WordPress 4.3 Billie changes the way you write posts

WordPress 4.3 Billie named after Billie Holiday was released today. You can view the highlights video below:

Editor text formatting shortcuts

Probably one of the best enhancements in WordPress 4.3 is the editor formatting shortcuts. Now while using the visual editor you can easily create lists, headings and blockquotes. Here are the shortcuts:

Typing * or - will automatically give you a proper HTML list right away. Same for 1. or 1) , but then ordered. Not your intention? Pressing backspace will undo this change.

Starting your paragraph with two to six number signs # will convert that paragraph to a heading. Similarly the greater-than symbol > will convert the paragraph to a blockquote.

Read more about editor changes and enhancements here.

Site icon feature

WordPress 4.3 adds the ability for site owners to manage their site’s favicon on desktop and mobile. Site Icons work out of the box, are theme independent, and don’t require theme support. There are four sizes that WordPress supports by default:

32x32px favicon.
180x180px app icon for iOS up to the iPhone 6+.
192x192px Android/Chrome app icon.
270x270px medium-sized tile for Windows.

Menu Customizations

In WordPress 4.3 menu management is being added to the Customizer, extending the types of objects that the Customizer can manipulate to include nav_menu taxonomy terms and nav_menu_item posts. Now you can edit, order, remove menu items using Customizer and you can preview it on the site in realtime.

Read more about new menu customization feature here.

Singular.php: New Theme Template in WordPress 4.3

A new theme template has been added to the theme hierarchy as of WordPress 4.3. This template follows the rules of is_singular and is used for a single post, irregardless of post type. It comes in the hierarchy after single.php, page.php, and the variations of each. Themes that used the same code for both of those files (or included one in the other) can now simplify down to the one template.