WordPress 5.7 Esperanza is here!

The WordPress 5.7 "Esperanza" update has been released on March 9, 2021, and includes some great features that give more control over the look and feel of your website.

Want the newest version? Visit our WordPress tutorial to learn how to update from your admin dashboard. 

What’s new?

The WordPress 5.7 update includes 62 enhancements, 141 bug fixes, 4 feature requests, and 37 tasks (blessed). Here are some of the most noteworthy ones:

Block Layout

You can now drag and drop blocks using the Gutenberg user interface, which includes setting full-height to blocks for better layout control. Each variation of blocks will also allow you to have a description attached to it, which is perfect for social icons.

Icon Sizing

You can adjust the size of icons by choosing pre-populated size options (small, normal, large, huge). Font size can also be adjusted within blocks in the same manner.

Enhanced Buttons

Buttons can now be vertically aligned (in addition to horizontally), and a width percentage can be chosen for additional visual and responsive control.

HTTP to HTTPS

With the click of a button, you can migrate your WordPress content from HTTP to HTTPS, avoiding any mixed content issues! This means less manual work with changing URL settings.

Media Improvements

This update includes automatic lazy-loading iframes to improve the speed and performance of media on your website. This means the media won’t be loaded until it’s clicked on, reducing the time taken to load up your website.

Standardized Colors

We now have wp-admin standardized color palettes with more options to choose from (both light and dark) and greater color contrast between links.

Robots API

This update includes a filter-based Robots API, which provides central control over the robots meta tag. The function of the robots meta tag is that it lets you use a more granular and page-specific approach to search engine indexing, where you have more control.

To view the complete list of changes, you can refer to the WordPress.org website.

WordPress at Web Hosting Canada

If you currently use WordPress for your website through a shared web hosting account, you may want to switch to one of our Managed WordPress plans.

These accounts offer one-click staging so you can test updates or make changes to content before pushing to production (your live website). We also offer daily backups, a free SSL certificate, and recommended plugins for a quick-start experience. Overall, our Managed WordPress plans offer improved speed, security, and automatic minor updates!

Have any questions? Leave them in the comments below.