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By Mark Robson

WordPress 5.9 “Joséphine”

Welcome to Joséphine!

Introducing 5.9, Joséphine. Named in honour of acclaimed international jazz singer Joséphine Baker, this latest, most versatile WordPress release is here: download it or update it directly from your dashboard. 

As a lifelong civil rights campaigner, Joséphine Baker believed that all people could live in harmony together, just as different instruments in a jazz band blend together to make a whole piece. Turn on a playlist from your favourite music service and enjoy her famous renditions of “You are the greatest love”, “Sans Amour”, and “Love is a Dreamer”, as you discover all the features of this brand-new WordPress release. 

Full site editing is here

It puts you in control of your whole site, right in the WordPress Admin.

Say hello to Twenty Twenty-Two

And say hello to the first default block theme in the history of WordPress. This is more than just a new default theme. It’s a brand-new way to work with WordPress themes.

Block themes put a wide array of visual choices directly in your hands, from colour schemes and font combinations to page templates and image filters, all from the Site Editor. So in one place, you can give Twenty Twenty-Two the same look and feel as your organisation’s other materials – or take your site’s look in another direction.

You already have the Twenty Twenty-Two theme – it came installed with WordPress 5.9. You will find it with your other installed themes.

Your personal paintbox awaits

Twenty Twenty-Two is not the only theme built for full site editing. More block themes are in the Themes directory, and the number will grow. 

When you use any of those new themes, you no longer need the Customiser. Instead, you have all the power of the Styles interface inside the Site Editor. Just as in Twenty Twenty-Two, you build your site’s look and feel there, with the tools you need for the job in a fluid interface that practically comes alive in your hands.

The Navigation block

Blocks come to site navigation, the heart of user experience.

The new Navigation block gives you the power to choose: an always-on responsive menu or one that adapts to your user’s screen size. And your choices are remembered! In 5.9, the block saves menus as custom post types, which get saved to the database.

More improvements and updates

Do you love to blog? New tweaks to the publishing flow help you say more, faster.

Better block controls

WordPress 5.9 features new typography tools, flexible layout controls, and finer control of details like spacing, borders, and more – to help you get not just the look, but the polish that says you care about details.

The power of patterns

The WordPress Pattern Directory is the home of a wide range of block patterns built to save you time and add to your site’s functionality. And you can edit them as you see fit. Need something different in the header or footer for your theme? Swap it out with a new one in a few clicks.

With a nearly full-screen view that draws you in to see fine details, the Pattern Explorer makes it easy to compare patterns and choose the one your users need.

A revamped List View

In 5.9, the List View lets you drag and drop your content exactly where you want it. Managing complex documents is easier, too: simple controls let you expand and collapse sections as you build your site – and add HTML anchors to your blocks to help users get around the page.

Treat every image in a Gallery Block the same way you would treat it in the Image Block.

Style every image in your gallery differently, or make them all the same, except for one or two. Or change the layout with drag-and-drop.

WordPress 5.9 for developers

Theme.json for child themes

In 5.9, theme.json supports child themes. That means your users can build a child theme right in the WordPress Admin, without writing a single line of code. 

This dev note has all the details. Take a look!

Block-level locking

Now you can lock any block (or a few of them) in a pattern, just by adding a lock attribute to its settings in block.json – leaving the rest of the pattern free for users to adapt to their content. 

Multiple style sheets in a block

Now you can register more than one style sheet per block, which lets a given block load only the styles its markup requests, and not a whole sheet. Read the details in this dev note.

The changes to the Gallery Block listed above are the result of a near-complete refactoring. Have you built a plugin or theme on the Gallery Block functionality? Be sure you read this dev note. It tells you what you need to do for compatibility.

Learn more about the new features in 5.9

Want to dive into 5.9 but don’t know where to start? Check out this free course about Simple Site Design from Learn WordPress. There are a variety of learning materials including short how-to video tutorials and resources on new features in WordPress 5.9, with much more planned.

Check out the Field Guide for more!

Check out the latest version of the WordPress Field Guide. It has lots of useful information with links to detailed developer notes to support you building in WordPress for everyone you serve. WordPress 5.9 Field Guide.

The Squad

The WordPress 5.9 release was led by Matt Mullenweg, and supported by this highly enthusiastic release squad:

WordPress 5.9 also reflects the hard work of 624 generous volunteer contributors. Collaboration occurred on 370 tickets on Trac and more than 1900 pull requests on GitHub.

2linctools, Aaron D. Campbell, Aaron Jorbin, Aaron Robertshaw, abesell132, Abha Thakor, acosmin, Adam – WPMU DEV Support, Adam Bosco, Adam Morgan, Adam Silverstein, Adam Zielinski, Addie, Adil Ali, aduth, Aezaz Shekh, Ahmed Chaion, ajotka, Akash Soni, Akira Tachibana, Alain Schlesser, Alan Jacob Mathew, Alex Concha, Alex Lende, Alexandru Vornicescu, alexeydemidov, Alexis Lloyd, alexstine, AlGala, allilevine, almendron, Amanda Riu, Anand Upadhyay, André, Andrea Fercia, Andrei Draganescu, Andrew Nacin, Andrew Nevins, Andrew Ozz, Andrew Serong, André, Andy Fragen, Andy Peatling, Andy Schmidt, andynick, Angelika Reisiger, Anjana Vasan, Ankit K Gupta, Ankit Panchal, Anne McCarthy, Anthony Burchell, Anthony Eden, Anthony Ledesma, Anton Vlasenko, Antonis Lilis, arena, Ari Stathopoulos, Arthur Chu, Ashfame, Ayesh Karunaratne, baelx, Bartlomiej, Beatriz Fialho, Beau Lebens, Beda, Benachi, benitolopez, Benjamin Denis, Benjamin Gosset, benjamin.anakena, Bernhard Reiter, bgardner, Bijay Yadav, BinaryKitten, Birgir Erlendsson (birgire), bobbingwide, Boone Gorges, Brad Jorsch, Brad Parbs, Bradley Taylor, Brandon Kraft, bravokeyl, Brennan Goewert, Brian Richards, bronsonquick, Bruno Ribaric, Brylie Christopher Oxley, Caleb Burks, calebwoodbridge, carepsules, Carike, Carlos Bravo, Carlos Garcia, Carolina Nymark, cdyerkes, Ceyhun Ozugur, Chad, Chiaki, Chintan hingrajiya, Chip Snyder, Chloe Bringmann, Chouby, Chris Klosowski, Chris Van Patten, chriscct7, Christian Tamayo, Christina Workman, Christopher Churchill, clucasrowlands, Colin Stewart, Collieth Clarke, Collins Agbonghama, Copons, Corey, Cory Hughart, Courtney Robertson, craigfrancis, Crisoforo Gaspar, critterverse, Csaba (LittleBigThings), Dávid Szabó, Daisy Olsen, Damon Cook, Dan Farrow, Dan Soschin, Daniel Bachhuber, Daniel Post, Daniel Richards, Daniel Shaw, danieldudzic, Daniele Scasciafratte, darerodz, Daria, Daschmi, datagutten, datainterlock, Dave Page, David Anderson, David Baumwald, David Biňovec, David Calhoun, David Gwyer, David Herrera, David Kryzaniak, David Mosterd, David Rozando, David Ryan, David Smith, davidwebca, Deb Nath Utpol, Debabrata Karfa, Deepak Lalwani, Denis Yanchevskiy, Denis Žoljom, Dennis Snell, Dhanendran, dhusakovic, DiedeExterkate, Dilip Bheda, Dion Hulse, dlt101, Dominik Schilling, donmhico, Donna Botti, dontgo2sleep, Doug Wollison, dpegasusm, Dr. Ronny Harbich, dratwas, Drew Jaynes, drosmog, dustinrue, ecotechie, ehtis, EkoJR, Ella van Durpe, Emmanuel Hesry, empatogen, Enchiridion, Enej Bajgorić, Enrique Sánchez, erayalakese, Eric Malalel, Erick Hitter, Erik, etoledo, Evan Mullins, Fabian Kägy, Fabian Todt, Faisal Alvi, fedepia, Felipe Elia, Felipe Santos, Felix Arntz, Florian TIAR, FPCSJames, fperdaan, Francesca Marano, Francesco, fullofcaffeine, Gal Baras, Garrett Hyder, Gary Jones, Gary Pendergast, gazchap, generosus, Gennady Kovshenin, George Hotelling, George Mamadashvili, George Stephanis, Gerardo Pacheco, Gilbert Pellegrom, Glen Davies, goldsounds, Govind, Grant M. Kinney, Greg Rickaby, Greg Ziółkowski, Guillaume TURPIN, Héctor Prieto, Hans-Christiaan Braun, haosun, Hareesh, Hasanuzzaman, Hauwa Abashiya, Haz, Henry Wright, herbmiller, Herm Martini, Herre Groen, hilayt24, hirofumi2012, Hitendra Chopda, Hossein Farahani, htmgarcia, Hudson Atwell, Hugh Lashbrooke, hugod, Ian Dunn, ianhayes94, ianmjones, Ignat Georgiev, Igor Benic, ilovecats7, infected, Ipstenu (Mika Epstein), Isaac, Isabel Brison, ismaeld, J.D. Grimes, Jack Reichert, Jake Spurlock, jakub.tyrcha, Jam Viet, James Huff, James Koster, Jan Thiel, janw.oostendorp, Jason Johnston, Jason R. Johnston, Javier Arce, Javier Casares, Jay Upadhyay, Jean-Baptiste Audras, Jean-Philippe, Jeff Bowen, Jeff Ong, Jeffrey Paul, Jenny Dupuy, Jeremy Felt, Jeremy Herve, Jeremy Scott, Jeremy Yip, Jesús Amieiro, Jesper van Engelen, Jessica Lyschik, Jignesh Nakrani, Joe Dolson, Joe McGill, joegasper, Joel James, Joen Asmussen, John Blackbourn, John Espiritu, John Godley, John James Jacoby, john zenith, JohnRDOrazio (CLPTE), Jonathan Bossenger, Jonathan Desrosiers, Jonny Harris, Jono Alderson, Joost de Valk, Jorge Costa, Jos Klever, Joseph Dickson, Josepha Haden, Joy, jsnajdr, Juan Ruitiña, JuanMa Garrido, Juhi Saxena, Juliette Reinders Folmer, Junaid Bhura, Junko Nukaga, Justin Ahinon, Justin DoCanto, Justin Tadlock, K. Adam White, KafleG, Kai Hao, kallookoo, Kalpesh Akabari, kaneva, Kapil Paul, Kelly Choyce-Dwan, Kelly Hoffman, keoshi, Keramot UL Islam, kero, Kerry Liu, Kevin Fodness, keyur5, Kharis Sulistiyono, Kjell Reigstad, Knut Sparhell, Koen Van den Wijngaert, Konstantin Obenland, Konstantinos Xenos, kurudrive, kwisatz, Kyle Nel, KZeni, lalitjalandhar, laurelfulford, Laxman Prajapati, leemon, leogermani, Liam Gladdy, liammitchell, Linkon Miyan, linux4me2, Loïc Antignac, Loran A. Rendel, Lucas Karpiuk, lucasw89, lucatume, Luis Felipe Zaguini, Luke Carbis, Luke Cavanagh, luovalabs, lynk, M Asif Rahman, Madalin Gorbanescu, Madison, Maggie Cabrera, Mai, Malae, malthert, manfcarlo, Manisha Makhija, Manzoor Wani, Marco Ciampini, Marcus Kazmierczak, Marek Hrabe, Marin Atanasov, Marius L. J., Mark-k, Mary Baum, Mateus Machado Luna, Matias Ventura, Matt, Matt Chowning, Matt Mullenweg, Matt Wiebe, mattoakley, Max, MaxD, Maxime Culea, mclaurent, MEDUSOR, Meg Phillips, Meher Bala, Mel Choyce-Dwan, mgol, Micah Wood, Michael Adams (mdawaffe), Michael Beckwith, Michael Burridge, Michael Nelson, Michal Czaplinski, Michel – xiligroup dev, Miguel Fonseca, mikaelmayer, Mike Jolley (a11n), Mike Schroder, Milan Dinić, Milana Cap, Minal Diwan, mirka, mjaschen, mjulian7, mmxxi, moch11, Mohammad Rockeybul Alam, moto hachi, mqudsi, mreishus, mrjoeldean, mtoensing, Muhammad Arslan, Muhammad Faizan Haidar, Mukesh Panchal, Musab Shakeel, Mustaque Ahmed, Nadir Seghir, Nalini Thakor, Namith Jawahar, Naoko Takano, NateWr, Ned Zimmerman, NettSite, Nicholas Garofalo, Nick Diego, Nick Halsey, nickcernis, Nico, Nidhi Jain, Niels Lange, Nik Tsekouras, Nikhil Chavan, nlpro, ockham, Olga Gleckler, Oliver Campion, Omar Alshaker, Omar Reiss, opr18, Outzen Larkin, Ov3rfly, ovann86, ovidiul, Paal Joachim Romdahl, Pablo Honey, page-carbajal, palmiak, Pankaj Mohale, Pascal Birchler, Patrick B, Paul Bearne, Paul Biron, Paul Bunkham, Paul Kevin, Paul Schreiber, Paul Von Schrottky, Paulo Pinto, pbking, Pedro Mendonça, pepe, Peter Wilson, Petter Walbø Johnsgård, Phil Johnston, Philip Jackson, Pierre Gordon, Pieterjan Deneys, Piotrek Boniu, Pooja Derashri, powerbuoy, praem90, Pramod Jodhani, Presskopp, presstoke, procodewp, psealock, psufan, pwtyler, Rachel Baker, Radixweb, Rahul Mehta, ralucastn, Ramon Ahnert, ramonopoly, ravipatel, Rehan Ali, Renatho (a11n), retrofox, Riad Benguella, Rian Rietveld, Rich Tabor, Richard Foley, richards1052, Rick Curran, Rishabh Budhiraja, Riyadh Ahmed, rmartinezduque, Robert Anderson, robertght, robtarr, Rodrigo Arias, Rohan Rawat, Rohan Sharma, Ronak Ganatra, Roxy Kohilakis, Ruslan, rviscomi, Ryan Welcher, S Page, Sébastien SERRE, Sören Wrede, Sabbir Hasan, Sabri Bouchaala, Safirul Alredha, Samir Shah, Samuel Wood (Otto), Sandip Mondal – a11n, Sanket Chodavadiya, Sarah Norris, sarayourfriend, Sathiyamoorthy V, savicmarko1985, Sayedul Sayem, Scott Buscemi, scribu, scruffian, Sean McMillan, Sebastian Pisula, Segayuu, Sergey Biryukov, Sergio Cinos, SergioEstevao, Shaharyar Afzal, shaunandrews, Shazahanul Islam Shohag, shimon246, Shital Marakana, Shiva Poudel, siddharth, Siddharth Thevaril, siliconforks, simonhammes, Siobhan, Siobhan, sirreal, sjlevy, skunkbad, Smit Rathod, snapfractalpop, Sourov Roy, spytzo, ssergei, stacimc, Stefano Minoia, Stefanos Togoulidis, Stephen Bernhardt, Stephen Edgar, Stephen Rider, Steve Dufresne, Steve Henty, stevegs, Storm Rockwell, Sybre Waaijer, Synchro, szaqal21, Taco Verdonschot, Takahashi Fumiki, Tammie Lister, Tara King, Tarei King, Tellyworth, terraling, Terri Ann, Tetsuaki Hamano, theMikeD, Thierry Muller, Thijs Hulshof, Thimal Wickremage, thisiswilliam, Thomas Patrick Levy, timlappe, Timothy Jacobs, titsmaker, tjcafferkey, tmatsuur, TobiasBg, tobifjellner (Tor-Bjorn Fjellner), Tomek, Tomoki Shimomura, Tony G, Tony Tahmouch, Tonya Mork, Toro_Unit (Hiroshi Urabe), Torsten Landsiedel, Tracy, Travis Northcutt, tubys, Tung Du, twstokes, Udit Desai, umesh84, Venkat Raj, versusbassz, verybg, Vicente Canales, Viktor Szépe, Vishit Shah, Vlad T, Vondelphia.com, vortfu, wb1234, WebMan Design | Oliver Juhas, Wes Theron, Weston Ruter, WFMattR, Will Skora, William Earnhardt, williampatton, wojsmol, woodyhayday, wp_kc, wpnomad a11n, wpweaver, Yagnik Sangani, Yui, Yvette Sonneveld, Zebulan Stanphill, and zoiec.

By release day, 71 locales had translated 90 percent or more of WordPress 5.9 into their language. Community translators are hard at work ensuring more translations are on their way. Thank you to everyone who helps to make WordPress available in 205 languages.

Many thanks to all of the community volunteers who contribute in the support forums. They help to answer questions from people across the world. The success of releases, from the first one in 2003, owes much to the efforts of the support contributors. 

If contributing to WordPress appeals to you, it’s easy to learn more and get involved. Discover the different teams that come together on the Make WordPress website and find out the latest plans on the core development blog.

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