WordPress announced the release of version 4.1 of it’s software today, which is now available to either download or update directly from your WordPress dashboard.
The new version of WordPress is code named “Dinah” in honor of jazz singer Dinah Washington. In addition to a new default theme, it comes with several new features designed to keep you focused on what matters most — creating content.
In this post I’ll go over some of the new features of WordPress 4.1 and how they can benefit you.
WordPress 4.1 New Features
New Default Theme
With every new year comes a new default WordPress theme named after the year of release. The company describes Twenty Fifteen as “a blog-focused theme designed for clarity.”
The new theme reduces clutter and puts your content front and center. It’s suitable to be viewed on any screen size, whether on a phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer.
Distraction Free Writing
In order to help you concentrate on writing content, there’s a new distraction-free writing mode that automatically triggers as you start typing. Everything that’s non-essential to writing fades away and returns when you’ve stopped writing.
As someone who writes a lot of content on WordPress, this is the feature I’m most excited about. The sheer amount of stuff you’re surrounded by in the WordPress backend is overwhelming at times, so this is sure to make writing a lot easier.
Other Miscellaneous Features
- Language Selection: Switch to any language from the General Settings screen.
- Log Out Everywhere: If you’ve signed in to WordPress from multiple computers, there’s now an option to log out from all devices.
- Embed Vine Videos: Paste a Vine URL into a post and it will automatically embed itself.
- Plugin Recommendations: The plugin installer will recommend plugins for you to try based on other plugins you have installed.
If you’re interested in the more technical details about WordPress 4.1, you can see the full list of updates here.
