The newest version of WordPress – 4.2 – released April 23, bringing exciting, improved communications to your WordPress website setup. The first major update this year, it fixes many issues and adds some great new features that you can use immediately. There are also security and bug fixes released under version 4.2.1.
Refresher on Updating
It’s always safest to keep your website up to date, so update now and access the new “bells and whistles” of WordPress 4.2. Because this is a major release of a WordPress update, your site won’t update automatically unless you’re on Managed WordPress hosting or have made another adjustment. And, we encourage you to back up your site before you begin updating. And, we’d like to remind you that we’re available to handle updating issues for you. Call on us for help anytime.
Now, what will 4.2 bring you?
New power to “Press This”
They’ve improved the “Press This” bookmarklet, making it mobile-friendly. With a simple click of the mouse or tap on your screen, you can share content from anywhere on the Internet to your website. With 4.2, it automatically finds images, excerpts, and titles for the Internet content you share, and provides attributions, too. Now you can embed to a post when mobile — freeing you from being chained to your desktop.
More Powerful Editor
Tumbler and Kickstarter just joined WordPress’s oEmbed whitelist. That means that, just as you can embed YouTube videos, Tweets, Flickr photos and content from a myriad of other selected websites, you can add Tumbler posts and Kickstarter campaigns to your pages or posts. To make it happen, just the URL of the content you’d like to embed in its own line of the editor (not hyperlinked).
Global Languages and Emoji
As WordPress expands its reach around the globe, 4.2 brings native support for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean characters. Due to a database switchover, musical and mathematical symbols and even hieroglyphs are native to WordPress now, another notable improvement.
With the online world going mobile, WordPress 4.2 has added built-in support to the emoji that are native on mobile devices, like tablets and smartphones. You can use emojis anywhere on your WordPress site, even in the post slug. Have fun!
Easy Theme Customization
In 4.2, the WordPress theme customizer can switch themes and make customizations without affecting the live site. This is a major improvement. It lets users not just preview but actually modify the design of an inactive theme, without having to install additional plugins.
Plugin updates
The little boring job of updating your plugins just got faster. In WordPress 4.2 this happens all on same screen, with one click. No need to hop over to a new updating plugins page anymore. It’s time-saving and efficient!
Under the hood
We can expect, due to the collaborative assistance of developers and volunteers worldwide, that the same “under the hood” improvements come through on this new version as always. Most of us don’t even notice or realize they’ve happened. But, these technical improvements — such as the database switch we mentioned earlier – enrich WordPress in 4.2.
By the way, as the custom is to name versions in honor of jazz musicians, this version— this one’s named “Powell,” honoring jazz pianist Bud Powell.
Enjoy Powell!
Remember that you can always feel free to contact us if we can help you with your WordPress website. An updated site is safer from attack, so keep your version of WordPress and all your plugins updated. Sometimes updates encounter snags. But we’ll assist you if you encounter any unexpected conflicts or trouble when you update.
We’re also available to keep your website updated for you. If you leave that technical part to us, it frees you to do the things that only you can do and the things that you do best. We wish you the best of luck in your business!
