert Media screen - a great new feature if you use WordPress to showcase your music or videography.

Widget Customizer

When altering and customizing a theme you can live preview how widgets will look once rearranged, edited and added.

Widget preview in customisation

Theme Browsing

The UI for the theme browsing and selecting section has undergone an overhaul and is much more visually appealing. Screenshots previews of themes are displayed and you can use the tabs to browse through popular and the latest themes.

Theme preview screen

There's a number of 'under the hood' additions to WordPress 3.9 as well, including security fixes.

Just incase you're wondering, front-end editing, which I've posted about before, will probably be considered for integration into WordPress's core later in 2014.

If you can’t wait until next week to get these updates, you can install the WordPress Beta Testing plugin and try it out now for yourself. As it’s still at beta stage, expect bugs and glitches - it’s only recommended to do this if you’re a developer and not afraid to get your ‘coding hands’ dirty!

Categories: WordPress

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