WordPress 4.7 is out, targets new businesses with easier website creation

WordPress has already earned a reputation as one of the easiest ways for a new/small business to get online, but the company is making another push for that market with today’s release of WordPress 4.7. It’s known as the “Vaughn” update in honor of jazz singer Sarah Vaughan.

Version 4.7 is aimed squarely at new businesses that aren’t online yet, or perhaps are looking for a completely new website. It includes the yearly new default theme — Twenty Seventeen — which is focused on business users and offers new features to build a business website from scratch, such as

• new options in the customizer to ease the initial theme setup
• non-destructive live previews of all changes
• starter content including sample widgets, menus and social media icons
• the option to create new pages at the same time site menus are built

For the more advanced users, the theme customizer now also includes an option to add custom CSS and see the changes right away in a live preview. And for even more advanced users — i.e., developers — WordPress 4.7 includes REST API content endpoints, Post type templates and more.

The launch video below shows a lot of these changes in action, and developers should check the WordPress 4.7 field guide.