The Month in WordPress – October 2023

September-October 2023 was yet another fun and eventful chapter in WordPress, with more WordCamps hosting exciting discussions, knowledge sharing, and learning. This month also welcomed the release of WordPress 6.4 and the Twenty Twenty-Four theme. Let’s check it out.

Meet WordPress 6.4 “Shirley”

WordPress 6.4 “Shirley” was released on November 7, 2023, and named after the iconic jazz artist Shirley Horn. With the release of WordPress 6.4 comes the new Twenty Twenty-Four theme, a multi-faceted, highly flexible default theme pre-loaded with more than 35 templates and patterns. 

This release includes more than 100 performance-related updates for a faster and more efficient experience. There’s also a host of new features and enhancements that help improve the content creation process and streamline site editing. 

WordPress 6.4 was made possible by more than 600 contributors in at least 56 countries. Leading this release has been an underrepresented gender team, emphasizing WordPress’ commitment to fostering diverse voices in the open source project.

State of the Word 2023

Mark your calendars for State of the Word! The annual keynote address delivered by the WordPress project’s co-founder, Matt Mullenweg, will be held on December 11, 2023. For the first time, the event will take place outside North America—this time with the Spanish community in Madrid, Spain.

A live stream will be available for WordPress enthusiasts who will not be able to attend in person. Stay tuned for more information, including how to reserve a ticket, soon!

New in the Gutenberg plugin

Two new versions of Gutenberg shipped in October:

• Gutenberg 16.8 was released on October 11, 2023. It introduced enhancements to the Cover block and Font Library, and added the option to view the active template when editing pages.
• Gutenberg 16.9 was released on October 25, 2023. This update lets you rename nearly every block from within the editor, as well as duplicate or rename individual patterns. 

October’s Core Editor Improvement post dives into all the writing enhancements expected in the latest WordPress 6.4 release.

Episode 64: Patterns in WordPress – WordPress Briefing – A WordPress Podcast

Join WordPress Executive Director, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, as she goes back to the basics and offers some insight into block patterns for WordPress. Don’t miss this exciting insider’s look!

Team updates

• The journey to update WordPress.org continues with the launch of a new Showcase design. The redesigned Showcase inspires creativity, highlights the platform’s flexibility, and demonstrates what’s possible with WordPress.
• The Performance Team held a Hallway Hangout to discuss WordPress 6.3 performance impact in the field, diving into WordPress 6.4 performance improvements and looking ahead at what can be learned for WordPress 6.5.
• The Documentation Team created a new GitHub repo for end-user documentation and its translations to all locales. You can find out more about this here.
• Openverse has been awarded the 2023 Open Education Award for Excellence in the Open Infrastructure category. Congratulations!
• Learn more about the next chapter for the FSE (Full Site Editing) Outreach Program, which looks to transition into a focused space for solving issues, creating resources, and facilitating conversations around adopting Phase 2 of Gutenberg.
• The Accessibility team is holding weekly office hours to discuss accessibility principles and best practices for the project.

Requests for feedback & testing

• Version 23.6 of the WordPress mobile app for iOS and Android is ready for testing.

Episode 65: Little Sun Success – WordPress Briefing – A WordPress Podcast

Join WordPress Executive Director, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, as she looks at a recent WordPress success story with Little Sun. To help us, we spoke to two special guests with Little Sun, Romane Guégan, Senior Press and Communications Manager, and Ashley Mrozek, Senior Digital Manager. Don’t miss this opportunity for an insider’s look!

WordPress events updates

• 🇹🇼 WordCamp Asia has extended their call for sponsors for their conference slated to take place in Taipei, Taiwan, March 7-9, 2024. 
• 🇨🇷 There will be a WordPress #WPDiversity Speaker Workshop for Women Voices in Latin America in San Jose, Costa Rica on November 11, 2023.
• Don’t miss these upcoming WordCamps:
  • 🇪🇸 WordCamp Valencia 2023, Spain on November 10-11, 2023.
  • 🇮🇹 WordCamp Verona 2023, Italy on November 17-18, 2023.
  • 🇭🇰 WordCamp Hong Kong 2023, China on November 18, 2023.
  • 🇵🇰 WordCamp Islamabad 2023, Pakistan on November 25-26, 2023.

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Thank you to Bernard Meyer and Reyes Martínez for their contributions to this edition of The Month in WordPress.