New Features in WordPress 4.0

General

  • Featured image previews now support .bmp files
  • Featured Image meta box is now hidden for contributors lacking upload capabilities
  • New supported oEmbed providers: CollegeHumor, Issuu, Mixcloud, YouTube playlists, TED talks
  • Install WordPress in your language
  • Streamlined Language management right from the dashboard

Posts

  • Display embed previews for audio/visual URLs in Visual editor content box.
  • Page scrolling now scrolls post content box.
  • Edit Post/Page menu bar sticks to top of content box when scrolling (Visual and Text editor).
  • Color picker was re-added to the Visual editor

Media

  • Add Media Grid view option (default) for Media Library
  • Add “Bulk Select” button to Media Grid view to delete multiple items
  • Add oEmbed support for TED talks, Mixcloud, CollegeHumor.com, Issuu
  • Expand oEmbed support to include YouTube playlist URLs and Polldaddy’s short URL format
  • Remove Viddler oEmbed support
  • Update SlideShare oEmbed regex
  • Improved media experience on small screen sizes (embedded videos now responsive)
  • Native video and audio shortcodes now support Flash playback looping

Comments

  • Comments in trash can now be marked as spam.

Plugins

  • Display plugins list as grid, with thumbnails, on Add New screen.
  • Add popup window with plugin details (displays info from plugin’s directory page).
  • Add “Beta Testing” tab to Plugins screen for new features-as-plugins.

Accessibility

  • Improved keyboard accessibility in the Add Media panel
  • Improved screen-reader support for Customizer sections
  • Makes links in help tabs keyboard accessible
  • Improvements for screen-readers when managing widgets in the Customizer

Install Process

  • Add language select menu as first Installation screen (skipped for localized installs)

Multisite

  • mp4 file extension was added to allowed upload file types