The Wowmall theme was released to the public today. It is the second 100% block theme that integrates with WooCommerce to land in the WordPress directory. Responsive FSE was the first. Two weeks ago, a reader sent in a question for the Ask the Bartender column. He wanted to know where the WooCommerce block themes were. Literally one day after …
Ona by DeoThemes Just Raised the Bar for WordPress Block Theme Design
No sooner than I said the floodgates of block theme development would be open, a couple of more FSE-capable themes landed in the WordPress.org directory. I checked the review system, and three more were queued up. It took mere days for me to find another favorite: Ona by DeoThemes. When the author mentioned it, I checked the source code to …
Create and Manage Frequently Asked Questions With the Flexible FAQs Plugin
David Gwyer released his Flexible FAQs plugin a year ago via his WPGO Plugins site. However, after a month of updates, the project seemed to fall off the radar, at least until earlier this week when he released a massive overhaul that integrates more with the block editor. The plugin creates a custom post type for managing individual FAQ sets. …
Branded Social Images, a New Plugin for Generating Per-Post Open Graph Images
Generated social images seem to be all the rage now. Automattic scooped up Daniel Post’s Social Image Generator last month for eventual inclusion in Jetpack. There is a proposal to dynamically generate them for plugins and themes hosted on WordPress.org. And, there is a new player in town: Branded Social Images. Admittedly, I have had a mild obsession lately with …
Tidying the Media Library With WP Ninjas’ Remove Unused Media Plugin
A few weeks ago, WP Ninjas announced it was stepping into the media optimization plugin market. The team released its Remove Unused Media plugin as a commercial project for tidying storage space. I received a full copy of it and put it through the ropes. With so many commercial plugins, I am accustomed to the developers creating an entirely new …
Automattic Launches Mayland Blocks, Its Second FSE Theme on WordPress.org
Automattic released its second block theme to the WordPress theme directory last week. Mayland Blocks is geared toward photographers and other users who want to showcase their projects. It is the child of Blockbase, a sort of starter/parent hybrid the company’s Theme Team recently announced. I had high hopes for Mayland Blocks going in. I have kept a loose eye …
Churel Is a Colorful and Minimalist Block-Ready WordPress Theme
WordPress theme development company Themix released its third free theme to the official directory this week. Churel is described as a theme for organizations and businesses that also works for traditional blogging. The development team has a keen eye for modern color schemes and font families. The theme has a refreshing design that is rare for the free theme directory, …
With Some Hits and Misses, the Guten Blog WordPress Theme Has Potential
Any time I see a new block-ready WordPress theme, I am like a toddler in a toyshop. I cannot wait to bring it home, rip off the packaging, and play with it. Sometimes it is the type of fun that will create lasting, years-long memories. Other times, the toy is not all it is cracked up to be. It does …
Enō: ‘Probably This Is the Best Blogging Theme Ever’
Sometimes a theme’s description is so moving that one must install, activate, and test the project. I often rail against the obviously keyword-stuffed text in the free WordPress theme directory. But, I am pleasantly surprised from time to time. Enō is an elegant, modern and functional WordPress theme. Probably this is the best blogging theme ever. Just see the demo …
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 …