What’s New in WordPress 4.2

WordPress 4.2 was released just a few minutes ago. This is the first major WordPress release of 2015. It fixes many issues and adds some great new features to WordPress. Sadly, some really cool features were dropped because they were not yet ready to be shipped. In this article, we will show you what’s new in WordPress 4.2 and which features you should try after updating your sites.

This is a major WordPress release, which means your site will not get automatically updated unless you are using managed WordPress hosting. You will have to initiate the update from your WordPress dashboard. As always, don’t forget to backup your WordPress site before updating.

New and Improved Press This Tool

WordPress 4.2 comes with the new and improved Press This tool.

It is a simple bookmarklet that you can drag and drop to your browser’s bookmarks bar or add to your mobile homescreen. This allows you to easily share any content from anywhere on the web to your WordPress site with a simple click or tap.

Press This will now automatically find images, excerpt, and title for the content you are sharing and embed it to a post on the fly. This will make sharing content a lot faster and easier for many users.

New Characters & Emoji Support in WordPress 4.2

Emoji are natively available on all modern devices including mobile phones. WordPress didn’t support emoji natively. WordPress 4.2 resolved this by adding the native support for emoji. You can now use emojis anywhere on your WordPress site.

The support for Emoji was made possible by the underlying work done to add native support for Chinese, Japanese, Korean characters. WordPress 4.2 will automatically switch your utf-8 database to utf8mb4. This change will also allow musical and mathematical symbols and even hieroglyphs.

While many users may not be as excited about Emoji support, the support for more language characters is a huge improvement for a very large global WordPress user base.

Faster Plugin Updates

Plugin updates required you to click on the update link and wait for a page to load which showed update progress. Then after the update you were able to move on to do whatever you were doing. This will change in WordPress 4.2 which now comes with a faster one-click plugin updates.

This feature was dropped during the beta.

More Auto Embeds

Just like YouTube videos, Tweets, and many other services, Tumblr and Kickstarter are now included into oEmbed whitelist in WordPress. You can now paste a link from Tumblr or Kickstarter and see it automatically embedded into the post.

Theme Switching in Customizer

WordPress 4.2 comes with some great improvements in the customizer. You can now switch themes directly from theme customizer and make changes. This will enable users to quickly preview themes and customize themes without even activating them.

Under The Hood Changes

Messages generated by JavaScript calls to the server will now be readable by screen-readers. Plugin authors and developers can use wp.a11y.speak() to send audible notifications.

Terms shared by multiple taxonomies will now be split when one of them is updated.

Complex ordering support with meta query clauses is now supported by WP_Query, WP_Comment_Query, and WP_User_Query.

There are some minor changes in the default WordPress color scheme.

There are many bug fixes and other under the hood improvements. You can see a full list of changes here.

We hope you liked this overview of what’s new in WordPress 4.2. We are particularly excited about faster plugin update feature. What are you excited about?

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Greet Each User with an Appropriate Message in WordPress with WP Greet Box

Often you see sites with annoying pop-ups that ask users to subscribe to their email newsletter. Our users do not appreciate that, so there comes a question how do you get your users attention to something specific such as newsletter, or a twitter account. In this article we will show you a plugin called WP Greet Box, that will let you greet each user individually and appropriately by sending a different message depending on the referral URL they came from.

For Example, if someone saw your link on twitter and opened it, you will have a welcome message on your post that will say: Hello, fellow twitter user, thanks for visiting our site. If you like this post, please retweet it (Retweet Link) and follow us on twitter if you like.

Now you have just added another twitter follower without annoying the user with a popup. Below are some screenshots of how this plugin looks:

This plugin is resourceful and you should definitely try it. If you are trying it, please post your comment with your thoughts and help others make the right decision.

Download WP Greet Box

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How to Display Recent Posts in WordPress

Displaying Recent posts often helps your users to visit them easily specially on the sidebar of a single post page. But in some designing processes people want to display recent posts in many different ways. In this post, we will show you various different ways you can display the recent posts in WordPress.

Displaying Recent Posts in a List Format

The list format is mostly used in sidebars of WordPress pages. You can display the recent posts by simply pasting the following code in a template file of your choosing for example sidebar.php:

<?php wp_get_archives( array( 'type' => 'postbypost', 'limit' => 10, 'format' => 'html' ) ); ?>

You can change the number 10 to the number of posts you like to display.

If your theme support Widgets, then there is an easier option for you. You can simply head over to the widgets page and add Recent Posts widget to your sidebar. That will save you from editing the codes.

Displaying Recent Posts with Summary

Some people like to display recent posts with a title and a short description. There are multiple ways of accomplishing that.

The first way is:

<ul>
<?php $the_query = new WP_Query( 'showposts=5' ); ?>

<?php while ($the_query -> have_posts()) : $the_query -> the_post(); ?>
<li><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></li>

<li><?php the_excerpt(__('(more…)')); ?></li>
<?php endwhile;?>
</ul>

And you make sure that the excerpt is a short description of the post. You must rewrite the excerpt to make it fit the word limit.

Another way to limit the number of characters displayed in the content is by manually stripping out post content during the query to display only a limited number of characters. To do that use this code:

  <ul>
    <?php $the_query = new WP_Query( 'showposts=5' ); ?>

    <?php while ($the_query -> have_posts()) : $the_query -> the_post(); ?>
    <li><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></li>

    <li><?php echo substr(strip_tags($post->post_content), 0, 250);?></li>
    <?php endwhile;?>
  </ul>

You may change the 250 to set the character limit of your desire.

Displaying Recent Posts with Full Content

Some people like to display recent posts with full content if WordPress is being used as a Content Management System (CMS).

<ul>
<?php $the_query = new WP_Query( 'showposts=5' ); ?>

<?php while ($the_query -> have_posts()) : $the_query -> the_post(); ?>
<li><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></li>

<li><?php the_content(__('(more…)')); ?></li>
<?php endwhile;?>
</ul>

You may change the number 5 to whatever you like. This is mostly used to make a page look like your blog page. So you should not need this if you are not running a CMS.

Now you should be able to display Recent Posts in your WordPress blog or a CMS.

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Post vs Pages

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The Dashboard

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Top 10 Most Important Things To Do After Installing WordPress

What do you do after installing Wordpress? This is a common question asked by beginners. In this article, we will show you the top 10 most important things you must do after installing WordPress.

1. Change The Title, Tagline, Time zone, and Favicon

The first three steps can be combined into one because you can quickly make those changes in the same area of your WordPress Admin Dashboard.

To change these, go to your Settings in your dashboard and choose General. Change both your site title and tagline to something that relates to your site.

Now scroll down the page to update your timezone. This functionality is important to show the most accurate date on your site, and it also helps with scheduling posts.

Towards the middle of the page you’re on (in General Settings), you’ll find the option to set your zone. You can choose a city that is in the same time zone as you live in or set by UTC. To find the right UTC setting, you can search a site like this one here to make sure you select the right time zone.

Don’t forget to save your changes.

The final part of item 1 is updating the favicon. This is the little icon that appears in the browser tab next to your site title which is important for your site’s identity. Often people don’t change this which ends up showing either the default WordPress icon or their hosting provider’s icon such as Bluehost, etc.

2. Change Your Permalink Structure

Unfortunately, the default permalink structure — the URL structure that tacked on the end of your site name — of WordPress is not very Google friendly. As that is the case, you should be sure to alter this to something else.

Go back to Settings and then select Permalink from the menu. There you will find a few different choices for setting a new structure. The best ones to use are either theDay and Name or Post Name options.

Select the one you prefer and then save your changes.

3. Configure the Reading Settings

While in the Settings area of your dashboard, you should also configure the Reading settings. Here you can set what your front page display will be.

This part is great if you want to have a custom homepage to display your services and have a separate page to display all your blog posts.

Navigate over to the Reading option in the menu and decide if you want your front page to show your latest posts or if you want to use a static page. Make your choice and then save your changes. You can always change this one later, so don’t feel too pressured.

As a quick note, you can also make some of the above-stated changes using the Customize option in the front-end of your site if you are logged in. However, following this flow of things simply speeds up the process a little.

4. Delete Unused Themes

Most WordPress users will install and test a few themes before deciding on one that’s a keeper. Instead of leaving those unused themes installed, be sure to delete them. Themes even ones that go unused, will need updates.

Leaving them there can create the unnecessary chore of updating them. And not updating them can create a hazard to your sites safety as it can give hackers a way in.

Thankfully, deleting unused themes is a snap. Simply find the menu item namedAppearance, and then go to themes. To delete a given theme, you need to hover over it and select Theme Details. After that, a window will open and the option to delete the theme will be available there.

5. Install a Cache Plugin

Why a cache plugin? Because it can help speed up your site. Caching helps take the load off your server and make your site faster. This is great for SEO as well as prevents your site from crashing during heavy load times.

Below are a couple of cache plugins that you can use in your WordPress site:

W3 Total Cache – This plugin can likely lay claim to being the most powerful cache plugin available for WordPress users. It has a ton of options for boosting your site and is a popular plugin of choice for CDN integration. The plugin really does pack a punch and can easily mess things up if you’re not sure how to configure it properly. If you’ve never used the plugin before, it may be better to start small before using this one. However, if you’d like to be brave and use this plugin, be sure to check out our step-by-step guide for setting it up:

WP Super Cache – This one is a bit easier to start using, and yes, it’s still a great cache plugin. Simply install it and turn on caching, and you’re one step closer to a faster site. There are other options that come with the plugin, just be sure you know what you’re selecting before you hit save. Want some help with this plugin? Check out our guide below:

6. Improving WordPress Security

When it comes to your website, it is probably best to be of the philosophy that it’s better to be safe than sorry.

WPBeginner uses Sucuri for security purposes. If you’d like to know why we chose this one over others, then be sure to give this post a read:

7. Install an Anti-Spam Plugin

No one likes spam.

Spammy comments are a huge headache for many WordPress site owners. Not only are they irritating, they’re also bad for SEO. To help alleviate the problems that come from this issue, you should install an anti-spam plugin on your site. Here are a few top choices:

Akismet – This plugin by Automattic is a premium anti-spam plugin that does wonders for keeping that icky spam stuff out. If you decide to use Jetpack in your site, then you can use that account to activate Akismet for your site. If not, you’’ll need to follow the prompts for fully activating the plugin after install. The free version is limited but can be upgraded it you pay.

Antispam Bee – This is another great free plugin that helps to block out those pesky spammers. Even though the Akismet plugin does a better job, this one is a great option too.

Either way, be sure you use one.

8. Install A SEO WordPress Plugin

SEO is an important part of any website. To ensure that your blog posts are getting maximum results, you need to optimize them using an SEO plugin. Though these types of plugins don’t automatically boost SEO, they do help you make the most of your blog posts.

A top choice for many is the WordPress SEO Plugin by Yoast. It’s easy to use and can even generate an XML sitemap at the click of the mouse. Want to know how to really boost the power of the plugin? Here’s our tutorial:

9. Optimize For Social Media Sharing via Sharing Plugins

First off, is this really important? Yes, absolutely! You shouldn’t wait for your site to get traffic before optimizing your site for social shares. The best and easiest way to optimize your site for social shares is to use a Social Sharing Plugin.

There are hundreds of these to choose from, and some of them shouldn’t be used as they tend to slow down site speed. However, there are others that get the job done without bogging you down.

Here is a great article that narrows down the choice a bit:

10. Start Scheduling Regular Backups

Now that you’ve spent all that time setting up and customizing your WordPress site, you wouldn’t want to lose any of this right? Well, in that case, you should create regular backups.

Here is our post on the best backup plugins for WordPress:

From the Editorial Team

All ten steps mentioned above are vital for a smart WordPress site. Obviously, there are others that some like to take after installing WordPress, but these ones should be at the top of the list.

Taking the time now to get things in order is important so you’re not scrambling to fix things later.

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How to Install Wodpress

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