WordPress 3.4is on its way - it’s entered public beta, which means you can download it and try it for yourself. Don’t try this at home if you’re new to WordPress.

WordPress 3.4 does a lot for Themes and Theme Developers

Basically, WordPress 3.4 is all about themes. Many of the changes are described with a lot of jargon so far.

The release note details a lot of theme changes:

  • Theme Customizer with Previewer
  • Flexible Custom Header Sizes
  • Selecting Custom Header and Background Images from Media Library
  • Better experience searching for and choosing a theme
  • New API for registering theme support for custom headers and backgrounds
  • Internationalization improvements (improved performance and locale support)
  • Performance and API improvements when working with lists of installed themes
  • Support for installing child themes from the WordPress Themes Directory

and this one would be for mobile themes and blog developers -.

  • New XML-RPC API for external and mobile applications
this probably opens up many new options for app and mobile web app developers. The XML-RPC API is the format for Android
and this should be for anyone making use theme customisation or plugins -
  • Performance improvements to WP_Query by splitting the query

Is it really going to be easier to Customise & Preview my blog with Theme Customizer?

As I've been using WordPress for a number of years, I tend to not look at much under the Appearances and Theme sub-menus.
But the new Theme Customiser & Preview tool could be one of the best new features to help 1st time users or WordPress and for anyone who changes themes.

Should I update to this beta?

As this is a beta you shouldn’t use this on any live site - but it does mean it’s pretty stable and useful.

Tags: Releases

Read more from my blog for an introduction and quick tips on developing in Hugo or UCTD.

Meet the author

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Damien Saunders
An experienced management consultant and business leader interested in digital transformation, product centred design and scaled agile. If I'm not writing about living with UCTD (an autoimmune disease), I'm probably listening to music, reading a book or learning more about wine.