Gutenberg 10.4 Introduces Block Widgets in the Customizer

The latest release of the Gutenberg plugin (10.4) brings block widgets into the Customizer. When customizing widget-enabled areas, a new block inserter icon is now available for dropping blocks into sidebars. This is the first iteration of block management in the Customizer, tackling the technical integration for editing blocks while also taking advantage of the live preview in the Customizer. …

Full Site Editing Is Partly a ‘Go’ for WordPress 5.8

Today, Josepha Haden Chomphosy announced the results of yesterday’s “go/no-go” demo and decision on whether Full Site Editing (FSE) would land in WordPress 5.8. The site editor and global styles are not landing in the next release. However, several other features should launch and allow users to build their sites with blocks in new ways. The following people attended the …

FSE Outreach Round #5: Venturing out a Query Quest

The Full Site Editing (FSE) outreach program is chugging along. Since December, it has called for and completed four rounds of testing. The latest round asks volunteers to provide feedback on the Query block, arguably one of the most crucial pieces of the FSE-puzzle. Automattic Developer Relations Wrangler Anne McCarthy has been overseeing the program since its inception. Each round …

Gutenberg 10.3 Supports Default Image Sizes, Continues Normalizing Toolbars, and Categorizes Theme Blocks

Version 10.3 of the Gutenberg plugin landed yesterday. Users can now define a default Image block size. The development team also continued work on normalizing block toolbars, created a “theme” block category, and added a padding option to the Verse block. Contributors fixed over 30 bugs. However, the bulk of work went toward Full Site Editing (FSE) with over 70 …

FSE Outreach Round #4: Building a Restaurant-Themed Header With Gutenberg’s Site Editor

Anne McCarthy announced the fourth round of testing for the Full Site Editing (FSE) Outreach program last week. This testing phase calls for users to build a restaurant-themed header via the Gutenberg plugin’s site editor. Testing is open to anyone, and participants should leave feedback by April 8. The testing process is broken down into 24 steps with both setup …

10up Creates Classic Post Migration Route With Its Convert to Blocks WordPress Plugin

Yesterday, 10up officially announced Convert to Blocks, a WordPress plugin for transforming classic posts into blocks. The goal is to provide users with a safe migration route for old content while removing the burdens of other options in the space. I briefly mentioned this plugin in an article covering bulk conversion in the Ask the Bartender series. However, I could …

Insert Font Awesome Icons Into the Block Editor via the JVM Gutenberg Rich Text Icons Plugin

Joris van Montfort, a freelance WordPress developer, released the JVM Gutenberg Rich Text Icons plugin over the weekend. The goal was simple: allow users to insert icons nearly anywhere in the block editor at the click of a button. The plugin uses version 4.7 of the Font Awesome library out of the box. However, developers can modify this to include …