What’s Coming in WordPress 4.6 (Features and Screenshots)

The beta version of WordPress 4.6 has been released. We followed the development closely and excited to report that the final version is expected to be released around August 16, 2016. In this article, we will highlight what’s coming in WordPress 4.6 with features and screenshots.

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

This is the beta release, which means no more new features will be added until the final release of WordPress 4.6. However, some of the features in beta may not make it into the final release.

Shiny Updates in WordPress 4.6

When users installed a new plugin or theme, or updated one, they usually saw a progress screen. This progress screen added one more page load and was a bit distracting.

WordPress 4.6 will introduce shiny updates. Users will now be able to update and install plugins and themes without being redirected to the progress screen.

Native System Fonts in WordPress Admin Area

WordPress started using Open Sans font in WordPress admin area to offer a consistent look across different devices and platforms. However, this meant that WordPress to rely on an external third party source. This also increased page load times of admin area, and affected speed.

With WordPress 4.6, the admin area will revert back to using the system fonts. This means that your WordPress admin area may look slightly different on different platforms.

Here is a screenshot of admin area in Safari web browser on macOS using system font San Francisco.

These are the system fonts that will be used in WordPress admin area on different platforms and environments.

• apple-system for Safari and Firefox on macOS and iOS


• Helvetica Neue on macOS prior to 10.11


• BlinkMacSystemFont for Google Chrome on macOS


• Segoe UI for Windows


• Roboto for Android and Chrome OS


• Oxygen-Sans for KDE


• Ubuntu for Ubuntu


• Cantarell for GNOME


• sans-serif, the standard fallback

Note: This change only affects the UI elements of WordPress admin area. It will not content areas like post editor which uses your theme’s editor stylesheet for fonts.

Editor Improvements in 4.6

Most WordPress users spend more time on post editor than any other admin screen on their site. Improving post editing experience always takes priority in new WordPress releases.

Improved Auto Save Feature

WordPress 4.6 brings improvements to autosave feature in WordPress. Previously, when users disabled revisions, it also affected restoring posts from autosave feature.

WordPress 4.6 will fix this issue and users can restore WordPress posts from browser backups and autosave even when they have revisions disabled.

Highlighting Broken Links

If you are using the visual editor to write posts, then adding a broken URL will be highlighted.

As soon as you add a link, WordPress will check if the link is valid. If you take the cursor to the linked text, then you will see the link in red color instead of the usual blue.

Under The Hood Improvements

These updates improve significant parts of WordPress core but are mainly intended for developers.

Standardized Metadata Registration

WordPress 4.6 brings register_meta() function for the registration of meta keys. This function works like register_post_type() function. It allows plugins and theme developers to use a standardized way to work with meta data stored with posts, users, comment, or terms object types. (#35658)

New WP_Post_Type Class

WordPress 4.6 will introduce the new WP_Post_Type class. It changes $wp_post_types to an array of WP_Post_Type objects. This provides methods to handle post type supports, rewrite rules, meta boxes, hooks, and taxonomies. (#36217)

New WP_Term_Query Class

Similar to WP_Query, WP_User_Query, and WP_Comment_Query classes, WP_Term_Query in WordPress 4.6 will provide a better structure for generating term queries. (#35381)

WP_Site_Query and WP_Network_Query Classes

For WordPress multisite networks, the new WP_Site_Query and WP_Network_Query classes allow querying sites and networks with lazy loading. (#35791, #32504)

We hope this article helped you learn what’s coming in WordPress 4.6. Let us know which features you find exciting and what you would like to see in future releases of WordPress?

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post What’s Coming in WordPress 4.6 (Features and Screenshots) appeared first on WPBeginner.

How to Create Automated Website Screenshots in WordPress

Do you want to create automated website screenshots in your WordPress site? If you frequently add website screenshots to your WordPress posts or pages, then automating the process will save you time spent on capturing screenshots manually. In this article, we will show you how to create automated website screenshots in WordPress.

Method 1: Create Automatic Website Screenshots in WordPress using Plugin

This method is easier thus recommended for beginners and users who don’t want to deal with code.

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Browser Shots plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

The plugin works out of the box, and there are no settings for you to configure.

Simply edit a post/page or create a new one. You will notice a new button in the visual editor to add website screenshots.

Clicking on it will bring up a popup where you can enter the website URL, alternate text, link to URL, and height / width of the screenshot.

Click on OK button and the plugin will add a shortcode to your WordPress post. You can now preview your post to see the plugin in action.

If you are using the Text Editor in WordPress or don’t want to use the button in visual editor, then you can also manually add the shortcode yourself.

[browser-shot url="http://www.wpbeginner.com"]

By default, the plugin will create a screenshot of 600 x 600 pixels. You can change that by adding the width and height attributes to the shortcode.

[browser-shot url="http://www.wpbeginner.com" width="400" height="400"]

It will also automatically link to the website. You can change that by adding a link attribute to the shortcode and add any link you want.

[browser-shot url="http://www.wpbeginner.com" width="400" height="400" link="http://example.com"]

If you want to add a caption below the screenshot, then you can do that by wrapping the caption text around the shortcode.

[browser-shot url="http://www.wpbeginner.com"]WPBeginner - WordPress Resource Site for Beginners[/browser-shot]

The caption will use your WordPress theme’s caption styles. Here is how it looked on our demo website:

Browser Shots plugin uses WordPress.com’s mshots API to generate screenshots on the fly. These images are not stored in your WordPress media library. They are served directly from WordPress.com servers.

See our guide on the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

Method 2: Create Automated Screenshots by Adding Code to WordPress

This method requires you to add code to your WordPress files. It is not recommended for beginners. If you are comfortable pasting snippets from web into WordPress, then you can use this method.

Simply add this code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

function wpb_screenshots($atts, $content = NULL) {
extract(shortcode_atts(array(
"snap" => 'http://s.wordpress.com/mshots/v1/',
"url" => 'http://www.wpbeginner.com',
"alt" => 'screenshot',
"w" => '600', // width
"h" => '450' // height
), $atts));
 
$img = '<img alt="' . $alt . '" src="' . $snap . '' . urlencode($url) . '?w=' . $w . '&h=' . $h . '" />';

return $img;
}
add_shortcode("screen", "wpb_screenshots");

Similar to the plugin we mentioned earlier, this code also uses the WordPress.com mshots API to generate screenshots on the fly.

To display a website screenshot in your WordPress posts and pages, you will need to enter the shortcode like this:

[screen url=”http://wpbeginner.com” alt=”WPBeginner”]

Replace URL and Alt fields with your own values.

By default, this code will generate a screenshot of 600 x 450 pixels. You can change that by adding your own height and width attributes to the shortcode.

[screen url=”http://wpbeginner.com” alt=”WPBeginner” w=”400″ h=”400″]

That’s all, we hope this article helped you learn how to create automated website screenshots in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to automate WordPress and social media with IFTTT.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Create Automated Website Screenshots in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

What’s Coming in WordPress 4.7 (Features and Screenshots)

The beta version of WordPress 4.7 arrived last week. We have been following the development closely, and we are excited to report that final version is expected to be released around December 6th, 2016. In this article, we will highlight what’s coming in WordPress 4.7 with features and screenshots.

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

This is the beta release, which means no more new features will be added until the final release of WordPress 4.7. However, some of the features in beta may not make it into the final release.

New Default Theme – Twenty Seventeen

WordPress 4.7 will be the last major release of 2016. As is the tradition, it will come with a new default theme for the next year.

Twenty Seventeen is slightly different than previous default themes. Its main focus is on business websites rather than blogs, and it even comes with starter content to help new users setup their WordPress websites. Currently the starter content feature is available for new sites only, but by the time the theme is released, it is expected to be available for sites with existing content as well.

It can also be used as a blog theme. Twenty Seventeen has large featured images, crisp typography, and a mobile-first approach to design.

Video Headers Support

Many premium WordPress themes are already allowing users to add video headers. Twenty Seventeen will be the first default theme to come with video header support.

You can upload and use your own videos in mp4 format, or you can also use YouTube and Vimeo videos by simply entering the video URL.

If your theme doesn’t support video headers, here is how you can easily add YouTube video as fullscreen background in WordPress without any coding.

Theme Setup Flow

WordPress 4.7 will bring an improved theme and site setup flow. In the customizer, you will now see a more polished view of your installed themes, better theme search, and improved setup directly from theme customizer.

Custom CSS in Live Preview

Want to add custom CSS to your theme? Now you can do that directly from the theme customizer. However, your custom CSS will be specific to the theme you are previewing.

If you often change themes or don’t want your custom CSS limited to a theme, then you can see our guide on how to easily add custom CSS in WordPress.

Admin Language Control for Users

Currently when you install WordPress in other languages, all users see the admin interface in the same language.

WordPress 4.7 will allow users to switch the admin language from their user profile, so each user can choose the language they prefer. You will still need to install the languages before users can switch them.

Thumbnail Previews for PDF Files

Currently, if you upload a PDF file, then WordPress only shows the file icon. You can add previews using PDF plugins for WordPress.

WordPress 4.7, will show thumbnail preview of the first page in your PDF document when you upload it to the media library. WordPress will also display thumbnail previews on a PDF file’s attachment page.

Editor Enhancements

The post editor is where most site owners spend most of their time creating content. Each WordPress version brings enhancements and features to the post editor.

WordPress 4.7 will make some subtle but important changes to the editor. The paragraph and heading selector menu will now appear in the top bar. The underline button has been removed, and the strikethrough and horizontal line buttons are moved to the kitchen sink bar.

Users will also be able to see keyboard shortcuts in tooltips and drop down menus.

Under The Hood Improvements

These updates improve significant parts of the WordPress core but are mainly intended for developers.

Custom Bulk Actions

Developers will now be able to add their own custom bulk actions to list tables on different admin screens like posts, comments, users, etc. (#16031)

Post Type Templates

Similar to custom page templates, Post Type Templates will allow theme developers to add the ability to choose templates for different post types. (#18375)

Rest API Content Endpoints

Rest API Endpoints will make their way into WordPress 4.7. (#38373)

Locale Switching

If the content of your website is displayed in a different locale than the one set in admin area, then WordPress will show the toolbar in the language of the content page. (#26511)

We hope this article helped you learn what’s coming in WordPress 4.7. Let us know which features you find exciting and what you would like to see in future releases of WordPress in the comments below.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post What’s Coming in WordPress 4.7 (Features and Screenshots) appeared first on WPBeginner.

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