Gijo Varghese, a developer who calls himself a “web performance enthusiast,” shocked WordPress users around the world over the weekend when he tweeted a screenshot of how WP-Optimize is allegedly preventing select JavaScript files from loading when users test their sites through popular performance testing tools. “When a site is loaded, the JavaScript files are…
Block themes are expanding to include more niches beyond the simple one-column blogging themes, and Catch Themes is one of the companies at the forefront of this new frontier. Pentatonic, the company’s latest release on WordPress.org, is a free theme created for band and musicians. The theme uses core blocks to create sections that showcase…
Automattic-sponsored designer James Koster has a vision for taking WordPress’ Site Editor from its beta awkwardness and transforming it to become a more visual and user-friendly design tool. In a recent post titled Revising the presentation of key Site Editor features, Koster identifies unbalanced feature weighting as a critical design flaw that is negatively impacting users’…
Last week Performance team contributors were working on refining their follow-up patches for the multi-mime/WebP feature, after the main work for it was merged into core for 6.1 at the end of July. This includes smaller related items like the shim for non-supporting browsers and adding PDF support, which are being handled in separate tickets.…
In the days before Gutenberg, the maturity of the WordPress theme ecosystem offered a diverse selection of dozens of well-known starter themes where developers were likely to find one that suited their individual preferences or could easily be modified. Theme authors have frequently asked if there is a good starter theme for building block themes,…
WooCommerce.com is bringing back a feature that made it possible for customers to test extensions in a sandbox environment before purchasing them. Select extensions can be loaded up on a private test site for 30 days before the site self-destructs. Although WooCommerce.com already offers a 30 day money back guarantee if users are unhappy with…
In July, WordPress’ Themes and Meta teams collaborated to add a new “Block Themes” menu item to the filter menu on the directory homepage in an effort to improve block themes’ visibility. Block themes currently account for less than 2% of the directory’s 9,900 themes but activating one is the only way users can take advantage…
In celebration of World Photography Day, WordPress’ Photo Directory team has issued a challenge designed to get people contributing: Submit a photo that captures something unique about your local area, in a way that helps represent the geographic diversity of the WordPress community. Since its launch, the WordPress Photo Directory has grown to 3,633 free,…
YITH, a WooCommerce plugin development company that was acquired by Newfold Digital in March 2022, has released its first block theme on WordPress.org. YITH Wonder is now listed among 122 other block themes that support full-site editing and have recently gained their own menu link in the directory to improve their visibility. YITH Wonder includes…
In response to the recent controversy about how long WordPress.org’s new homepage and download page designs should take to implement, Gutenberg YouTuber Jamie Marsland decided to try his hand at recreating it with the block editor. Matt Mullenweg had commented on the plans for the new designs moving into development, saying that it should have…
If you’re not following Learn WordPress Online Workshops on Meetup.com, you may be missing out on some high quality events. WordPress experts from across the world have been collaborating on virtual events with instruction at the same caliber of excellence that you might find at an in-person WordCamp. On Thursday, August 18, at 3:00 PM…
Iconic has relaunched its Flux Checkout plugin with a new, modern checkout theme. The plugin was created to minimize customers abandoning their carts due to checkout complexity. It breaks the checkout experience into steps to make the process feel faster and simpler with a distraction-free design. Flux Checkout 2.0.0 adds a new “Modern” theme in…
Gutenberg designers are considering replacing the current welcome guide modal with a new onboarding screen that prompts users to configure some of the editor’s many individual preference settings. The existing welcome setup was designed during the earlier days of the block editor when many WordPress users were experiencing it for the first time. It briefly…
WordPress.org is now sporting a new look with a refreshed, jazzy design that complements the recently updated News pages. “The new homepage brings more attention to the benefits and experience of using WordPress, while also highlighting the community and resources to get started,” Automattic-sponsored WordPress marketing team contributor Nicholas Garofalo said. “The new download page…
The creators of Newsletter Glue have removed their free plugin from WordPress.org in favor of focusing on the commercial version. The plugin streamlines the publishing workflow for newsletter authors who also publish to their WordPress sites. It includes blocks and patterns for email templates and subscriber forms. Five months ago the plugin’s authors warned users…
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