The release of WordPress 6.8 brings helpful editing and security improvements to Newspack. Let’s dive in.
Copy, cut, and reset colors with one click
Now you have the option to reset colors with one click instead of needing to use the color picker to clear them. When you hover over the color, you’ll see a minus sign — click that minus sign when you want to clear the color.
The Block Options menu now includes a “Cut” and “Copy” option. When you select “Cut,” the editor removes the content you selected and adds it to your clipboard.
In addition to the cut and color updates, the “Zoom Out” option appears in every view of your block editor. When WordPress originally introduced this feature in the 6.7 release, this option was only visible when the pattern inserter was open or in use.
New block updates simplify editing workflows
Button block
The Button block now has box-sizing:border-box; code in its styles. This addition helps maintain consistency with block padding across all block types. You shouldn’t notice any difference with this change, but it did require us to tweak the styles of the Checkout Button block and the Content Loop “load more” button. So, please let us know if you see anything amiss.
Cover block
The Cover block has a new “Resolution” dropdown that allows you to choose specific image sizes. The Image block has a similar control, and it’s a nice addition because it lets you pick an image size that matches the space it’s being used in. This control can be found under the Settings tab in the right column.
Details block
New additions to the Details block include a “name” attribute and HTML anchor.
You can set a “name” attribute in the Advanced panel. When you give more than one Details block the same name, you won’t be able to have them both open at the same time — one will close when another is open.
The Details block now uses the summary content as the default label, similar to the Heading block. This update makes it easier to use the List View to find the block you need.
The block also has a new HTML Anchor option in the Advanced panel. This lets you add a link directly to a Details block from further up the page or another page entirely. For example, if you have a table of contents, you can link directly to sections of an article so readers can easily navigate to a section that matters most to them.
File block
Now you can edit the File block file name and button text directly in the block. Previously, the block always used the file name for the text, and you weren’t able to edit the button.
Gallery block
The Gallery block now includes a block-wide “Expand on click” option, which opens a lightbox when you click on an image. You can find this option under the “Link” icon in the block toolbar.
Image block
The Image block now displays a “success” message in the bottom left corner of the screen when you make edits like cropping or zooming the image. The success message also has an “Undo” link to roll back the change should you accidentally make a change that you need to erase.
You can also make an Image block a “Featured Image” using the dropdown of the block toolbar. This update can help speed up editing. For example, you can designate the featured image directly from the editor without rummaging through your Media Library to find it.
Separator block
If you use CSS code, you can choose between using <hr> or <div> code, which provides more styling flexibility. You can find this option in the Advanced panel.
Page List and Archives blocks
Now you have the option to change the color of your text in the Page List and Archives blocks.
Security updates
WordPress 6.8 includes a number of security improvements, including updating the algorithm used to hash and store user passwords. This makes it a lot harder to brute-force crack passwords. Even with this security improvement, we recommend following security best practices to avoid any issues.
You can see the other security improvements in this release on this page.
If you have any questions as you explore these new features, please don’t hesitate to reach out in the #newspack-help Slack channel!
