WordPress 4.5 has been out a month or so now, and if you haven’t already updated (or even if you have) you might be wondering what all the new changes are. We’re going to walk through the new features one by one so you can understand exactly how they work. Also, version 4.5.2 is out now, so be sure to update even if you have 4.5 already and get the latest security patches.

WordPress 4.5 is named “Coleman”. It brings quite a few new features to the table you may want to try out – some of which people have been waiting for a long time.

Theme Customizer – LogoLink Editing (inline)

When you’re in the WordPress editor and need to add a link, you have to click the icon and wait for the dialogue box to popup, enter the links, and save to go back to the editor. Now with WP 4.5 you just have to click “Ctrl-K” as a keyboard shortcut and you get the URL box inline. This makes adding links a breeze (just keep in mind that it only works with the visual editor).

WordPress 4.5 inline link editing

Text shortcuts

Also, newly added are shortcuts for code and hr:

`your code` to transform <code>my code</code>
Use — to transform <hr />

Improved Comment Moderation

Over the years, those of us that have been using WP a very long time (like 10 years) can honestly say that comment moderation has always been a pain. So much so, that many of us have just plain turned comments off altogether. If you do still have comments turned on, you’re likely getting the same old emails notifying of a new comment. The thing is, you probably haven’t clicked on the link to view the comment in years (because it doesn’t do anything). It takes you to a screen that shows the comment (out of context), with no ability to approve. You have to further navigate to the comment section of dashboard admin to do that. Now when you click the link you can approve and/or edit the comment as soon as it opens up.

Responsive Theme Customizer Preview

Now, when you’re using the theme customizer to make changes you’ll see new options to view it in responsive (mobile or tablet) view, in addition to normal (desktop) mode).

WordPress responsive theme customizer preview

Optimized Mobile Images

You may or may not know that in WordPress 4.4 support was added for mobile responsive images. People with smaller screens see images appropriate for their screen size. Now in WP 4.5 these images will be optimized by an additional 50% (making your site easier to load – and the web a better place).

New Login options

Another smaller (but much welcomed) feature is the ability to login by email instead of username. This may not seem like that big of a deal, but for those of us with dozens of sites to maintain and take care of (for clients and ourselves), you don’t always remember what the username actually is. Having the ability to login with just your email address makes things oh so much easier!

WordPress 4.5 login box

There are other security and developer features added under the hood, but these are the features that WordPress dashboard users should know about.

Have you updated to WordPress 4.5 yet? What are your thoughts?