WordPress 4.8 “Evans” Release & New Features

Happy Thursday (or maybe Friday depending where in the world you are) – aka WordPress update day! Automattic just released WordPress 4.8, nicknamed “Evans” after William John Evans (a self taught modern jazz pianist) so its time to get ready to update your sites.

While I wouldn’t say there were a lot of big changes, there are some fun new features to play around with. Keep reading to checkout what’s new in WordPress 4.8!

New Media Widgets

One of the most notable additions to the WordPress core is 4 brand spanking new widgets! Now you can easily insert images, video, audio, and rich text into your sidebars, footers etc. No more messing with code or custom formatting. Just drag and drop a media file off your desktop, or click the “add” button to select a file from your media library or add a URL. And the rich text works just like your regular post editor, complete with shortcuts for lists and links.

Media Widgets API (for Developers)

Along with the new widgets there’s a new media base API and text editor JS API that developers can expand on. I predict lots of awesome and creative widgets in the future (maybe some galleries, video about sections – who knows!).

Link Boundaries

The second feature some users may appreciate is clear link boundaries making it easier to edit links in your post content. No need to manually select the text that’s part of your link – just click once and the whole link will be selected for editing.

WordPress Events & News Dashboard Widget

Curious about which WordCamps and meetups near you are happening soon? The new WordPress Events & News Widget makes it easy to keep up with what’s going on. This new widget gives you a quick at a glance list of upcoming events near you, plus shares a few of the most recent WordPress news announcements.
And more!

• There are a few other notable new features including:
• Responsive live customizer breakpoints
• New CSS rules for admin-area headings
• New multisite capabilities
• Lots of new hooks
• Depreciation of Silverlight support