WordPress 4.8 Release
WordPress 4.8, which is named ‘Evans’ in tribute to jazz pianist and composer William John Bill Evans. This update contains new features pertaining to the Widgets area of WordPress Dashboard and an improvement to the way hyperlinks are added in the WYSIWYG editor.
Image Widget
Adding images in widgets used to be done by either entering the HTML code into a Text widget or installing a third-party widget plugin. This can be difficult for a user who is not familiar with HTML, and the quality of third party plugins varies wildly. Using the new Image Widget, you can now add your image right into the widget using a simple user interface that is very similar to adding images elsewhere in WordPress.
Video Widget
The new Video widget allows you to easily embed a video which has been uploaded to a video service such as YouTube or Vimeo, or upload a video into the WordPress Media library. As with the Image widget, this makes it very easy for a novice user to embed a video in a sidebar.
Audio Widget
Want to add audio to your pages? Maybe you have a podcast you want to add? With this new widget, it’s no problem at all.
Rich Text Widget
We are frequently asked by clients how to add a link in a widget, or how to add formatting (e.g. Headings, Bold, Italic) like in the Page Edit screen. Previously this sort of thing had to be done using HTML code inside a Text Widget, although admittedly third-party plugins that add a WYSIWYG editor to the Text widget have existed for a while. Now, the new Rich Text Widget enables you to add Rich text without any additional plugins which is a boon for novice users.
Link Boundaries
New improved link boundaries that have been incorporated into the WYSIWYG editor in WordPress. This looks very handy when updating links and text within and around a link. Although this may seem like a small detail, it will be much easier and less frustrating for users to update their links on their websites.
Check out the video below which shows you a quick example of how this works.
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