Release notes for #9344

CHANGELOG.txt

@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@ Changelog
  * Adjust breadcrumb text alignment and size in page listings & page editor (Steven Steinwand)
  * Improvements to getting started tutorial aimed at developers who are very new to Python and have no Django experience (Damilola Oladele)
  * Update documentation dependencies; Sphinx Wagtail Theme to v5.3.2, MyST Parser to v0.18.1, add Sphinx Copy Button (LB (Ben) Johnston)
+ * Add "What's New" dashboard banner and "Help" menu in sidebar (Sage Abdullah)
  * Fix: Prevent `PageQuerySet.not_public` from returning all pages when no page restrictions exist (Mehrdad Moradizadeh)
  * Fix: Ensure that duplicate block ids are unique when duplicating stream blocks in the page editor (Joshua Munn)
  * Fix: Revise colour usage so that privacy & locked indicators can be seen in Windows High Contrast mode (LB (Ben Johnston))

docs/reference/settings.md

@@ -601,6 +601,8 @@ For admins only, Wagtail performs a check on the dashboard to see if newer relea
 
 If admins should only be informed of new long term support (LTS) versions, then set this setting to `"lts"` (the setting is case-insensitive).
 
+(wagtail_enable_whats_new_banner)=
+
 ### `WAGTAIL_ENABLE_WHATS_NEW_BANNER`
 
 ```python

docs/releases/4.1.md

@@ -11,6 +11,18 @@ Wagtail 4.1 is designated a Long Term Support (LTS) release. Long Term Support r
 
 ## What's new
 
+### "What's New" dashboard banner and "Help" menu
+
+To help with onboarding new users, Wagtail now displays a banner on the dashboard, pointing users to our Editor Guide. The sidebar also contains a new "Help" menu item with a prominent indicator to call attention to the new content: a "What’s new" page showcasing new features, and a link to the Editor Guide.
+
+Users can dismiss the new banner and the sidebar items’ indicators by interacting with the corresponding UI element. We store the state in the user’s profile  so we only call attention to the content once.
+
+To turn off the new banner, set [`WAGTAIL_ENABLE_WHATS_NEW_BANNER`](wagtail_enable_whats_new_banner) to `False` in your settings. The new menu items can be removed and customised with the following hooks:
+
+- [`register_help_menu_item`](register_help_menu_item) – to add new items to the "Help" menu
+- [`construct_help_menu`](construct_help_menu) – to change or remove existing items from the "Help" menu
+- [`construct_main_menu`](construct_main_menu) – to remove the new "Help" menu altogether
+
 ### New UI for scheduled publishing
 
 Scheduled publishing settings can now be found within the Status side panel of the page editing view. This change aims to improve clarity over who is able to set schedules, and when they take effect. This feature was developed by Sage Abdullah.