Today we will see a comparison walkthrough between WordPress 6.2 vs WordPress 6.3.

If you are wondering, “Do I need to update to WordPress 6.3? Will it destroy my perfect website?” both questions are logical and need to be answered.

As time passes, plugins and themes get updated. The more you update, the more compatible you make your website.

If you are happy with version 6.2, it’s good but will your website survive in the long run? WordPress 6.3 brings some major features and bug fixes that are way more handy and flexible.

Take a look at the details and you will get your answer.

WordPress 6.2 vs 6.3 At A Glance

WordPress 6.2 Version

WordPress version 6.2 came to release on March 29, 2023, named ‘Dolphy‘. It offers some major and minor features. But overall all the features come in handy to the users. Check out the list below for details.

1. Introducing the Redesigned Site Editor

WordPress version 6.2 offers a well-designed clear site editor. Gutenberg 14.8 brings a significant update to the Site Editor interface with Browse Mode. This makes navigating templates and template parts smoother. You can also easily add new ones using the sidebar.

2. Enhanced Menu Management through the Navigation Block

With WordPress 6.2, you can easily rearrange elements in the Navigation Block. It has a list view in the block settings sidebar. Clicking on a menu item takes you to the selected Page Link’s settings sidebar.

You can edit link details like label, URL, description, link title, and link rel. Also. you can add, organize, delete items, and even create new Navigation menus.

There are more editing controls with Restrict editing, Disable movement, and Prevent removal.

3. Streamlined Block Inserter Experience

The Block Inserter has been enhanced with multiple improvements to make editing smoother. The interface design has made it easier to move between pattern and media categories.

When you have media files on your site, a dedicated Media tab appears in the Block Inserter. You can either drag and drop them or click to insert them.

Also, there is a button to access the WordPress Media Library.

4. Headers and Footers for Block Themes

WordPress 6.2 brought you a good collection of fresh header and footer templates to explore. According to what we found, those templates were speedy, high quality, and compatible with any site’s templates and block theme.

5. Seamless Integration of Openverse Media within the Editor

Openverse holds a collection of 600 million free-to-use images and audio files. With the integration in WordPress 6.2, Openverse is now part of the Block Inserter tool.

To use it, simply click on the Media tab in the Block Inserter. A panel will appear where you can search for images and see previews directly.

6. Uninterrupted Writing with Distraction-Free Mode

WordPress 6.2 introduces Distraction-Free editing mode. This mode removes unnecessary elements from the screen so you can concentrate solely on your content.

To enable this mode, click the three-dot icon in the upper right corner and choose the option.

7. Introducing the New Style Book

WordPress 6.2 lets users preview various blocks globally that can be added to their site. This feature is called the Style Book. It is accessible through the eye icon in the Styles header of global styles.

Style Book shows users a fast preview of how global styles will change the look of various blocks. This eliminates the need to insert those blocks into a template.

8. Effortless Style Replication through Copy-Paste

The previous WordPress update allows you to easily duplicate the style of one block and apply it to others for uniformity.

Simply refine the design of one block, and then duplicate its style onto other blocks. This functionality is only accessible on secure (https) websites and supported browsers.

9. Personalized CSS Enhancement

With the Global Styles interface, you can easily integrate your custom CSS into your site. You can insert custom CSS rules that won’t be overwritten during theme style updates.

Custom styles can be applied on the block style panel. You can also add custom CSS via More Styles actions button in the Styles toolbar. An Additional CSS element appears in the pop-up menu.

10. Sticky Positioning

In WordPress 6.2, the sticky positioning feature is introduced. Available for Group blocks and is turned on by default.

If you want more control, you can enable it specifically in the Position panel. However, it only works for Group blocks at the main level of the page.

Also, this feature is only for individual blocks and not for global styles. So if you’re looking to create a sticky header, you might need to explore other methods.

11. Widget Importation

WordPress 6.2 offers smooth importing of widgets from Classic themes to Block themes when you are moving from a classic theme to a block theme existing widget areas. This will transform them into template parts that seamlessly fit your new theme.

12. Local Fonts in Themes

Default WordPress themes now include Google Fonts directly. This ensures improved privacy as the fonts are not fetched from Google.

Fixing WordPress 6.2 Issues

Every improvement comes with some fixing. The same goes for the 6.2 version as well. Though some bugs arose, the dev team jumped right away to fix them ASAP.

1. Block themes now correctly handle shortcodes in user content.
2. A security issue related to updating attachment thumbnails has been resolved.
3. An issue that allows malicious code through open embed auto-discovery has been fixed.
4. Users with low privileges can no longer bypass KSES sanitization in block attributes.
5. A problem with path manipulation through translation files has been fixed.

A Short History Of 6.2 Sub-Versions

WordPress 6.2 release date was March 29, 2023.

WordPress 6.2.1 introduced essential bug fixes, addressing 20 issues in the core system and 10 within the block editor. 

WordPress 6.2.2 version was released to fix a bug and a security problem. It was mostly for security updates.

Worpress 6.3 Version

On August 8, 2023, the WordPress team came up with an announcement. WordPress 6.3 “Lionel“, another major release was made.

With “Lionel,” making a whole new site without knowing the code gets even easier with WordPress 6.3. The features are described in detail.

1. Unified Site Editor Experience

Though Site Editor was introduced in version 6.2. But to make it better and user-friendly WordPress 6.3 introduces some features.

a.  Theme Preview

Now you can preview how a theme will look on your website before activating it. If it’s a block theme, go to “Appearance > Themes,” hover over the theme, and click “Live Preview” to see it. For other themes, this button takes you to the Customizer.

b. Editor Loading

With WordPress 6.3, the editor is now better at loading fully before you can start using it. This prevents issues from interacting with the editor too soon.

c. Distraction-Free Mode

WordPress 6.3 introduces Distraction-Free editing in the site editor. When the feature is enabled, unnecessary sidebars and toolbars disappear. This will help you to focus on your work.

d. ViewLink Button

A new feature adds a button (ViewLink) that opens any published content in a new window. This is handy for quickly seeing your work without searching through settings.

e. Improved Template Descriptions

Template descriptions are now better at explaining what each template does. This helps you choose the right one for editing in the Site Editor.

f. Duotone Controls

In WordPress 6.3, Duotone image filter controls are now available. You will find it in the settings sidebar. This makes them easier to find and use.

g. Fluid Typography

Before, big fonts didn’t scale well on small screens. Now, in version 6.3, typography adjusts more smoothly appearing on small screens.

2. Create and Sync Patterns

There are two kinds of patterns. Synced patterns act like reusable blocks. Unsynced patterns are similar to regular block patterns.

In the 6.3 version’s Patterns admin section, big changes happened to how block patterns work. You can handle both template parts and patterns now. They’re sorted into groups. Take note that some patterns from the theme can’t be changed (they’re locked).

You can create your own template parts and patterns here, next to the theme’s ones. To make a new pattern, a window pops up where you name it and say if it’s synced. Your custom pattern shows up in “My patterns” at the top.

When you click it, you can see more and preview how it looks at different sizes. At the bottom, there are links to manage all parts and your patterns.

3. Command Palette for Efficiency

Command Palette makes it super easy to access extra functions in the editor. You can use keyboard shortcuts – ⌘+k on Mac or Ctrl+k on Windows. Or you can click the search icon in the sidebar, or click the Title Bar to open it quickly.

In the Site Editor, if you click the lens icon or press cmd + k (ctrl + k on Windows and Linux), the Command Palette appears. When you start typing, the Command Palette suggests different things you can do. It’s a quick way to do tasks or go to specific parts of the editor.

Right now, it can search, move around the editor, make new posts/pages, change how the editor looks, and more. You can also add your own commands using the Command Palette API to make it do even more things.

4. Style Revisions for Design Tracking

Now, in the Site Editor, there’s a cool new feature. It’s called “Revision History.” This lets you see all the changes made to your work and choose any older version to bring back.

You can look for the “Revisions” button in the Styles panel. When you click it, you’ll see a timeline of changes. Each change has the name of the person who made it and when they did it.

Also, inside the Site Editor, you can now find a style option that used to be in another place.

5. Footnotes Block for Annotations

In WordPress 6.3, they’ve added a new Footnotes block. Now, when you’re writing and want to add a footnote to a text (like a paragraph or heading), it’s really easy.

Just put your cursor where you want the footnote, and click the Footnote button in the block menu. The footnote block will show up at the bottom of the page.

This new Footnotes block does the work of managing your footnotes for you. It adds, removes, and rearranges them as you edit your text. This is super helpful, especially for long articles and to add references.

6. Details Block for Content Visibility

You can now use the new Details block to hide content until someone wants to see it. This block has two parts: a summary and the hidden content.

Usually, the content stays hidden, but you can change this in the block settings on the side.

You can compare it to an Accordion widget as it acts exactly like that.

7. Performance Boost

In WordPress 6.3, there are over 170 performance improvements. These include making scripts load faster by deferring and loading them asynchronously.

Images also load more efficiently with a “fetchpriority” attribute. It helps to display the most important image first. There are some other enhancements that came along such as block templates, lazy-loading images, and emoji loading.

Note:- The fetchpriority attribute is used to mark an image important for LCP measurement and actually improves the metrics.

8. Supports PHP 7

WordPress has stopped supporting PHP 5 due to a low usage percentage (3.8%). Now, it demands at least version 7.0.0 of PHP.

The usual baseline for this decision is 5%. However, websites on PHP 5 with WordPress 6.2 will still get security updates.

If you’re using PHP 5.6 or older, it’s suggested to update to version 7.4 for improved performance, security, and compatibility.

9. Enhanced Accessibility

WordPress 6.3 includes over 50 accessibility improvements to make the platform more accessible. Moreover-

• Labeling has been improved for better understanding.
• Navigation with tabs and arrow keys is optimized.
• The heading hierarchy has been revised for clarity.
• The admin image editor has new controls for easier use.

These changes benefit users of assistive technologies.

10. Improved Caching

In WordPress 6.3, they’ve added class caching for WP_User_Query. Now, when someone sends a query, the results are stored in the cache.

This means that repeated queries can fetch data from the cache. It does not have to reach the database every time.

This major update helps to reduce the workload on the database, making the website faster.

11. Quick New Feature Highlights

Fixing WordPress 6.3 Issues

1. The Cache-Control header has been updated. It now includes the “no-store” directive. It also includes the “private” directive. These directives prevent caching. They specifically target logged-in user data.
2. jQuery updated from v3.6.4 to v3.7.0.
3. The External library includes Sizzle selector engine as inlined code, and performance improvement.
4. The username and password input fields have been updated. They now include the required attributes. These changes are present in the WordPress login form
5. Fixed PHP 8.1 deprecation notice related to get_the_author() and $authordata.
6. New plugins_list filter hook to filter the list of displayed plugins.
7. Introduced item_trashed label for block editor messages when moving entities to Trash.
8. Non-block themes can enable block link color and border tools. This can be done via the add_theme_support() function. These themes don’t require a theme.json file for this purpose.

A Short History Of 6.3 Sub-Versions (updated)

WordPress 6.3.1 comes with a minor release addressing 4 bugs in Core and 6 bugs in the block editor. The Release Candidate announcement provides a summary of these maintenance updates.

WordPress 6.3.2 is out with 19 Core bug fixes, 22 for the Block Editor, and 8 security fixes. 

How To Install WordPress 6.3?

To install WordPress version 6.3:

1. Download the WordPress 6.3 installation files from the official WordPress website.
2. Extract the downloaded files to your computer.
3. Create a new database for WordPress on your web hosting account.
4. Upload the extracted WordPress files to your web hosting server using an FTP client or file manager.
5. Navigate to your domain name using a web browser.
6. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the WordPress installation process, including entering your database information and creating an admin account.
7. Once the installation is complete, log in to your WordPress dashboard to start using WordPress 6.3.

Final Thought

WordPress 6.3 is better than 6.2. It offers enhanced caching, streamlined editing, improved previews, and better accessibility. This version, named “Lionel,” prioritizes user-friendliness. WordPress 6.3 contributes to enhanced website performance. Additionally, it facilitates smoother content creation and customization. Don’t worry if you are a beginner or an experienced developer, the platform is suitable for both.