WordPress 4.8 Delivers Features Aimed at Improving User Experience

Among the most widely deployed open-source technologies, the WordPress content management system (CMS) powers more than 74 million websites, and on June 8, version 4.8—a milestone update—was released with new features for both users and developers. WordPress 4.8 is code-named “Evans” in honor of jazz pianist and composer William John “Bill” Evans. Its new features include image and video widgets that make it easier for site administrators to embed media content into a site layout. As an open-source project, WordPress benefits from the participation of a broad community—there were 346 contributors to the 4.8 release. In this slide show, eWEEK takes a look at some of the highlights of WordPress 4.8.

WordPress 4.8 is code-named “Evans” in honor of jazz pianist and composer William John “Bill” Evans. The previous release, WordPress 4.7, was code-named “Vaughan” in honor of legendary jazz vocalist Sarah “Sassy” Vaughan.

Existing WordPress site administrators can easily update to the new WordPress 4.8 release through the dashboard interface.

Since October 2013 and the 3.7 update, WordPress has provided an automated mechanism for security patches. The security updates are point releases and by default are automatically installed on WordPress sites.

WordPress has a widget system to easily add items to a site layout. In WordPress 4.8, a new image widget debuted, making it easier for site administrators to add images.

Another new widget that made its debut in WordPress 4.8 is a video widget that makes it easier than ever to add video content to website layouts.

Linking is a common activity for website owners, but it sometimes can be challenging to correctly select the text that should be linked. In WordPress 4.8, a new capability called Link Boundaries aims to make it easier to select text that will be linked.

WordPress 4.8 has dropped support for Microsoft Silverlight media file formats including WMV and WMA files.

The WordPress site dashboard is being enhanced with listings of local WordPress community events.

The WordPress 4.8 release was led by Matt Mullenweg and Jeff Paul and benefited from the contributions of 346 individuals.