WordPress 4.1 Improvements

Latest WordPress 4.1 Improvements

When WordPress 4.0 was released on September 4, 2014, it did not bring all the new features people were expecting when jumping from 3 to 4. However, with the latest release of 4.1, which had a final release this past December, it introduced a set of new features and visible changes that really made a huge impact.

New Improvements Recently Added

You can find a more technical list of improvements at the official WordPress website under the version 4.1 release notes site: http://codex.wordpress.org/Version_4.1

Distraction Free Editing Mode Refresh

The Distraction-Free editing mode is not a new feature with this latest release. When used, it allows the edit screen to hide other elements to free up your screen for a more peaceful and clean writing experience – one which was used in creating this blog entry. This has been fine tuned and become a very elegant feature that most WordPress blog writers will find elegant and necessary. Also with 4.1, it allows you to easily change between the Distraction-Free and Normal modes with great ease.

Session Management

In WordPress 4.1, a new screen was added for user profiles. This displays users logged into sessions and grants you the ability to log them out. The view displays additional information which is a benefit if you have a lot of people contributing content to the website and have been struggling to monitor some of their activities. A few details that displayed on this screen include log-in time, session expiry date/time, and the IP address they are logged in from.

Export Content Improvements

Another function that has been improved is the ability to export content with controls over the length of time you want to export content from and criteria to select specific authors or categories. This tool has been used via API in the past which will still function as it did. With an added benefit of being able to include criteria in order to export data via the API integration in this latest 4.1 version.

Additional Languages

WordPress 4.1 includes additional language options for installation through the dashboard menu. This brings the total of languages that WordPress has been translated to 44 languages. You can switch the language you are using within the General Settings screen at any time.

New In-Line Editing Media Options

The media editing screen in the WordPress page editor has been enhanced significantly with this latest version. Included now are in-line editing options that enable users to adjust image alignments on the fly without having to open a separate window to edit these images. This seems to follow a trend that WordPress has been focusing on which is to make sure each version’s set of features are cleaner, more elegant, and easier to use.

Additional Core Changes

WordPress 4.1 also has some additional improvements to the core infrastructure of the software that are not visible to most end users. This includes additional functions added to the query classes in the code. This includes some elements being rewritten and results directly in an improvement on performance when populating data from the database. An additional improvement was made so that developers can easily add title tags to themes which previously was done using an unsupported method. This along with several other improvements really shows that WordPress is trying to help support their developers and provide a platform that is easier to use for everytone.

Other Important Changes

• Enhanced User Interface for updating and installing themes and plug-ins
• Several improvements to media management on mobile devices.
• Accessibility Improvements
• Customizer API