In an exciting development, the highly anticipated Gutenberg 16.0 has been unveiled today, bringing with it a game-changing feature: page management within the Site Editor. This marks the initial stride towards a seamless integration of content and design editing, promising a unified and streamlined user experience.
One of the most remarkable aspects of this update is the ability for users to effortlessly create new pages and access page details directly from the sidebar. This innovative approach mirrors the familiarity of editing a page in the block editor while ensuring a smooth and uninterrupted design editing workflow.
Notably, Automattic-sponsored core contributor Nick Diego emphasized the benefits of this groundbreaking advancement: “With the new Gutenberg 16.0, you can practically construct an entire website without ever leaving the Site Editor. This significantly accelerates the site creation process, provides a clearer preview of the final outcome, and minimizes the cognitive strain of switching between different editors.”
The upcoming WordPress 6.3 release will incorporate the enhanced Site Editor, along with the stabilisation of the Details block. Formerly an experimental feature, the Details block now stands on its own, no longer carrying the Experimental flag. To streamline its implementation, the summary has been included as an integral part of the block itself.
Furthermore, another prominent addition making its debut in Gutenberg 16.0 is the Command Center. Initially conceived as a quick search tool within the editor, this feature has successfully transitioned out of the experimental stage. In fact, it is slated to become a major component of the upcoming release. Moreover, the Command Center’s API is now publicly available, opening up exciting opportunities for developers to create customized commands.
This release of the plugin also brings several noteworthy improvements that directly enhance the user experience:
- Optimized and condensed unlinked spacing controls, effectively reducing their footprint in the settings UI.
- Introduction of block spacing and layout controls to the Post Template block, granting users the power to control the spacing between posts within the editor.
- Streamlined drag-and-drop functionality in the List View, making it easier to move items to the top and bottom positions.
- Addition of a delete action for pages in the navigation sidebar, allowing for efficient management of page hierarchy.
For a more comprehensive overview of all the exciting enhancements, bug fixes, and updates in terms of tooling, accessibility, and performance, we invite you to explore the detailed release post accompanying Gutenberg 16.0.