WordPress 4.0 and Beyond

Now that WordPress version 4.0 has been out in the market for a while, users, developers and the media have had some time to look at the new version and comment on the changes, new features and improvements. There is a lot to like about the new version of WordPress and, much to like if you are a developer who designs and executes projects for small and medium sized businesses.

As WordPress continues its evolution, it has gone beyond appealing to bloggers and sole proprietors and reached for a market that includes businesses looking to use this framework for content management and/or sales and marketing of products and services.

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When considering WordPress 4.0, developers will want to pay particular attention to the following features:
  • Previews of embedding via URLs in the visual editor and the “Insert from URL” tab in the media modal. Try pasting a URL (such as a WordPress.tv or YouTube video) onto its own line in the visual editor.
  • The Media Library now has a “grid” view in addition to the existing list view. Clicking on an item takes you into a modal where you can see a larger preview and edit information about that attachment, and you can navigate between items right from the modal without closing it.
  • Freshening up the plug-in install experience, with some early visual changes as well as more information when searching for plugins and viewing details.
  • Selecting a language when you run the installation process.
  • Improvements to how your keyboard and cursor interact with TinyMCE views such as the gallery preview – much like the editor resizing and scrolling improvements.
  • Widgets in the Customizer are now loaded in a separate panel.
  • Changes to some formatting functions.

These are just a few of the improvements and changes developers will find in version 4.0 of WordPress. As we look forward to the next iteration of this Content Management System (CMS) solution, we anticipate more detailed developer tools and features and continued outreach to the professional development community to make this framework a better, more substantial solution for business sites and to satisfy more complex customer and developer requests and requirements.