WordPress 6.6 is in the starting blocks and brings with it a host of new features and improvements. According to the team behind the scenes, the main focus has been on "polish and finesse". So it's less about major new functions and more about optimizing existing functions. In this article, I will give you an overview of some of the most important points relating to design, user-friendliness and technology.

Improvements to design, layout and themes in WordPress 6.6

Pattern overrides: More flexibility for synchronized designs

Patterns are a quick and easy way to store recurring elements that consist of several blocks. They are currently available in two variants: synchronized and unsynchronized. 

• With synchronized patterns, all changes to one instance are automatically transferred to all others. For example, you can change a name, an image or a color in one place and it will automatically be changed everywhere.
• Unsynchronized patterns, on the other hand, work more like templates: you add them and adjust them as required. They are not linked to other instances. The disadvantage here is, of course, that changes are not automatically updated everywhere you have used the pattern.

Now there is a third option with overrides : this allows you to specify that individual blocks in a synchronized pattern should be adaptable without these changes being applied to all instances. This is an important addition, as web developer Dominic Vogl explains: 

"This flexibility allows me to create content with a consistent design without compromises. Simply brilliant, because it saves me a lot of time and makes maintenance much easier for my editors."

Dominic Vogl, Web developer, Raidboxes

A concrete example makes it clear: you have a hero element on your website for the top section of your product pages and want to ensure that these hero patterns can be changed centrally, for example to define the color scheme for all instances. At the same time, however, the product name should be changeable and only apply to one page at a time and not to all. You can now select the block with the placeholder for the product name and set it as customizable in the block settings using the Overrides button.

Behind the scenes of this convenient function is the new Block Bindings API, which makes it possible to connect block attributes with dynamic data sources. It significantly improves the editing of dynamic data within blocks, says Dominic Vogl and adds:

"A real benefit for anyone who regularly works with dynamic content and doesn't want to tinker with special solutions using ACF or similar."

Dominic Vogl, Web developer, Raidboxes

It is important to note that pattern overrides in WordPress 6.6 are still subject to some restrictions. For example, not all block types and attributes are supported. The option to release custom blocks for overrides is also not yet implemented. Future WordPress versions should remedy this and provide additional blocks, attributes and options for overrides. See this discussion on GitHub.

Section Styles: design freedom for entire areas

Section Styles is another new feature that gives you more flexibility when designing your website: It allows you to customize entire sections of your pages or posts with one click, without having to edit every single block. 

This is useful, for example, if you want to highlight a section of your page by giving it a different background or font. Previously, you had to apply the corresponding styles to each individual block in this section. With Section Styles, it is now sufficient to select a style variation that affects the entire section. 

There are two ways to create section styles:

• On the one hand in the theme.json. Add a new object for blockTypes in the styles object of your theme.json file. Define the desired style variations for the blocks that you want to use as section styles here. 
• Secondly, programmatically in your theme. To do this, use the register_block_style() function to register style variations for certain blocks. More on this in the official post.

As soon as you have defined section styles, they are available to you in the block editor. Select the desired section and apply the appropriate style variation via the "Styles" panel in the sidebar.

Theme.json v3: More flexible configuration

The "theme.json" file has become a central element for the configuration of block themes. Version 3 brings some new features that increase flexibility and user-friendliness. However, version 3 also includes breaking changes that may affect compatibility with older WordPress versions.

One important change revolves around the way default properties are overridden. With the new defaultFontSizes and defaultSpacingSizes options, you now have more control over default font sizes and spacing in your theme. You can explicitly specify whether the default values provided by WordPress should be used or overridden by your own settings.

A detailed description of the changes and further information on the migration can be found in the official post on theme.json version 3.

Improved CSS specificity: Easier overwriting of core styles

With WordPress 6.6, CSS specificity in the core will be fundamentally revised to make life easier for theme developers. The aim is to make it easier to overwrite core styles while retaining support for global styles.

To achieve this, WordPress 6.6 introduces a uniform CSS specificity of 0-1-0 for Core Block Styles and Theme.json/Global Styles. This means that theme developers can now define their own styles with simpler selectors that override the desired elements without having to use complex CSS rules.

In the future, CSS Layers and Zero Specificity could improve the CSS architecture of WordPress even further.

For more details read this official blog post and the discussion on GitHub.

Grid layouts: order and flexibility with the grid

The Grid Layout option in the Group Block allows you to arrange content in a grid without having to rely on additional plugins or complicated code.

It offers you two different modes to customize your grid:

• Automatic: WordPress automatically creates a responsive grid that adapts optimally to different screen sizes.
• Manual: You determine the number of columns and the arrangement of the blocks within the grid yourself.

Dominic Vogl says the following:

"The ability to create complex layouts directly in the editor saves me an enormous amount of time and effort. This feature takes my layouts to a new level, gives me more creative freedom and simplifies a clean, responsive presentation of the content."

Dominic Vogl, Web developer, Raidboxes

Further design highlights in WordPress 6.6

There are other large and small additions and improvements. Here are a few of them in brief:

• Pattern management in classic themes: Users of classic themes now also benefit from convenient pattern management directly in the backend.
• Mix & match style variations: Combine different color palettes and fonts to create unique designs and give your website an individual touch.
• Site-wide background images: Easily define a background image for your entire website to create a uniform appearance.
• Negative margins: Use negative margin values to overlap elements and create exciting visual effects.
• Custom Shadows: Create individual shadows for your elements and give your website more depth and dimension.
• Custom Aspect Ratio Presets: Define your own aspect ratios for images and other media to ensure a harmonious layout.

WordPress 6.6 optimizations around the user experience

Improved data views

Data views were already introduced with WordPress 6.5. They help with the management of content of all kinds (e.g. templates, patterns, posts, media) and are intended to replace the existing WP List Tables. This is because they are no longer flexible enough for complex websites and the requirements of modern collaboration workflows. Incidentally, this makes the data views part of the third phase of the Gutenberg project, which is all about better collaboration. 

Last but not least, they should offer developers extensive options for customization and expansion in the future, ushering in a new era of flexibility and user-friendliness.

WordPress 6.6 now builds on this foundation and adds important functions and application options to the data views. They are primarily used in the site editor and improve the management of templates, template parts and pages. 

In future versions, the new views will be extended to other areas of the WordPress backend, e.g. the post list and the media library. You can find more background information on this in a separate blog post.

More uniformity in the editors

Until now, the block editor, in which you create posts and pages, and the site editor, in which you edit the design of your website, differed to some extent in their operation. With WordPress 6.6, the processes in both editors will be more standardized to create a smoother and more intuitive user experience.

The specific changes include:

• The process for publishing posts and pages has been revised and adapted to the site editor.
• Settings and options are now displayed and placed more similarly in both editors.

This will (hopefully) help you find your way around both editors and make it easier for you to switch between editing content and designing your website.

Dominic Vogl welcomes the changes:

"The Site Editor in WordPress 6.6 continues to grow together with the normal editor. Now I can easily apply commands to multiple pages and navigate between them. This integration makes the overall editing of my website much smoother and more efficient, which makes my work much easier."

Dominic Vogl, Web developer, Raidboxes

Further improvements in WordPress 6.6

• Keyboard shortcut for grouping: With the new keyboard shortcut Ctrl+G (Windows) or Cmd+G (Mac) you can group several blocks and work more efficiently.
• Block inserter: The block inserter now always shows you all available blocks, regardless of the currently selected block.
• Values of custom fields: The values can now be edited directly from the connected block in the editor, saving you time and clicks.

Technical improvements in WordPress 6.6

Options API: More intelligent handling of options

To improve the performance of WordPress websites, WordPress 6.6 makes an important change to the Options API. Previously, many options in the database were automatically loaded (autoload) each time a page was called, even if they were not needed. This led to unnecessary data traffic and longer loading times, especially for websites with many plugins.

WordPress 6.6 now handles these options more intelligently. The default value for the $autoload parameter has been changed from "yes" to "null". Developers should now explicitly specify whether an option should always be loaded "true", never "false" or only "null" if required.

New functions and filters have been introduced to make developers' work easier. For example, wp_autoload_values_to_autoload() can be used to query all values that should be loaded automatically. The wp_default_autoload_value filter can be used to adjust the autoload behavior for individual options. In future, website operators will be notified in the Site Health Check if performance is impaired by extensive options. If you would like to test this in advance, you can install the Performance Lab plugin.

Automatic updates: More security thanks to rollback function

Automatic updates for plugins and themes are practical, but there is always a risk that a new version will cause unexpected problems.

WordPress 6.6 mitigates this risk with a new rollback function: If the automatic update of a plugin renders your website inoperable, WordPress automatically recognizes this and restores the previous, functioning version.

Further technical changes

• PHP support: With WordPress 6.6, support for PHP 7.0 and 7.1 will be discontinued. Users and developers who are still using older PHP versions should update to at least PHP 7.2 in order to continue to benefit from security updates and new functions.
• Internationalization (I18N): WordPress 6.6 simplifies the translation and localization of websites with new functions and filters. For example, developers can now switch between PHP translation files more easily and have more control over the loading process.
• Admin Toolbar Search: The priority of the Admin Toolbar Search has been changed, which may have an impact on developers who implement their own search functions. Adjusting the priority ensures that WordPress' own search works correctly, even if plugins add their own search functions.

Conclusion

As mentioned at the beginning, there is not necessarily one big feature in this version of WordPress. Instead, there are many small and no less important improvements. As always, you can find more examples in the "Field Guide" for the new WordPress version, which gives developers in particular a good overview. In my experience, such "little things" can often have a big impact. One example is the pattern overrides, which could prove very useful for many projects. The continued work on the data views will also pay off in the future if it gives us a modern, flexible user interface. And last but not least, eight updates to the Gutenberg project are being incorporated into the block editor. Under the post for version 18.0, user Marc praised the fact that the editor has now reached a "high level of maturity".