WordPress 4.8 Blog ImageWordPress developers and enthusiasts around the world are now counting down to the release of WordPress version 4.8, the biggest release for the year for WordPress.

On May 23, 2017, WordPress released the Beta 2 version for WordPress 4.8, this comes just 10 days after the release of the WordPress Beta 1 version. And now a release date has been announced as well, June 8 2017.

So what are the improvements we expect to see in the new version for WordPress core?

According to Jeffery Paul from WordPress.org you can expect to see a total of 109 enhancements as a part of the new version. Some of these enhancements include;

1. Three New Media Widgets

There will be three new media widgets available as a part of the WordPress 4.8 core. This includes widgets for Audio, Video and Image.

2. Visual Editor in Text Widget

The new version of WordPress will have a visual and text editor options just like you see in the page/post editor on the admin screen. A handy feature to add hyperlinks and editing content for WordPress beginners.

3. Meetups and Wordcamps on your Admin Dashboard

The new core version boasts of having the meetups and wordcamps section as a part of the admin dashboard. Add your area/city and you will get automatic notifications on any events near your area.

4. Responsive Width For Customizer Sidebar

The customizer sidebar is now going to have a variable width based on the screen size it is being viewed on.

5. Tag Cloud Widget Changes

The title attribute has now been changed to aria-label attributes with optional counts in plain text.

6. Cleaner Headings in Admin Panel

In a effort to improve accessibility and allow for better navigation through the content, WordPress 4.8 will have an option to organise the header text.

7. New Action and Filter Hooks

There are 2 new action hooks and 11 new filter hooks.

New action hooks include;

  • deleted_blog
  • print_default_editor_scripts

And some of the new filter hooks include;

  • minimum_site_name_length
  • nav_menu_submenu_css_class
  • page_menu_link_attribute
  • post_date_column_status

8. Improved Visual Editor

There are some new TinyMCE features as a part of the WordPress Core 4.8 release that are worth a mention. Some of these include; Ability to write on linked content, Automatic hyperlinking when an existing hyperlink is clicked on, Ability to use arrow keys while hyperlinking text.

9. External Library Updates

The version for TinyMCE and Twemoji have been updated.

Interested to see the complete list of changes that are coming about in WordPress 4.8? Read the WordPress 4.8 Field Guide.

The Release Candidate for WordPress 4.8 is now available to download and WordPress is urging WordPress Developers around the world to give the new version a test run and report any bugs or issues that they encounter. The big question is which legendary jazz player will the new version be named after?