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Wordpress has been a popular platform with both publishers and web masters, which is why any update or news, however small related to the platform is important. For a while, the core developers at WordPress have been trying to find ways to allow customization of the customizer. Wordpress announces the launch of its Version 4.5, which is currently in the Beta stage in April 2016. The Beta 3 for this version was released on the 9th of March 2016, while the Beta 4 would be released on March 17th 2016 with the release candidate on the 24th of March 2016. If all goes as per the roadmap defined, the final version will be up for download on 12th April, 2016. Coincidently, this is the launch date finalized for Facebook Instant Articles as well. Social networking giant Facebook aims to make publishing articles via Facebook easy and convenient, by integrating the WordPress plugin. Here, we will discuss the upcoming version for WordPress as well as Facebook Instant Articles to understand how it will benefit publishers and developers.

WordPress 4.5: All New Features

Wordpress 4.5 has released some interesting and apt features for the publishers, which has made formatting, editing and customization easy and convenient. Let’s have a look at some of these interesting and apt features. Do make a note that the features listed here are based on the Beta version. The final version may include more or the same number of features as mentioned here.

Adding Theme Logo

In WordPress, with the premium themes, you could upload custom logos using the options panel offered by the theme. But, you could not upload it in the customizer for most themes that supported including custom logos. That will change with WordPress 4.5. If your theme supports logos, then you can include the custom logo from the theme customizer itself.

Enhanced Visual Editor

Creating content is a major concern for WordPress users. If you fall into this category, you require a solution that will improve your content creation experience. This is probably why you will experience more enhancements in the WordPress visual editor. Adding links took time in the older versions of WordPress. With the shortcut (CTRL+K) you can insert links to the posts. This shortcut will display inline insert link menu. Just type the URL that you want to link, and continue with your post. This saves a lot of time. This is one of the inline text shortcuts that have been introduced with this version. Some of the other inline text shortcuts include Bold: **Bold** Italic: *Italic* Code: ‘Code’ If you don’t want the inline text shortcuts, you can always disable it.

Comment Moderation

Moderating comments is a heavy duty work for the bloggers; it takes up half of their time. Spams hit the comment list all the time, and combating them is a necessity. Whenever a comment is being posted on your content, you receive a mail which directs you to the comment. You have options to approve or delete the comment. But, there is no option to format the comment or change the style of the comment. You cannot edit the formatting of the comment, which is a necessity in many ways. With 4.5, you get to see the comment with the HTML formatting, which helps you edit it as you want.

Optimized Image Size

The responsive images were introduced in the earlier version i.e. WordPress 4.4. This allowed users to view the images in the size appropriate for the screen. This helped improve the performance of the website. Version 4.5 has improved the optimization of the images. Image sizes will be generated efficiently, with an observed reduction of upto 50% which will help optimize the web for better results. There are some under the hood developments as well which are aimed at making the lives of the developers easy and convenient. Let’s have a look at them individually.

Selective Refresh

In the past, even if only a small change was made to the customizer, the entire page would refresh and reload. That will not be the case with WordPress 4.5. This new version allows selective refresh, so only the portion that has been changed will be refreshed and reloaded. This saves time and improves optimization.

Inline Scripts

The new version introduces wp_add_inline_script() for Java. In the past, this script loader could be used for CSS and header/footer dependencies. This feature has been extended for JavaScripts in this new version. A lot of bugs have been resolved from the previous versions while coming up with this new version for WordPress.

Facebook Instant Articles

Along with the release of WordPress 4.5, publishers will see the release of Facebook Instant Articles. For this purpose, the makers have integrated a WordPress plugin that has been made by Automattic, the parent company for WordPress.com. This plugin will make it easy and convenient to generate instant articles and publish them. This is meant for the mobile devices, and the feature will be available with iOS and Android phones. The publishers will need to carefully review and format the articles before hitting publish. The minute they hit publish the articles will be snet across the millions of phones and gadgets powered by iOS and Android. It is both fast & responsive, and leverages on the technology used to upload photos. It is about 10 times faster than the standard mobile web. There is more scope for interactivity with this feature. It will allow you to zoom into the map, know where the image was taken, embed audio captions etc. Basically, you can make your content more interactive and engaging, and easily integrate it to the newsfeed. With the ease of use and convenience that WordPress offers, and the reach established by Facebook, this will help brands zero down on their target and market better. Wordpress, with its new version and this integration, is revolutionizing the way publishers, developers and web masters look at content, or develop websites. It’s time to rethink your business, brand as well as your website. Semaphore Software is an established WordPress Development Company with extensive experience and domain expertise. If you need help in redesigning your website, or coming out with a new website using WordPress, then get in touch with us at info@semaphore-software.com.