The Month in WordPress – October 2022

With the end of the year fast approaching, the WordPress project has not slowed down. Read on to learn more about the latest major release, WordPress 6.1, and the State of the Word 2022 live event, among other exciting news. It’s time to catch up on all things WordPress!

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Say hello to WordPress 6.1 “Misha”

The third and last major release of 2022, WordPress 6.1 “Misha,” shipped on November 1, 2022. Named after jazz pianist Mikhail “Misha” Alperin, this release comes packed with many improvements that refine the site-building experience introduced earlier this year in WordPress 5.9 and 6.0, as well as accessibility and performance upgrades.

WordPress 6.1 is also bundled with a new default block theme, Twenty Twenty-Three (TT3), that features 10 style variations designed by WordPress community members. These intentionally unique designs ensure that you can change the visual details of your site with ease—and within a single theme.

Learn more about what’s in 6.1:

• WordPress 6.1 “Misha” Announcement
• WordPress 6.1 Field Guide

Following WordPress 6.1 “Misha”, a 6.1.1 maintenance release landed on November 15, 2022. This minor release includes about 50 bug fixes.

Download WordPress 6.1.1

State of the Word 2022 is coming on December 15

State of the Word 2022, the annual keynote address delivered by the WordPress project’s co-founder, Matt Mullenweg, will be held on December 15, 2022. The event will take place in person in New York City and live-streamed via various WordPress.org social media platforms.

You can also host or join a State of the Word watch party to enjoy the event with your WordPress friends.

Learn more about State of the Word 2022

What’s new in Gutenberg

Two new versions of Gutenberg have shipped in the last month:

• Gutenberg 14.4 was released on October 26, 2022, with support for a distraction-free mode that allows a more focused writing experience. Other notable highlights include a redesigned pattern inserter, content locking to the Navigation block, and improvements to fluid typography.
• Gutenberg 14.5 sets the groundwork for future releases with code quality improvements and bug fixes. This version introduces a new “Document Overview” panel for easier access to the list view and document information, expands margin and padding support, and improves spacing visualizers. It was released on November 9, 2022.

Explore some of the latest enhancements to the writing experience in this Core Editor Improvement post.

Team updates: Documentation Contributor Day, WordPress.org redesign updates, and more

• After a lively discussion around the site editing terminology, WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy announced that the term “Site Editor” will be used going forward in reference to the suite of site editing tools.
• Last month, the Docs Team successfully held its first online Contributor Day to collaborate in real-time, help onboard new contributors, and work on backlog tasks.
• Progress and next steps for the WordPress.org website redesign were shared in this post. The following pages that will get a refreshed look and feel soon include Showcase and Documentation (HelpHub).
• The WordPress.org Theme Directory introduced a new feature that allows visitors to preview style variations in block themes.
• Inspired by the Community Team’s efforts to reactivate meetup groups, the Polyglots Team is looking to start a Polyglots outreach project and welcomes help.
• The Training Team shared an overview of some of the new Learn WordPress courses they have been recently working on.
• Openverse’s catalog now includes more than one million audio records!
• The WordPress Photo Directory also reached a significant milestone by surpassing 5,000 photos! Check out this celebratory retrospective from the Photos team.
• Speaking of Openverse and the Photo Directory, don’t miss the latest episode of the WP Briefing podcast—it covers the differences between these two resources, and how they work to further openly-licensed media.
• The latest edition of People of WordPress features Raghavendra Satish Peri.

Enjoy a spooky Halloween Mad Libs story completed by community contributors in Episode 42 of WP Briefing.

Feedback & testing requests

• The Plugin Dependencies feature plugin is available for testing. Provide your feedback by December 1, 2022.
• What does a genuinely sustainable WordPress community look like to you? Share your vision and thoughts in this discussion post.
• The new WordPress developer blog is in public beta and ready for feedback.
• The Core Team requests assistance with testing a new Rollback Feature in WordPress core.
• Version 21.2 of the WordPress mobile app for Android and iOS is available for testing.

Were you involved in WordPress 6.1? Share your thoughts on the release process by December 15, 2022.

Event updates & WordCamps

• The WordCamp Asia organizing team is collaborating with WordCamp Central to bring the WordCamp Asia Diversity Scholarship. In addition, the team recently announced the first round of speakers.
• Preparations for WordCamp Europe 2023 are underway.
• Don’t miss these upcoming WordCamps:
  • 🇧🇷 WordCamp São Paulo, Brazil on November 26, 2022
  • 🇮🇳 WordCamp Kolkata, West Bengal, India on December 17-18, 2022

Boost your speaking confidence in WordPress events. Register for the How to Own Your Expertise & Start Speaking at WordPress Events online workshop happening December 7, 2022.

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The following folks contributed to this edition of The Month in WordPress: @rmartinezduque, @webcommsat, @santanainniss, @dansoschin, @eidolonnight.