Menu
iThemes
WordPress Security, Backups & Maintenance
  • Products
    • iThemes Security Pro
    • BackupBuddy
    • iThemes Sync
    • Why buy from iThemes?
  • Bundles
    • Essentials Bundle
    • Solid Foundations
    • Customer Spotlights
  • Resources
    • Blog
    • WordPress 101 Tutorials
    • WordPress Ebooks
    • Weekly WordPress Vulnerability Report
    • The Ultimate Guide to Starting a Web Design Business
  • Training
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Free Webinar Library
    • Premium Courses
    • Become a Member
    • Member Login
  • Support
    • Documentation
    • Get Help
    • Product Updates
    • Upgrade Policy
    • Contact
    • Our Mission: Make People’s Lives Awesome
  • Log In
WordPress News and Updates from iThemes
Categories
  • Product Updates
  • WordPress Backup
  • WordPress Block Editor
  • WordPress Ecommerce
  • WordPress for Freelancers
  • WordPress Security
  • WordPress Tutorials
  • WPprosper

WordPress 5.4: It’s Time to Ditch the Classic Editor

Written by iThemes Editorial Team on March 4, 2020

Last Updated on July 19, 2023

WordPress 5.4 is tentatively scheduled to be released on March 31, 2020, and you should be excited. The number of improvements that will be included in the forthcoming release may even persuade the Gutenberg holdouts among you to ditch the Classic Editor.

Need help getting started with the block editor? Check out the WordPress Gutenberg Ultimate Guide.

How To Follow Along With the Post and Help Get WordPress 5.4 Release Ready

If you are anything like us, you probably can’t wait until the end of March to try out the block editor enhancements. If you want to try any of the cool things we cover in this post, you must install the WordPress 5.4 beta. The WordPress Beta Tester plugin makes it super easy for you to play around with WordPress’s “bleeding edge” features. After installing the plugin, you will need to enable Bleeding Edge nightlies in the settings.

Keep in mind that beta versions are not well-suited for production environments. Playing around with a beta version of WordPress is a lot of fun, but it doesn’t always provide a stable environment.

If you find a bug while testing the new features you post it in the Alpha/Best test area. However, before filing that bug report, please check to see if it is already a known issue.

Block Editor Improvements

Several exciting improvements to the block editor include new blocks, gradients, and enhancements to existing blocks.

The New Welcome Guide

The WordPress 5.4 welcome guide modal provides a mini tour and a link to a WordPress block editor guide.

What I love about the welcome modal is that it gives developers another tool to use when onboarding new customers or introducing new features.

Two New Blocks and A New Embed

WordPress 5.4 includes two (sort of) new blocks for you to use on your site.

1. Social Icons Block

The Social Icons block lets you add a link to the icon of many popular social platforms. The Social Icons block lets your audience know where else they can find you, a team member, or your company-branded accounts.

The 39 Social Icons

  1. WordPress
  2. 500px
  3. Amazon
  4. Bandcamp
  5. Behance
  6. Link
  7. CodePen
  8. Deviant Art
  9. Dribble
  10. Dropbox
  11. Etsy
  12. Facebook
  13. RSS Feed
  14. Flickr
  15. Foursquare
  16. Goodread
  17. Google
  18. GitHug
  19. Instagram
  20. Last.fm
  21. LinkedIn
  22. Mail
  23. Mastodon
  24. Meetup
  25. Medium
  26. Pinterest
  27. Pocket
  28. Reddit
  29. Skype
  30. Snapchat
  31. SoundCloud
  32. Spotify
  33. Tumblr
  34. Twitch
  35. Twitter
  36. Vimeo
  37. VK
  38. Yelp
  39. YouTube

How To Add & Customize the Social Icons Block

To add the Social Icons block to a post or page, type /social in an empty block and then hit enter.

Now that we added the block, we can click the + to the right of the icons to add more icons. To move an icon, select it and then use the left or right arrows until it is in the correct location.

We still need to add the correct URLs to the icons. Click an icon and then enter the appropriate URL.

2. Buttons Block

Out with the old Button block and in with the sort of new Buttons block. True to its name, the Buttons block allows you to add multiple buttons in a single block.

How To Use The New Buttons Block

To add the Buttons block to a post or page, type /buttons in an empty block and then hit enter. Click the + to the right of the new button to add another button to the same block.


The Buttons blocks have two different styles. You can toggle between each style from the block toolbar or from the block settings sidebar.

The TikTok Embed

WordPress 5.4 will come with a new embed for TikTok videos.

Block Color Improvements

WordPress 5.4 is coming with a ton of color customization improvements.

To set the background color of a block group from the Block Settings menu.

A cool addition to WordPress 5.4 is the gradient background colors for the buttons, cover, and column blocks.

Select a Linear or Radial gradient type in the Block Settings menu.

The Linear gradient type has the option to adjust the angle.

You can add gradient points and adjust the color in the Block Settings menu.

The Headings block will now offer control of the text color.

WordPress versions below 5.4 for limit the text in a Paragraph block to a single color. Now you can highlight any text in a paragraph block and customize the color in the block toolbar.

Paragraph Text Color Change Gif

Image Editor Improvements

The Gallery block in WordPress 5.4 allows you to adjust the size of all the images in a gallery.

The Latest Post block will now display the featured image.

You can now drag and drop directly into the Feature Image setting.

Other Editor Improvements

The block editor toolbar will be fixed at the top of the screen.

You can add a caption to the bottom of the table.

Columns will now let you set a fixed width.

Accessibility Improvements

WordPress 5.4 will contain the following accessibility improvements.

  1. Better focus management in Menu, Customizer, and Site Health screens to fix some of the existing keyboard navigation issues.
  2. Easer Media modal keyboard navigation.
  3. An easier-to-read privacy policy.

Other Improvements

  • Improved upload of non-optimized large images taken from smartphones
  • 14% loading time reduction
  • Automatic image rotation
  • Improved site health checks
  • Periodic Admin email verification

Wrapping Up

WordPress 5.4 is going to be a huge release packed with a ton of improvements. 2020 is going to be an exciting year for the WordPress block editor.

iThemes Team
iThemes Editorial Team

Each week, the team at iThemes team publishes new WordPress tutorials and resources, including the Weekly WordPress Vulnerability Report. Since 2008, iThemes has been dedicated to helping you build, maintain, and secure WordPress sites for yourself or for clients. Our mission? Make People’s Lives Awesome.

Share via:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • More
Other related posts
gutenberg wordpress editor
The Gutenberg WordPress Editor: 10 Things You Need to Know
Ghost Kit Plugin Review
A Review of Ghost Kit & Ultimate Addons for Gutenberg: Extending WordPress with Blocks

A Review of GenerateBlocks: Extending WordPress with Blocks

A Review of KadenceWP Blocks: Extending WordPress Blocks

Comments

  1. Ron Scott says:
    March 4, 2020 at 2:11 pm

    I am still very concerned about Gutenberg column widths. It still looks like you have to use a plugin to solve that issue.

    Am I wrong>

    Will Gutenberg allow and properly display variable column widths?

    Ron

    Reply
  2. Tyler says:
    March 4, 2020 at 2:23 pm

    I’ll say it, looks like doubling down on an bad idea. Is anyone using out of the box WordPress? I’ve yet to work on a site that is not DIVI or WP-Bakery or some sort of builder. I just don’t see the need. Will I need yet another plugin to hide the interface…WP is was so good because it was so simple and easy to build upon.

    Reply
  3. Daniel says:
    March 4, 2020 at 2:30 pm

    Interesting new improvements… at least most of us can install the classic editor as a separate plugin…

    Reply
  4. Raheel Farooq says:
    March 4, 2020 at 2:57 pm

    Good to know. Thank you for the exciting information. I have never been fond of the block editor but feel like trying it now.:)

    Reply
  5. Greg says:
    March 4, 2020 at 5:53 pm

    It’s about time… The Classic Editor Plugin works OK, but the experience could definitely be better. I’m not a fan of the Elementor editor either which seems to be the most popular right now. Fingers crossed, this update could be huge!

    Reply
  6. Peter Fullerton says:
    March 4, 2020 at 7:18 pm

    Hey there,

    Leave the Classic Editor as an option. Sometimes one needs html/text mode to fix what the fancy editors screw up!

    Peter

    Reply
  7. SkaleWeb Hosting says:
    March 5, 2020 at 7:09 am

    Really excited about the release of the latest version of the WordPress. Can’t wait to try all the new features!

    Reply

Respond

Click here to cancel reply.

Get updates on new themes & plugins plus special discounts

About iThemes

  • Contact Us
  • Website Accessibility Statement
  • Sitemap

Resources

  • Blog
  • Documentation
  • WordPress Tutorials
  • Free WordPress Ebooks
  • Free Webinar Library
  • Free Upcoming Webinars
  • iThemes Training
  • Affiliates

Customers

  • Member Panel Login
  • Support
  • FAQs
  • Upgrade Policy
  • Licensing
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Refund Policy

Top Products

  • BackupBuddy
  • iThemes Security Pro
  • iThemes Sync
  • Restrict Content Pro
  • WPComplete
  • WordPress Plugins
  • Content Upgrades
  • WordPress Landing Page Plugin
  • BackupBuddy Stash

iThemes Media LLC Copyright © 2023 All rights reserved | Privacy Policy

A Liquid Web Brand © 2022 All Rights Reserved.

Get the Weekly WordPress Vulnerability Report

Vulnerable WordPress plugins and themes are the #1 reason WordPress sites get hacked, but keeping track of every new plugin and theme vulnerability is hard work. Get the weekly WordPress Vulnerability Report delivered right to your inbox to help keep your website secure.

Get the Report
Share via
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Mix
Email
Print
Copy Link
Powered by Social Snap
Copy link
CopyCopied
Powered by Social Snap