WordPress 6.8 Cecil: Enhanced Design, Performance & Security
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WordPress 6.8, codenamed Cecil, focuses on website design control, performance boosts, and security enhancements. A key feature is the Style Book's expansion to classic themes, providing a centralized interface to manage colors, typography, and block styles. Performance improvements include speculative loading, pre-loading pages based on user interactions to speed up transitions, though it's browser-dependent and avoids overloading the system. The update also refines the Global Styles panel in the full-site editor for easier site-wide design adjustments. Users can now conveniently set image blocks as featured images, eliminating redundant uploads. Table layouts gain density settings for better data presentation. Under the hood, security is strengthened by shifting to bcrypt password hashing, replacing the older MD5 system. Developer workflow is simplified with a new function for efficient block type registration. Internationalization is improved with localized error messages and language-respecting update notifications. Accessibility is enhanced via the removal of redundant title attributes, alongside over 100 additional fixes. Overall, WordPress 6.8 streamlines design, improves performance, strengthens security, and enhances accessibility, making it a significant update for both users and developers.
(Source: https://yoast.com/wordpress-6-8/)