The Gutenberg team announced version 7.3 on January 22, 2020, and everyone was more than excited to see what the new version brings to the table.
This is the team’s second update of 2020, and fifty-six contributors helped Gutenberg 7.3 see the light of the day.
As always, we made sure to keep an eye on the new version release, so here’s everything you need to know about the Gutenberg update.
What enhancements does Gutenberg 7.3 bring? Are there any performance improvements?
WordPress contributors always try to make the most out of each version, which is why it is no surprise that there are dozens of improvements and enhancements. The main improvements in version 7.3 are made in the Navigation block, and Post element blocks. There’s also a new API 一 Block collections API, as well as performance improvements, especially in the page load time.
Here’s everything that’s new in this release:
Navigation block and its colors
Thankfully, the Navigation block continues to improve.
Although Gutenberg 7.3 hasn’t managed to make the block fully flexible (custom CSS still does wonders), improvements are highly visible 一 you can set the text color for all navigation items, as well as the background color for the Navigation block. You can even create your own custom color in the Navigation block. If you ask us, that’s more than enough for now.
Post element blocks
If you have been keeping up with Gutenberg releases, you know that in previous releases, the Gutenberg team came up with Post Title and Post Content blocks. And we are thankful for these blocks, as they can come in handy when you want to output the title and content of the posts. In Gutenberg 7.3, the team took the Post blocks to another level and introduced three new Post element blocks:
– Post Author block.
– Post Date block.
– Post Excerpt block.
If you want to test the new blocks, be sure to enable “Full Site Editing”. You can do so by navigating to Gutenberg → Experiments in your WordPress admin panel.
The new Block Collections API for developers
Each time there is a new Gutenberg release, you know there is going to be a gift for developers.
This time, the contributors created the Block Collections API, which plugin developers can use to register block collections based on the namespaces used for the blocks. This means that developers won’t have to waste time registering block categories and adding blocks to the registered categories.
Besides the Block Collections API, Gutenberg 7.3 introduced the ImageSizeControl component, text component, warning package, etc.
Page load time & performance improvements
When it comes to the performance improvements in Gutenberg 7.3, we have to say that we are impressed. The Gutenberg team successfully reduced the average time of an input event by almost half (47.76%, to be exact) compared to the previous version. Alongside this, the page loading time is also reduced by 29.25%. Bravo, Gutenberg team!
Is there anything else that’s new?
Sure! Dozens of bug fixes and various enhancements and improvements. If you want to see all the improvements made in Gutenberg 7.3, be sure to check out the official Gutenberg 7.3 release post on WordPress.org.
Are you excited to play with Gutenberg 7.3?
You should be! Especially because all Themes Kingdom WordPress themes are more than compatible with the newest Gutenberg version.
Is there anything you feel that’s left unsaid? If there is, be sure to share your thoughts in the comments below.
