What’s New In WordPress 4.3 – Billie

WordPress 4.3 was released on August 18^th, 2015. This is the second major release by WordPress in 2015 and packs some great new features and many fixes. This article will touch on those new features available in WordPress 4.3. Since this is considered a “major” WordPress upgrade, updates will have to be performed manually unless you are on a managed WordPress hosting account. As always, if you have a current plan with WP Cover, we will be rolling out the 4.3 updates over the next 2-3 days.

Menus Built Into Customizer

WordPress has been expanding their Customizer in 2015 and it makes sense that that menus would be placed in here as well. Now with WordPress 4.3, you will be able to edit, create, and manage menus all from the customizer without having to go to a separate admin page. The old way to manage menus will still be 100% functional; the goal here on WordPress’ end is to make the management process as quick as possible.

Site Favicon Feature

This is something that many users have complained about for years and it does seem kind of strange it has never been built into WordPress. While Favicons or Site Icons have always been super easy to add with a little bit of HTML knowledge, WordPress users want and expect simplicity. Now with WordPress 4.3, you can add and manage your site icon from the admin Customizer.

Stronger Passwords

Security is all the focus these days, and WordPress has come under much scrutiny. One way they are hoping to do fix this is by suggesting strong passwords by default. When a user requests a password reset, they will see a strong password already suggested for them in the field. They still have the ability to alter that password, but at least WordPress is trying.

Unfortunately, based on a recent report only about 9% of WordPress websites are compromised (or hacked) through a password. Most hacked sites are a result of an outdated copy of WordPress, or an insecure hosting environment. You can learn all about this in our free guide – 15 Steps To Secure Your WordPress Website.

Editor Enhancements

The post editing area is where many people spend their whole day, after all, WordPress is first and foremost a blogging platform. The visual editor has always been great, but pressing the top menu buttons to obtain lists, create headings, etc. required the use of the mouse or trackpad. Now with built in shortcuts, you can use your keyboard to create and style text on the go. Here’s a few examples of shortcuts now built in:

• Using * or – will start an unordered list.
• Using 1. will start an ordered list.
• Using # will transform into h1. ## for h2, ### for h3 and so on.
• Using > will transform into blockquote.

A full list of available shortcuts can be found by clicking on the help icon in the visual editor.

Comments Off For Pages

Since pages are meant to be static content, and rarely utilize comments, WordPress has made them turned off by default. Now, when creating a new page, you must manually check the comment box to enable comments on pages. This is a nice fix since 99% of websites will not want to include comments on pages.

Admin Dashboard Changes

WordPress has continued to make great changes to the WordPress dashboard, especially in the mobile responsive area. With WordPress 4.3, the list view in the dashboard area on mobile devices is much improved.

That wraps up the major release notes for WordPress 4.3. WordPress continues to make great strides on its CMS. If you are lucky enough to have your site built on WordPress, this release is another great sign of good management and developers collaborating on another positive outcome.