WordPress 6.6.2 introduces 26 bug fixes, including an important one that resolves a CSS issue affecting site appearance. Fifteen fixes address the WordPress core, while eleven focus on the Gutenberg block editor.
Maintenance Release – CSS Specificity
WordPress maintenance releases aren’t generally major updates to WordPress and are intended to fix issues that were introduced through new features from the last major update, in this case version 6.6.
This maintenance release is no different and contains a fix for a feature called CSS specificity that was introduced in WordPress 6.6.
CSS is the code that controls what a web page looks like in terms of colors, sizes, margins and spaces. Specificity means what style belongs to a web page element (like a section of page or something else more granular). CSS Specificity is a reference to a set of rules belonging to the WordPress core that determine which CSS property applies when there is ambiguity as to which property should apply. The purpose of CSS Specificity was initially developed as a way to make it simple for theme developers to overrule WordPress core styles with their own styles.
However it was discovered that the implementation of CSS Specificity introduced several issues that significantly affected what the web page looked like.
WordPress 6.6.2 fixes this issue and for that reason publishers who’ve had issues should consider updating.
Other Fixes
This maintenance release contains 15 fixes to the WordPress core and 11 fixes to the Gutenberg block editor.
Examples of fixes in the Core included in the maintenance release:
Sample Of Fixes In Gutenberg:
Reception Of 6.6.2
Publishers who haven’t experienced this update should feel confident about upgrading to this version. Initial reports in the private Dynamic WordPress Facebook Group is positive, with the admin of the group, David McCan, reporting he’d rolled it out to ten sites without experiencing any issues (link to discussion, must join the Facebook group to read).
