 Hi and welcome to Learn WordPress, in this session we are going to explore some of the new features that have landed with WordPress 6.4. We are going to cover the following features, the lightbox functionality of the image block, improvements to the group block, image and gallery thumbnails in the list view, advancements to the command palette, categories for patterns and enhanced filtering, the alignment settings, in sync patterns, importing and exporting patterns as JSON files, adding patterns to the navigation block, enhanced pagination in the query loop block, and finally, writing flow improvements as well as using the nofollow setting when adding links. Let's jump straight into it. Number 1, enabling the lightbox functionality. With a simple setting turned on, your images can now have added lightbox functionality, meaning when clicked on, they take over the full screen for easier and more immersive viewing. So at the moment when I click on an image, nothing happens. The individual image does not open up, but let's see how we can change that. You can set the lightbox functionality globally or for individual images. To select it for an individual image, merely select the image and then in your sidebar settings, enable, expand, on click. And let's select it for another image as well. But to set it globally, let's make our way to the site editor, click on styles, open up the style book and then we can select media and then the image block. And now we can enable, expand, on click from here and that means all your images will expand when clicked on. And you don't have to enable this setting for images one by one. Let's see this in action on the front end. When we select an image now, it will of course expand and I can just press escape or click outside of the image. And this is all possible thanks to the lightbox functionality. Next, let's talk about some exciting improvements to the group block. You can now rename group blocks, making it easier to distinguish between different parts of your content and of course it improves organization within the site editor. Let's see how it's done. Select a group block, click on the three vertical dots and then select rename. And in this case, I'm going to call it specialists call to action. Then I will select a second group block and follow the same process. In this group block, I will call services and then one more. And this one, of course, I will call prices. And now if we scroll up, we will be able to see each section named accordingly in our list view. Another new improvement is that you can now add a background image to the group block. Make sure you select the parent block in the list view and then open up styles. And then below background, you will see the option to select a background image. I will go ahead and add an image from my media library. And there you have it. Next, when working with images in your content, it's now easy to see at a glance where each image is directly in your list view. In this example, we can see the gallery and image thumbnails in the list view for quick skimming. This new feature also allows you to quickly find your way to a piece of content, a gallery or a specific image. Next, let's discuss some advancements to the command palette. The command palette was introduced with 6.3 and allows you to quickly navigate to different areas of your site and execute commands. For example, to create a new page. There are some new commands that come with 6.4. For example, opening up your list view, exiting the code editor, hiding or showing breadcrumbs etc. You can also now perform block specific actions seamlessly. For example, grouping, duplicating or adding before and after. Let's perform some of these new commands in the site editor. In this example, I am editing my about page. So to open up the command palette, I can click on the title bar or I can use the shortcut command K on Mac or control K on Windows. And now we can start executing some of the commands. So from here I can open up the list view, I can hide or show breadcrumbs for the page, I can open up the code editor and if I select a block, I can perform block specific actions. For example, adding a block after or before or even duplicating the block. Additionally, the command palette also allows you to transform a block to different types of blocks. And in this case, you have all these options to choose from. Now let's shift our direction to categories for patterns and enhanced filtering. You can now add categories to patterns. So to do that, let's make our way to the patterns area in our site editor and then click on the insertter to create a new pattern. In this case, I am going to create a contact info pattern. And when I click on categories, we will be able to select one of the categories provided by our theme or you can create your own custom category. In this case, I am going to select one of the existing categories called contact. And once selected, you can decide if you want this pattern to be synced or non-synced. And I'm going to go ahead with a synced pattern and click on create. And then you can create the pattern. And in the sidebar settings, you can edit your pattern's categories. You can remove a category, add more, etc. When we return to the patterns area, we will notice that our custom pattern is available below my patterns but also below the contact category which we've added. And when we make our way to one of our pages and insert a pattern, we will see that categories help us to organize our patterns but also to quickly find the pattern we are after. A more advanced filtering option is also now available, allowing you to sort by theme created patterns versus user created patterns along with synced or non-synced patterns. Number six, keep alignment settings in sync patterns. So say goodbye to alignment issues when creating a custom sync pattern. WordPress 6.4 ensures that all alignment settings in sync patterns are preserved. So let's say for example I want to turn this design into a synced pattern. You will notice it's already full width and now I can go ahead and create a synced pattern. I'll make sure it's synced, name it appropriately, in this case I will call it a four column call to action and I'll add the category full width and then create. Now we can see that the alignment settings for this pattern has been preserved. Let's go ahead and add this pattern to a new page and I will use the slash command. And when inserted, we can see the alignment settings are intact. The last thing related to patterns is that you can also now import and export patterns as JSON files. From the site editor, make your way to the patterns area and in this case I will open up my patterns, my custom synced and non sync patterns and then if you click on the three vertical dots, you'll be able to export this pattern as a JSON file. And to import, click on the plus icon next to patterns and then below create template part, you will see you can import pattern from JSON. Another great new feature is that you can now add buttons to the navigation block. Let's see how this works. Let's go ahead and edit our navigation menu in our home template. So the first thing you'll have to do is make sure that you select the navigation block and then we can click on the plus icon to add a new block. I'm going to add a book now call to action button. So to do that, I'm going to type book now and then create a draft page as this is the page I want folks to go to when they make the booking. And once I've done that, I will transform this block to a buttons block. And once transformed, I can edit. I will open up styles and then remove some of the padding of the block. And then I'll also change the background color and make the text bold. At the bottom, we will see that this button is linked to the page that we created. And we can also select to open in a new tab. Now I can go ahead and save the changes I've made. The enhanced pagination in the query loop lock is another important feature to highlight. At the moment, when you switch between two pages of the query loop lock, the entire page refreshes. That 6.4 has a solution. Let's see how we can change this. You merely have to select the query loop block and then in your setting sidebar, scroll down and then below sticky posts, you will notice it says enhanced pagination. Let's go ahead and enable this feature. And then after updating, we can preview this page in a new tab. And when we go to the next page, the page does not reload. To end off, let's look at some writing flow improvements as well as using the no follow setting when adding links. First up is deselecting blocks using the escape key. So if you have multiple blocks selected, you can merely click escape on your keyboard to view content. Next, you can use the keyboard shortcut commands shift and D on Mac or control shift and D on Windows to duplicate single or multiple blocks. So if you select a block, you can select the shortcut and then it will duplicate or you can select multiple blocks and repeat the keyboard shortcut. Next, let's talk about the verse block. In the past, it has always been difficult finding your way out of the verse block or adding a new paragraph. But now you can press enter three times and a new paragraph will be added. Lastly, let's touch on using the no follow setting for links. Normally when you add a link to your site, you tell search engines that the other website is trustworthy and relevant. However, sometimes you can't vouch for a site and you don't want it to negatively influence your SEO rankings. Well, then you can select the no follow setting. Setting a link as no follow is like telling search engines, hey, don't follow this link too closely, I'm not vouching for it, it's just there but I don't endorse it. So if you select a link and click on the pencil, below advanced, you will be able to select mark as no follow and therefore protect your SEO. Enjoy exploring WordPress 6.4 and visit Learn WordPress for more tutorials and training material.