WordPress 6.3 "Lionel": Site Editor, Patterns, Command Palette

WordPress 6.3 follows the project's convention of naming major releases after jazz musicians, and carries the name "Lionel" for Lionel Hampton. It was released on 8 August 2023, between WordPress 6.2 "Eric Dolphy" and 6.4 "Shirley Horn". The release is part of the WordPress project and is distributed through WordPress.org.

• Version: 6.3
• Named for: Lionel Hampton
• Release date: 8 August 2023
• Distributed via WordPress.org

WordPress 6.3 puts templates, content and patterns in one place so that a site can be taken from creation to completion without leaving the Site Editor. Pages can be created, browsed and edited from within the Site Editor with the template in view, and a page snapshot shows high-level page information and settings. Users can switch between editing content and editing the template, and publish one or many pages directly from the Site Editor.

• Browse, view and edit pages inside the Site Editor
• Page snapshot with high-level information and settings
• Seamless switching between content and template
• Publish one or many pages from the Site Editor

The release introduces the Command Palette, a new way to search a site and access common commands. It can be used to search editor preferences as well as run frequently used actions. It is also intended to speed up switching between editing pages, posts, templates and patterns.

• Search across the site and editor preferences
• Access common commands quickly
• Switch between pages, posts, templates and patterns

A new patterns page gathers all patterns in one place, including template parts and synced patterns. Patterns can be browsed together to see how they feel as a set, created in isolation before being added to a page, and managed by removing unused patterns or duplicating existing ones. Synced patterns, previously referred to as "reusable blocks", apply a single change across all parts of a site.

• Browse all site patterns together
• Create patterns in isolation
• Remove or duplicate patterns
• Synced patterns replace the term "reusable blocks"

WordPress 6.3 includes more than 170 performance updates and is reported as 24% faster than 6.2.2 in Largest Contentful Paint times. It adds support for the Scripts API and fetchpriority for images, with faster block template resolution, image lazy-loading and emoji loading. The release also carries over 500 new features and enhancements and more than 400 bug fixes, alongside additions such as the Details block, the Footnotes block, aspect ratio settings for images, style revision tracking, a distraction-free mode and previews of block themes before activation.

• 24% faster than 6.2.2 in LCP times
• 170+ performance updates
• 500+ features and enhancements, 400+ bug fixes
• Scripts API and fetchpriority support for images
• Details block and Footnotes block
• Image aspect ratios and style revisions
• Preview block themes before activating
• Over 650 contributors credited

WordPress evolves through the Gutenberg project, a long-term reimagining of how content is created and managed on the web. Phase 1 introduced the Block Editor in WordPress 5.0, and Phase 2 focused on site editing, culminating in WordPress 6.3 with the launch of the Site Editor and block-based tools extending across an entire site. Phase 3, centred on collaborative editing and workflows, follows on from that work.