Say hello to WordPress 6.2 “Dolphy,” named for the woodwind jazz wiz, the multi-instrumentalist—Eric Allan Dolphy Jr. Dolphy is acclaimed for having brought the bass clarinet to prominence in the jazz scene, creating a place for the flute and extending the lexicon of the alto saxophone. In a career that spanned continents, his artistry was at the forefront of pushing improvisational boundaries, ensemble work, and partnerships with well-respected artists like Charles Mingus and John Coltrane.
This latest version of WordPress reimagines your site editing experience, introduces more ways to style your site, and offers a new distraction-free way to write. Discover improvements that give you more control and freedom to express your creative vision. There’s something for everyone, whether you’re a content creator, developer, site builder, or designer. Let the music of Eric Dolphy delight you as you take in all that 6.2 has to offer.
WordPress 6.2 is the first major release of 2023, covering over 900 enhancements and fixes. It’s also a transition point in the WordPress project’s development roadmap, shifting focus from customization to early exploration of workflows and collaboration.
What’s inside
Meet the reimagined Site Editor
Ready for you to dive in and explore: 6.2 is your invitation to discover what the next generation of WordPress—and block themes—can do.
Now out of beta, the Site Editor has an updated interface, giving you a new way to interact with your entire site. Explore full previews of your templates and template parts, then jump in and get to editing your site from wherever you choose.
Manage menus in more ways with the Navigation block
Add, remove, and reorder menu items faster—with a new sidebar experience that makes editing your site’s navigation easier.
Discover a smoother experience for the Block Inserter
A refreshed design gives you easier access to the content you need. Use the Media tab to quickly drag and drop content from your existing Media Library. Find patterns faster with a split view that lets you navigate categories and see previews all at once.
Find the controls you want when you need them
Your block settings sidebar is better organized with tabs for Settings and Styles. So the tools you need are easy to identify and access.
Build faster with headers and footers for block themes
Discover a new collection of header and footer patterns. Use them with any block theme as a quick, high-quality starting point for your site’s templates.
Explore Openverse media right from the Editor
Openverse’s library catalogs over 700 million+ free, openly licensed stock images and audio—and now it’s directly integrated into the WordPress experience through the Inserter.
Focus on writing with Distraction Free mode
For those times you want to be alone with your ideas. You can now hide all your panels and controls, leaving you free to bring your content to life.
Meet the new Style Book
Get a complete overview of how every block in your site’s library looks. All in one place, all at a glance, directly in the Site Editor.
Copy and paste styles
Perfect the design on one type of block, then copy and paste those styles to other blocks to get just the look you want.
Custom CSS
Power up your site any way you wish with design tools and custom CSS for another level of control over your site’s look and feel for maximum creativity and artistry in your designs.
Other highlights in 6.2
- Sticky positioning: Choose to keep top-level group blocks fixed to the top of a page as visitors scroll.
- Importing widgets: Options to import your favorite widgets from Classic themes to Block themes.
- Local fonts in themes: Default WordPress themes offer better privacy with Google Fonts now included.
Performance highlights
“Dolphy” includes several impressive performance improvements. You’ll note overall faster load times for block themes of 14 to 18%, and for classic themes, speed increases of 2 to 5%. Server-side performance is also significantly boosted, with an increase of 17 to 23% for block themes and 3 to 5% for classic themes, 3 to 5%. The performance team is dedicated to these kinds of improvements. You can learn more about their work by following the Making WordPress blog using the #performance hashtag.
Learn more about WordPress 6.2
Explore Learn WordPress for quick how-to videos, courses, and other resources for the latest features in WordPress. Or join a free live interactive online workshop.
Check out the WordPress 6.2 Field Guide for detailed developer notes to help you build with WordPress and get the most out of the latest release. Read the 6.2 release notes for additional technical details about this release, including installation information, updates, fixes, file changes, and more.
The 6.2 release squad
6.2 is made possible by the many folks who have enthusiastically helped keep the release on track and moving forward:
- Release Lead: Matt Mullenweg
- Release Coordinators: Francesca Marano, Héctor Prieto
- Core Tech Co-Leads: Tonya Mork, Jb Audras
- Editor Tech Co-Leads: George Mamadashvili, Nik Tsekouras
- Core Triage Co-Leads: Colin Stewart, Mukesh Panchal
- Editor Triage Co-Leads: Anne McCarthy, Nick Diego
- Design Lead: Rich Tabor
- Documentation Co-Leads: Birgit Pauli-Haack, Femy Praseet, Milana Cap, Abha Thakor
- Marketing & Communications Co-Leads: Jonathan Pantani, Lauren Stein, Mary Baum
- Test Co-Leads: Robin, Adel Tahri
- Performance Lead: Felix Arntz
Thank you, contributors
WordPress 6.2 couldn’t be here without the countless effort and passion of more than 600 contributors in at least 50 countries. A special thank you to the 178 new contributors who joined a release for the first time. Their collaboration helped deliver hundreds of enhancements and fixes, ensuring a stable release for all—a testament to the power and capability of the WordPress community.
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By release day, 70 locales had translated 90 percent or more of WordPress 6.2 in their language. Community translators are hard at work ensuring more translations are on their way. Thank you to everyone who helps to make WordPress 6.2 available in 200 languages.
A release haiku for 6.2
Six point two, so new
Shiny and ready for you
Congrats on hard work!
* Portrait of Eric Allen Dolphy Jr. discovered via Openverse. Colorization by D. Pountain; Original by F. Wolff.
“eric dolphy” by dick_pountain is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Source: https://wordpress.org/news/2023/03/dolphy/