WordPress 5.7 comes with many new features to make your WordPress website building experience even better. As interesting as the names of new versions are, this one is “Esperanza” in honor of the musician Esperanza Spalding.
The official release was on March 9, 2023, and to sum up, the following are some of the highlights:
- WP Admin color palatte
- Robots API
- Lazy loading iFrames
- Easier migrating from HTTP to HTTPS
- Resetting Password link
- Improvements in the editor
Every update of WordPress intends to make small but significant improvements to the WordPress website building experience. Like the grand WordPress 5.0 update, it doesn’t change anything major but just adds a few new features and some improvements to the existing ones.
Let’s dive in to find what each change means:
WP Admin color palette
A Standardized color palette used in WP-Admin CSS removes the limitation of color schemes and offers a wider range to choose from dark and light schemes.
The Robots API
WordPress 5.7 also comes with a new way for the programmers to control the robots meta tag on a WordPress website. The introduction of the new Robots API with this update will allow the WordPress users to programmatically control the crawler’s behavior.
The updated version of WordPress will add a new function called wp_robots to WordPress and that function can be used to modify or alter the features of the robots meta tag.
Lazy loading on iFrames
Lazy loading helps to reduce the page load speed by only loading the images as they are brought to the screen only when the visitors scroll to that section. The latest WordPress version will automatically add the lazy loading feature to all the iframe embeds.
So now whenever you add an iframe to embed a video from a website like YouTube or Vimeo, it will automatically add the lazy load effect to it, therefore making your website faster.
Easier migrating from HTTP to HTTPS
WordPress 5.7 makes it easier for you to migrate to a more secure web environment. It allows automatic migration from HTTP to HTTPS.
Before WordPress 5.7 this had to be done manually but the new version comes with an option to easily switch from HTTP to HTTPS. The ‘site health’ section, under the Tools menu, allows choosing to migrate to HTTPS.
Resetting Password
Now, the admin of the WordPress website has the feature to send a password reset link to a registered user with just a single click. This option will send the WordPress user an email on the registered email address with a link to reset the password.
There are two different ways for the admin to do this:
1) From the user profile menu screen, where there is a field with a button to send a reset password link to the user.
2) From the user’s screen, where the admin can find a link below the user name, as shown in the figure.
Clicking on this link will automatically send an email to the registered user, on their email address which they can click to set a new password.
Editor Improvements
The Drag and drop blocks: The blocks can now be dragged and dropped directly to the post or page, so much easier than the earlier version of the Gutenberg block editor, which was click-to-add. The drag and drop blocks will certainly add to the ease of use.
Height adjustment options (supporting full height): Some of the blocks now come with the option of full height, so it can fill up the entire screen span.
Block variations: Now the block variations are displayed using a drop-down, making it easier for the editors to choose the style of the block he/she wants to include. Moreover, the block inspector will also show the icon as well as a description of the block variation.
Other changes: The other changes in WordPress 5.7 include reusable blocks that are now auto-saved when the post is saved. The button block includes a vertical alignment & preset button width option and the list and code block comes with a font size management option. Also updated, is the social icons block size. You can preset percentages for these social icons as well.
Final Words
If you are using an older version of WordPress, you should definitely consider updating your WordPress website. But before you do so, make sure that your website is backed up.
The release of WordPress 5.7 comes with these small changes that don’t change anything grand but will surely contribute to a better website building experience, by adding more features and options.