What’s new in WordPress 5.4? New features and changes

Last updated: Dec 15, 2021

On March 31, 2020, WordPress 5.4 Adderley released. Available for update and download now. What's changed in WordPress 5.4, what's new and what's changed.

WordPress 5.4 Release Date

WordPress 5.4 is the first major release of 2020 and released on Tuesday, March 31, 2020.

The development cycle for WordPress 5.4 had the following schedule.

On April 29, 2020, WordPress 5.4.1 released. This is a security update that fixes the vulnerability.

On June 10, 2020, WordPress 5.4.2 released. This is a security update that fixes the vulnerability.

WordPress 5.4 Codenames

WordPress codenames themselves after jazz musicians.

WordPress 5.4 named Adderley after the American jazz musician Nat Adderley.

Nat Adderley Work Song – YouTube

Server requirements for WordPress 5.4

The following requirements apply to run WordPress 5.4.

• PHP version 7.3 or greater
• MySQL version 5.6 OR MariaDB version 10.1 or greater
• Apache or Nginx

How to get WordPress 5.4

WordPress 5.4 available on the download page.

Please refer to the article below on how to download WordPress.

How to update WordPress 5.4

To update to WordPress 5.4 click the Update Now button on the Update page of your dashboard.

Be sure to back up your files and database before a major update.

You will be in maintenance mode during the update.

New features and changes in WordPress 5.4

When I updated to WordPress 5.4, there were some new features and changes, such as.

It reports a 14% reduction in editor loading time and a 51% reduction in input time.

Gutenberg Block Editor

Welcome Guide

After updating to WordPress 5.4, the description of the block editor appears in a modal.

Fullscreen mode

The block editor displays in Fullscreen mode. If you’ve updated from WordPress 5.3, you’ll see it in the mode you last enabled.

To turn off the Fullscreen mode, do the following.

1. Click on the menu icon at the top right
2. Uncheck Fullscreen Mode

Text Color

It is now possible to specify a color for specific characters in a paragraph. Select a character, press the ▼ button, and select the color you want to specify.

Button block

It is now possible to arrange many buttons in a row. Also, it is now possible to specify a gradient for the background color of the button.

Cover block

Added the ability to specify a gradient for the background color of the cover block.

New block

Social icons and TikTok added as new blocks.

Featured image

Added the ability to register featured images by drag and drop.

Selecting many blocks

Selecting many blocks by clicking or dragging while holding down the Shift key.

Site Health Status

Notifications about site performance and security have added to the dashboard.

Changes for developers

The following changes come for developers of themes and plugins

Calendar Widget

The HTML for outputting calendar widgets has changed. The navigation link has moved to the nav element following the table element.

Theme Requirements

You can list the WordPress and PHP versions you need for your theme. Write the following in style.css

Requires PHP：Required PHP version
Requires at least：Required WordPress version

New function

The apply_shortcodes function has added. This is an alias for the do_shortcode function that displays the shortcode.

New Action

wp_nav_menu_item_custom_fields added. Add custom fields to navigation menu items.

Custom shortcut

Added the ability to add keyboard shortcuts to the block editor.

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