WordPress 6.3 will make site editing several clicks faster for users who are moving from the frontend to edit the corresponding template. When you click the “Edit Site” link in the admin bar from a category page, for example, you currently get dumped out into the Site Editor on the home page. From here it’s several clicks more to get to the template you intended to edit. The upcoming release changes it so that the “Edit Site” link is aware of the current template.
WordPress developer Brian Coords pointed out the fix on Twitter today. It’s a delightful bit of good news for anyone who works regularly with the Site Editor and becomes annoyed by how long it takes to click through to the applicable template. WordPress is now more context aware, delivering site editors to the correct template directly from the admin bar.
The update applies to posts, pages, archives, 404 templates, front page, and anywhere the user happens to be on the frontend. Check out the Gutenberg issue and the related WordPress Trac ticket for more technical details on how contributors arrived at this implementation.
This small fix is important because it removes the requirement for the user to have to know the name of the template they intend to edit. It’s now as easy as clicking directly from the frontend. The more WordPress can reduce friction and the need to have special knowledge in order to edit templates, the more accessible it becomes as a design tool for someone who is just starting out and has no framework for the idea of underlying templates.
WordPress 6.3 is on track to be released with this fix on August 8, 2023. Beta 4 landed today with 40+ (Editor) and 60+ (Trac) updates since Beta 3, and RC 1 is expected next week.