Month: December 2019

  • Reflecting on 2019: The Year in Review

    Reflecting on 2019: The Year in Review

    Another year is in the bag. With a project as large and far-reaching as WordPress, there was no shortage of news and controversy. We covered a lot of stories in 2019 and are gearing up for another exciting year. I always like to take a moment at the end of the year to look over…

  • WordPress Theme Review Team Announces Alpha Color Picker for the Customizer

    WordPress Theme Review Team Announces Alpha Color Picker for the Customizer

    The WordPress Theme Review Team announced its color picker control today. The project is a single package that allows theme authors to include an advanced color control in the customizer. The control allows users to select a hex color with an optional alpha channel to handle transparency. The color control is the fourth feature package…

  • What Should an Author Bio Block Look Like?

    What Should an Author Bio Block Look Like?

    Joshua Wold, co-representative for the WordPress design team, shared an early exploration of an author card block. Community members explored several ideas at the design table during the contributor day at WordCamp US 2019. In the post, Wold followed up on the original sketches from that melding of design minds. The original idea for the…

  • Rank Math SEO Plugin Adds WordPress Block Editor Support

    Rank Math SEO Plugin Adds WordPress Block Editor Support

    The team behind the Rank Math SEO plugin released an update that includes full support for the block editor on December 18. The update includes around two dozen features, improvements, and fixes. The biggest feature update was the inclusion of a new plugin sidebar for the block editor. Some of the new features include a…

  • Version 1 Prototype of the WordPress Admin Block Directory Announced

    Version 1 Prototype of the WordPress Admin Block Directory Announced

    Mel Choyce-Dwan shared the first version of the WordPress admin block directory prototype the design team has been working on. The goal is to bring the block directory to the admin in WordPress 5.5, which is currently set for August 2020 on the roadmap. The post also outlines reusable components that can be used in…

  • WordPress 5.3.2 Addresses a Handful of Bugs

    WordPress 5.3.2 Addresses a Handful of Bugs

    On December 18, less than a week since WordPress 5.3.1 security update shipped to the masses, the core team dropped a version 5.3.2 maintenance release. No security issues were named in this update. Instead, 5.3.2 addresses a couple of high-priority bugs along with a few other issues. Users with automatic updates enabled should already be…

  • One-Time vs. Recurring Payments for WordPress Products

    One-Time vs. Recurring Payments for WordPress Products

    Jeff Starr posed the question at Digging into WordPress: Which Pricing Model Do You Prefer: One-Time or Recurring? It is not the first time the question has been asked in the WordPress community and will not be the last. It is important that we keep coming back to it from time to time. In the…

  • Bluehost Launches Premium WordPress Theme Marketplace to Customers

    Bluehost Launches Premium WordPress Theme Marketplace to Customers

    In November, web hosting provider Bluehost launched a WordPress plugin and theme marketplace. The company integrated with MOJO Marketplace to provide access to WordPress products via its customer dashboard. Currently, the marketplace is open to third-party theme developers. Plugin authors will have to wait, but they will eventually be able to sell their plugins through…

  • Slim SEO Keeps Options Simple and Handles the Legwork of SEO

    Slim SEO Keeps Options Simple and Handles the Legwork of SEO

    I have been running a blog of some kind since the Spring of 2003. In a few short months, it will be my 17th blog-aversary. The most important lesson I have learned over the years is to not do more work than is necessary to publish a blog post. There was a time when I…

  • Inserting Special Characters Into the Block Editor

    Inserting Special Characters Into the Block Editor

    For users of the Classic WordPress editor who often needed to insert special characters into their posts, life was once simple. Click the “Ω” button in the editor to open a modal with a list of characters not found on a standard keyboard. The user then only needed to click on the character they wanted…

  • WordPress 5.3.1 Includes Security and Bug Fixes, Accessibility Enhancements, and Twenty Twenty Changes

    WordPress 5.3.1 Includes Security and Bug Fixes, Accessibility Enhancements, and Twenty Twenty Changes

    WordPress 5.3.1 was released today with 46 bug fixes and enhancements. Changes include several accessibility improvements and four security vulnerability fixes. The update includes multiple changes to the default Twenty Twenty theme. Version 5.3.1 is a security and maintenance release. All users are encouraged to update as soon as possible. For those with auto-updates enabled,…

  • Gutenberg 7.1 Includes Welcome Modal, Improves Multi-Block Selection, and Adds Drag-and-Drop Featured Images

    Gutenberg 7.1 Includes Welcome Modal, Improves Multi-Block Selection, and Adds Drag-and-Drop Featured Images

    The past two weeks have been blazing fast for Gutenberg plugin development. A total of 161 pull requests (patches) were merged into version 7.1 of the plugin. Over 20 bugs were squashed while the team added several enhancements, which include better multi-block selection, a new welcome modal, and drag-and-drop featured images. The team refactored several…

  • Creator of EditorsKit Launches Community Block-Sharing Site

    Creator of EditorsKit Launches Community Block-Sharing Site

    Jeffrey Carandang, the creator behind the EditorsKit WordPress plugin, launched a new community site for sharing block designs and templates today. The ShareABlock website allows visitors to download block files directly from the site and import them into the block editor. Users can also sign up to share custom block designs and full-blown block templates.…

  • Progress on WordPress’ 2019 Projects Sets 2020 Roadmap

    Progress on WordPress’ 2019 Projects Sets 2020 Roadmap

    Josepha Haden, Executive Director of WordPress, published an update of WordPress’ goals in 2019. The focus for WordPress over the past year has been on nine primary projects. Of the nine projects, WordPress only managed to ship two in 2019. This means that the focus in 2020 will be much the same as the community…

  • Zero BS CRM 3.0 Improves UI, Changes Database Structure, and Becomes More Extendable

    Zero BS CRM 3.0 Improves UI, Changes Database Structure, and Becomes More Extendable

    The team behind Zero BS CRM launched version 3.0 of their WordPress plugin today. This is the first major release since the plugin was acquired by Automattic in August. The updated plugin uses custom database tables, opens the plugin for more extensions, and has a more consistent UI than previous versions. CRM is an acronym…

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