WordPress 5.5 Brings Manual Plugin Update
Finally, WordPress version 5.5 has brought our long awaited feature and that is manual update. Now you can simply upload a zip file to update an existing plugin. Yes, just like that.
Here is how it looks like :
Why is this good news?
Previously, you will have to install a plugin in order to activate such feature. Using WordPress 5.5 this can be done straight out of the box with any additional plugin.
Remember the less plugin you install on your WordPress website the better. It’s great that essential features like this has been included straight out of WordPress installation. I’m sure we will want to be less and less reliant on third party plugins for such essential features.
What else are new in WordPress 5.5?
Gutenberg Looks Better
Block editor looks and works better! Since the introduction of Gutenberg, I honestly did not get why a lot of people hated it. Maybe it wasn’t a welcome change at first but after using it for a while I can’t see how I can go back to the classic editor. With the latest release of WordPress 5.5, we are seeing how serious WordPress wants Gutenberg to be acceptable by everyone. In my opinion, they are on the right path.
Inline Image Editing and Lazy Load Images
You can edit your images without opening another window. Crop, rotate and resize photos all you want straight from the block editor. Lazy load now works straight out of the box, but don’t uninstall your lazy load plugins yet. As of now lazy loading limits on posts and pages. This is definitely a great start.
Auto Update Plugins
Not a feature to get you excited about if you are using plugins from Skyrocat unfortunately. If you have bought license to your plugins and themes, some of them will have an auto update feature that you can toggle on or off. Very useful for minor plugins like Akismet, or anything that you might just want to ‘auto update‘ that won’t potentially break your website.
Better Previews
You can now preview your draft posts and pages to display Desktop, Tablet, or Mobile View. Quite handy, definitely a welcome addition.
XML Sitemaps
If you are using Yoast SEO plugin, you already have a Sitemap generated. However this is for those who are not using Yoast. Good news, by default, XML sitemaps are now generated out of the box without installing any additional plugin.
It seems that we will get to the point where many essential features will become part of WordPress. I am looking forward to the day we will become less reliant towards third party plugins for the features that we expect to see from WordPress or any Content Management System (CMS).
