Matt Watson, through his Wholesome Code brand, released a plugin called Wholesome Publishing on the WordPress plugin directory on Tuesday. Version 1.0 of the plugin adds a couple of simple but useful editing features that should help teams of writers or content designers. The plugin allows users to add nested comments on a per-block basis…
Last week, as I was making the final edits on a review of his Gutenberg Forms project, Munir Kamal was prepping for the launch of another kind of WordPress plugin for the block editor. This one was called EditorPlus, and it would create a design system for blocks. Kamal and his team quietly put the…
The quest for the perfect form plugin is nearly as old as WordPress. Projects have come and gone. There are some great form plugins out there, but far too often the choices are between massive builders that do things their own way and solutions so simple that they do not quite live up to expectations.…
Over the past few weeks, I have had the GenerateBlocks plugin sitting in my test environment. I have built a few layouts with it, tinkering with the plugin between other projects. The one thing I kept thinking was that it had huge potential. Aside from a couple of issues, I began enjoying the plugin more…
GretaThemes launched its eStar theme yesterday. The team’s goal was to build a lightweight theme that focused on the block editor. However, it works alongside other page builders such as Elementor, Beaver Builder, and more. GretaThemes is a project of eLightUp, which is the same company behind the popular Meta Box framework, WP Auto Listings,…
Shinobi Works, a web development and illustration company based in Japan, released Shinobi Blocks last week. It is the second plugin the team has added to the WordPress plugin directory. The plugin is a block collection that currently has two blocks for creating how-to and FAQ sections on a site. Overall, the blocks work well.…
It is not often that I come across a free WordPress theme that instantly impresses me. Far too often, I spend half an hour or more just getting to know a theme, checking its options, and figuring out how long it will take to recreate something that looks remotely like the demo. However, every now…
Over the weekend, Munir Kamal released version 2.0 of his ACF Blocks plugin, a project that creates a suite of blocks for the editor. The plugin offers 18 custom blocks in its free version and 15 more in the pro upgrade. It is built on top of Advanced Custom Fields Pro (ACF Pro). The latest…
Meta Box released its MB Views add-on plugin last week. The new extension allows developers to build custom templates from the comfort of their WordPress admin. The goal is to provide an easy-to-use interface for outputting custom fields without editing theme files, but its flexibility pushes the boundaries of full-site editing. Quick take: MB Views…
GoDaddy launched its Go WordPress theme last week. It has been publicly available through its GitHub repository for several months, but the theme review team finally approved and set it live in the theme directory. Thus far, the theme has garnered 7,000 active installs and is likely to hit the popular list, given GoDaddy’s history…
Creative Themes dropped version 1.6.8 of its Blocksy WordPress theme yesterday. It was an update to a theme that is quickly becoming popular, having garnered 58 five-star reviews and one thousand active installs since it first went live in the WordPress theme directory. The theme is specifically built to work with the block editor and…
Ultimate Blocks, one of the many Gutenberg block collections that have sprouted up, launched before WordPress 5.0 with eight blocks. The collection has since doubled in size, adding features like accordions, social sharing buttons, tabbed content, a progress bar, and star-ratings. Many block collections are loosely organized around serving a specific user demographic. This one…
Last week, we highlighted the progress being made by the Theme Review Team in clearing out a 1K+ review backlog. In an effort to determine common problems with themes discovered by reviewers, Carolina Nymark, a member of the Theme Review Team, reviewed 100 tickets from 531 themes that were closed and marked not approved between…
It’s almost inevitable that as a WordPress plugin gains popularity, it will receive a bad review. How plugin authors handle and respond to bad reviews is crucial, especially in a public forum. Mika Epstein, who helps review plugins before they’re added to the directory and is a dedicated support forum volunteer, gives advice on how…
Those who host plugins in the WordPress plugin directory may have noticed a change to their plugin’s ratings. That’s because the ratings system has been reset and rebuilt by Samuel “Otto” Wood. The ratings now correspond exactly with reviews. According to Wood, the change has been two and a half years in the making: Back…