The WordPress.org theme directory is becoming little more than a crippleware distributor. I suppose it was inevitable given its reach, which can be worth $1,000s/month for theme authors. Justin Tadlock via Twitter As I think back on that tweet from 2019, I realize how unfair it was to refer to the themes coming into the directory as “crippleware.” At the …
WP Lookout Lets WordPress Users Track and Receive Notifications for Their Preferred Plugins and Themes
Should WordPress notify users of plugin ownership changes? That was the question that Ian Atkins asked two months ago. WP Tavern readers seemed to think it was a good idea, at least those who commented on our coverage of it. However, the original Trac ticket has not seen any movement since. There are real technical issues with automating the process. …
Automattic Launches the Blank Canvas WordPress Theme for Building Single-Page Websites
Split Screen pattern from Blank Canvas. On Monday, Automattic announced its Blank Canvas theme on WordPress.com. The goal is to allow end-users to build single-page websites, such as an “about me” or product landing page. Blank Canvas is a child theme of Seedlet, which Automattic’s Theme Team has been using as a launchpad. One example is its recently-released Spearhead child …
Jetpack Launches Customer Research Project to Improve the Plugin and Reduce User Frustration
Jetpack’s Design and Research Team is launching a new customer research panel as part of an ongoing effort to collect feedback in advance of launching new features. They are allocating one day every month to talk with users: It’s a small step toward an important goal of better understanding what our users need, seeing and hearing first hand where they …
WordPress Roadmap Update: Full-Site Editing Targeted for 5.8 Release in June 2021
WordPress core contributors are pushing forward on an ambitious plan to land full-site editing in core before the end of the year. Josepha Haden Chomphosy, the open source project’s executive director, published an updated roadmap for 2021 that aims to get an MVP of full-site editing (FSE) in the Gutenberg plugin by April, 2021. FSE v1 would then be on …
Ask the Bartender: How To Bulk Convert Classic WordPress Posts To Blocks?
I was wondering if you could help me. I want to convert all of my old posts (about 600) to Gutenberg blocks. Do you know an easy way to do that? Philip I often get these short questions via private messages. I always try my best to help other WordPress users whenever I can. This was an easy solution in …
Gutenberg 9.8 Brings Rounded Borders To the Group Block and Moves the Site Editor Canvas Into an Inline Frame
Gutenberg 9.8 launched yesterday with a few minor UI improvements. The development team added an initial implementation for border-radius support for the Group block that theme authors can opt into. They also moved the site editor into an iframe element to remove CSS conflicts from the global admin styles. Those who have been testing Full Site Editing should be pleased …
Biden White House Sticks with WordPress for Website Relaunch
President Joe Biden took office today and unveiled a new whitehouse.gov that has been relaunched on WordPress. The previous administration switched from Drupal to WordPress in 2017, and technologists working with the Biden administration decided to stick with the same CMS. In keeping with the multilingual and accessibility features implemented on the Biden-Harris transition team website, whitehouse.gov launched with toggles …
Custom Layouts Plugin Creates a Posts Display System for Both the Classic and Block Editors
Ross Morsali, via his brand Code Amp, released the Custom Layouts plugin last week. The plugin’s goal is to provide a visual post layout builder for users of both the block and classic editors. For end-users, this is yet another choice between the multitude of plugins for displaying posts. After years of new plugins launching in this space, it would …
WordPress for Android Previews New Story Posts Feature, Now in Public Beta
WordPress users on Android may have noticed a new prompt in the mobile app for publishing Story posts. This feature is now in public beta in the Android app, ahead of an upcoming launch on the WordPress iOS app. Stories will also coming to the Block editor on WordPress.com in early 2021. Early access to Story posts is available in …








