Tag: full site editing

How to Use the WordPress Site Title Block
Your WordPress website’s title is an incredibly important part of your brand, and knowing how to utilize it properly is important for any WordPress user. In this article, we’ll be delving into the Site Title Block, giving you some tips on how to use it properly to maximize its effectiveness on your WordPress website.

What is the WordPress Site Title Block?

The site title block in WordPress is one of many theme blocks available in the WordPress editor. This block gives you the ability to change or add your site’s title to a WordPress page template or main header.

The Site Title block is also dynamic because it pulls your site title from your website’s data (on the backend) as dynamic content. So changing your site title via the site title block or on the backend will automatically update all iterations of the Site Title Block throughout your site. Furthermore, when using the Site Title Block on a template, you have easier control over the design of the site title globally. This type of functionality is one of many new WordPress features that has come with full site editing.

Important Note: Updating the Site Title Block name WILL update the official name of your website that appears in Settings > General. Changing this will also change it on your browser title bar and in search engine results.

How to Add the Site Title Block to your WordPress Header

For this example, we are going to use the Twenty Twenty-Two theme to add the site title to WordPress header area of the template.Â From the WordPress dashboard, go to Appearance Â > Editor.

There should already be a Site Title inside the header area of the page template on the right of the Site Logo Block. You can also open the list view to find it as well.

To add a Site Title block, start by clicking the Block Inserter (+).

Then search for â€œSite Titleâ€ in the search bar.

Either click on it or drag it to your desired location to add the block to your header.

You can also type /site-title to quickly add your site’s title to any part of your page.

From here, you can click on the block and update yourÂ Site Title for your entire site and subsequently on allÂ Site Title Blocks throughout your site. So don’t change it unless you know the consequences of doing so.

To change your website’s title away from the WordPress editor, you can navigate to Settings > General

If you change your title here, your site title blocks will update on all the pages they are on.

Site Title Block Settings and Options

The Site Title Block comes with additional settings and options that make it easy to edit or customize the display of your title on your website. Here is a brief overview of the settings available.

Toolbar Settings

If you hover over the block, youâ€™ll see a formatting menu that includes the following options:
1. Transforming the block into another type of element
2. Changing the heading level
3. Changing the alignment of the text (left, center, right(
4. More settings
Hereâ€™s a quick cheat sheet that shows where each of those options is within the formatting toolbar:

Additional Settings

If you click on the three vertical dots on the right side of the toolbar and select show more settingsÂ or the cog in the upper right corner you can access the sidebar to view the additional block settings available.

From here you can access additional settings, first you can see Link Settings:
1. Make the title link to your home page.
2. Open the home page in a new tab
Below Link Settings,Â you can view theÂ Color tab, here you can:
1. Change the text color.
2. Change the background color of the text.
3. Change the link color of the text.
Under the color section, you can view moreÂ settings by clicking the three vertical dots next to Typography.

You can change the font from the font setting section.

Adjust the font size under the size setting.

The font-weight (bold, thin, etc.) can be changedÂ in the appearance section.

You can also adjust the letter spacing and line height in their respective sections.

In the letter case setting, you can adjust the capitalization of the site title block.

And you can underline or strikethrough your site title by selecting those options in the decoration section.

Below the settings section, you can find theÂ dimensions tab where you can adjust the padding and margin of your site title block.

Tips and Best Practices for Using the Site Title Block Effectively

Setting Global Styles for the Site Title Block

An important distinction to note is that while the text of your site title block will update on all iterations of the block, the style (Background color, text color, etc) will not update unless specified in the site styles sidebar. For example, here we have set our Site Title block in our WordPress Template header to have a blue background color.

If we open a blog post, we can see that the header changes with the updated style (1), but if we put the site title block elsewhere on the page, the style doesn’t match (2).

To change the styles of all the site title blocks we can navigate to the styles tab by clicking the half-white, half-black circle in the top right of our template editor and selecting blocks.

Here we can search and select site title from the search bar.

From here we can make changes that will change the style for all iterations of the site title block.

Optimize Your Site Title for SEO

For algorithms and search engine bots, keywords are crucial. In terms of maximizing your WordPress website’s SEO, it’s excellent practice craft the perfect SEO title for your site and pages. Before choosing your title, do some simple keyword research to find what best describes the information on your website.

Your Site Title Should be Consistent with Your Branding

Every component related to the branding of your website should be consistent, you should choose the right webfont and utilize the same style for your title as you do the other elements on each page of your site.

This consistency will help keep your audience engaged with your site and not confused or disoriented. Another good practice is making sure you are linking your title to your homepage, as this will help your users navigate your website more effectively.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Site Title Block

Even if using the site title block is pretty straightforward, you may still have some concerns regarding this specific component. Let’s break down some of the most often-asked questions about the functionality of the title block.

When Should I Change My Title?

You shouldn’t change your title too often because you risk losing users that already know your branding as well as confusing search engine bots that know your original title. You should only change your site when your first create your site, are focused on rebranding, have shifted into another field of expertise, or have a better SEO title.

Where Should I Use the Title Block?

Displaying your site title isn’t necessary. But there are instances where adding this dynamic content to your site makes sense. For example, putting a title next to your site logo, or header would be the best placement for a site title block.

Can I Change the Font Settings for the Title Block?

You can change the font of your site title block through the advanced settings, by clicking the three vertical dots next to Typography (Pictured Above.)Â Â You can also change a variety of style options from here as well.

Using the Dynamic Site Title in the Divi Page Builder

If you are using Divi, you can use the Divi theme builder to add a site title to your global header (or anywhere on your site) in just a few easy steps. You can start by clicking the edit button next to Global HeaderÂ in yourÂ Divi Theme Builder.

Next, add a new module (in this case, a Call to Action Module) in your header.

Under the content settings, hover over the title input box and click the “Use Dynamic Content” icon. Then select “Site Title” from the list.

It’s just that easy! Dynamic content is now supported by all of Divi’s main content inputs. To view a complete list of all content that is accessible, simply click the dynamic content symbol. Next, choose the item you want, alter its output, and connect it to the module. The module, the page, and the rest of your website will all immediately update if that piece of content is modified.

Learn more about how to add a dynamic site title in Divi.

Conclusion

Simple yet essential, your website’s WordPress site title is an integral aspect of your site. It’s one of the first forms a WordPress site owner fills out, and it’s easy to overlook.

Using the site title block you can easily incorporate your title into your posts and edit them based on your preferences and style. We hope this article gave you some useful tips on optimizing your title!

Let us know in the comments if you have any questions regarding the WordPress site title block!

The post How to Use the WordPress Site Title Block appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.
19.01.2023
Torque Social Hour: CertifyWP

The Torque Social Hour is a weekly livestream of WordPress news and events. In this episode we talk with Talisha Lewallen about CertifyWP, a new non-profit that aims to create a credentialing process for WordPress.

Due to a bad storm here in San Francisco, our interview gets cut short after about 25 minutes, but I think we managed to cover a lot in that time. Huge thanks to Talisha for her time. We didn’t get a chance to talk about WP Connects, but that’s another project Talisha is working on that aims to provide WordPress training to veterans to offer new career opportunities.

YouTube video of the Torque Livestream with Tim Nolte and Matthias Pfefferle

Join us next Wednesday, January 18th for our Torque Social Hour with David Bisset and Shawn Hooper.

The post Torque Social Hour: CertifyWP appeared first on Torque.

12.01.2023
How to Customize Your WordPress Header (in 2023)

Customizing your WordPress website’s header has gotten much easier with the introduction of full site editing. Now, it’s possible to create and customize headers natively in WordPress using the block editor without having to resort to custom code or plugins.

In this post, we’re going to walk through how to create a custom header in WordPress so that you can easily make the changes needed to your own website header. Let’s get started.

What is a WordPress Header

In WordPress, the header is quite possibly the most important element. It houses a navigation menu, a logo, and other important elements such as social media icons, call-to-action buttons, or even business information. Since the WordPress header is the first thing your site visitors see, it’s important to make a good first impression. It should contain everything a visitor needs to see – pages, contact information, branding elements, or other important information.

Thankfully, you are no longer married to the WordPress customizer. With the development of full site editing, it is now possible to design and implement your site’s header, or any other element, in any way you wish.

How to Customize WordPress Header Using Full Site Editing in 2023

Full site editing in WordPress is a bit different than the WordPress themes of old. While you can still use the WordPress Theme Customizer, it’s no longer necessary like it once was. The creativity-limiting customizer has been replaced with a new experience – the site editor. While still in beta, it is the future of WordPress customization. For instance, when creating a new header in the Twenty Twenty-Three Theme, the site editor is quite useful for a number of customization options including your header’s fonts, colors, button styling, and more.

Accessing the WordPress Header in the Site Editor

In order to access the WordPress header, you’ll need to first navigate to Appearance > Site Editor.

When the editor loads, you’ll be automatically taken to your home settings. To get to the header settings, you can either click the WordPress logo in the upper left corner of the editor, or select the dropdown arrow, then choose Browse all templates.

Next, click on template parts in the WordPress menu. Finally, click Header to edit the site’s header.

Styling the Header

In the Twenty Twenty-Three theme, the header is very basic. That being said, you have the option to add or delete any WordPress blocks you’d like. For the sake of this tutorial, we’re going to show you how to edit the header template part of the Twenty Twenty-Three theme to create a simple, yet effective custom header for your website.

To get started, let’s take a look at the header’s structure by clicking the list view icon in the template editor. You’ll see that there is a group block that contains a row with two blocks – the page title and navigation block. The row is already structured the way we want with a centered vertical alignment, and the content is set to full width. So basically all we need to do here is make a couple of changes to this row.

First, we’re going to delete the site title block, then replace it with the social icons block. To do this, simply click on the site title block in the list view, then expand the ellipsis menu.

Finally, click Remove Site Title to delete the block from the header.

Adding The Social Icons Block

The first block we’re going to add is the social icons block. Click the plus icon next to the Page List block, then start typing social icons. Simply click to add it.

To add an icon, click the plus icon to reveal the modal box. Type Facebook to bring up the Facebook icon. Simply click to add it. Next add the Instagram, YouTube., and TikTok icons repeating the previously mentioned steps.

Styling the Social Icons Block

Next, we’ll style our icons. There are a number of options with the social media block including which layout style you’d like – either default, which is a logo enclosed in a circle, logos only, or pill shape. Next is layout justification and orientation, which controls whether your blocks will be displayed horizontally or vertically, and how you’d like them to be justified. Then there are link settings. Here you can choose to open the links in a new tab, and choose whether to show the labels.

Depending on which layout style you choose, you’ll have different color choices. For example, when selecting logo only, you’ll only be able to add color to the logo itself. If you choose default or pill shape, you can choose both icon color and background color. The available colors are pre-selected in the Twenty Twenty-Three theme. Should you choose to add more, you’ll need to add them to your theme’s theme.json file.

The final settings group is Dimension, which enables you to control how much spacing to set between each social icon.

In this tutorial, we’re going to choose the logo-only style, set the justification to space between items, and choose the horizontal orientation. This will evenly space our icons, display them horizontally, and show only the icon itself without a background. Under link settings, set it to open links in a new tab. For color, choose white. Finally, add 15px block spacing under the dimension settings.

Setting A Background Color to the Row

Next, we’re going to add a background color to the row. In the list view, select the row block. In additional settings, locate background under color. Click inside the base box and add #8D4CE6 as the color.

Adding an Additional Row to the Header

Our header requires a new row to be added. We’re going to be adding a site logo block, as well as a call to action button, so we need a place for these to live. It’s good to remember that when creating custom headers, adding rows is a good way to keep your blocks organized.

To add a new row, click on the block inserter icon.

Next, type row into the search bar or /row directly into the page editor to insert a new row.

Moving Blocks Between Rows

For the next step, we are going to move our navigation block to our newly created row. Ultimately, we’ll have social icons and a call to action button in the top row, then a site logo block and navigation block on our second row. To move the navigation block, click on it in the page editor. Click the drag icon in the toolbar settings for the navigation block and drag it to our newly created row.

Add the Button Block

The next step in creating our header is to add the button block to the first row. Click the block inserter, then search for the button block in the search bar. Drag the button block to the first row. We’re going to style our button as follows. Type in BOOK NOW! for the text, then add #8D4CE6 for the text color, assign #ffffff for the button background color, and give the button a border radius of 100px. Leave the button text size set to small. Your button should now look like the screenshot below.

Add the Site Logo Block

The last block we’re going to add is the site logo block. Using the block inserter, search for and select the site logo block. Drag it to the second row of the header.

To add a new logo, click the upload button within the site logo block. You can either choose an image already in your media library or upload a new one.

For the logo settings, ensure that link image to home is enabled, and choose the width for your logo. Optional settings include whether to open the link in a new tab or use the logo as the site icon. Additionally, you can set the margin and padding for the logo under the dimensions settings.

You may also want to consider using the best logo size for your site.

Final Header Settings

Before our header can be completed, there are a few settings we need to check. First, ensure that the 2nd row is set to full width to match our first row. Secondly, make sure that the justification is set to space between items. Lastly, set the row alignment to align middle.

That’s it! As you can see, accessing and customizing your website’s header can be accomplished in a few short steps using the WordPress site editor. Adding, editing, moving, and resizing blocks is simple, and allows you to be creative to create a custom header for your site.

Creating Multiple WordPress Header Template Areas

Another great feature of the WordPress site editor is the ability to create different headers for different templates. Additionally, WordPress offers some pretty unique pre-made headers in the form of block patterns, that make it quick and easy to change the look of your website’s header. Let’s look at how easy it is to create a different header for your site. We’ll use the single template to illustrate how to create a different header that will be applied to posts on the website.

First, navigate to Templates in the site editor. Next, select the Single template.

When you open the single template, you’ll see that the header we created in the last section is currently applied. It’s important to note that you should not edit the header on this template or any other template because changes you make to the header will be applied across the site. Instead, we’ll delete the header we created from this template, then create a new one that will only apply to the template we’re working with.

To delete the header, click the list view icon. Next, select the header, then click the ellipsis menu to open the settings. Finally, click remove header.

Adding A New Header To A Template

Next, we’re going to add a new header to the single post template. Click the block inserter to add a new block. Next, search for and select the header block to add it to the template.

When creating a new header, there are a couple of options. You can choose from a pre-made pattern, choose a header that you have already created, or create a new one.

Using a Premade Pattern Header

To choose a WordPress block pattern, simply navigate to the patterns tab, then search for headers. All of the available header patterns for the Twenty Twenty-Three theme will be listed there. Alternatively, you can click the explore button to search for and add a header from the WordPress pattern library.

NOTE: Not all header patterns will include navigation/menu elements. You may need to search for navigation patterns to find what you are looking for.

Creating a New Header From Scratch

If you want to create another header from scratch, rather than use a pattern, you can choose to start with a blank header. By choosing start blank, you’ll be prompted to name your template part. Name it “single post header”, then click create.

Once your header is in place, simply click on it in the page editor to start adding blocks. Alternatively, you can click the edit button to be taken to the template editor, where you can add any rows or blocks you’d like to create a completely new header.

Using Divi to Add and Customize WordPress Headers

Divi offers a similar way to add custom headers to your WordPress website, but it kicks things up a notch. Divi is the most advanced full site editing theme in the WordPress universe. With over 200 design elements, a fully responsive framework, and the ability to customize literally every aspect of your site without a single line of code, it is the ultimate web designing experience available.

Divi uses the Theme Builder to give you the ability to create custom headers, then apply them to different templates on your website. Headers can be created and applied to your pages, posts, archive pages, 404 pages, search results pages, projects, category pages, author pages, and much more.

For more info, check out these 11 header types you can create with Divi.

FAQs About WordPress Headers

We’ve done our best to be as thorough as possible to give you the knowledge you need to build a custom WordPress header from scratch. That being said, we have put together some common questions regarding WordPress headers to give you a better understanding of how they work.

Will Customizing One Header Affect All Headers Throughout My Site?

Well, it depends. If you create a custom header, then try to change any aspect of it in a different template, then yes, it will be affected wherever that header is in place across your site. That being said, you can create multiple headers on your website and edit them without worry. For example, if you create a header under template parts, that is considered your global header. However, you can create a different header and apply it to certain templates.

As previously mentioned, you can edit the single post template (or any other template), delete the header currently installed, and create a completely new one that is only applied to that template.

How do Header Template Parts Work?

Template parts are sections of your website that are repeated throughout the site. Both headers and footers are considered template parts. Template parts can be global, meaning they apply to a certain section on every page and post on your site, or only apply to sections on certain pages. For example, you can have a header template part that is set globally to apply everywhere, yet another template part that you have assigned only to certain pages, such as the 404 page.

What Kind of Blocks can I use in a WordPress Header?

You can use any block in the WordPress library within a WordPress header. Although some blocks make more sense than others. You should definitely incorporate a navigation block, and site logo block, and consider using others such as social media icons, business contact information, and buttons. For more, see our tutorials on WordPress Blocks.

How do Global Site Styles affect my header style?

Global site styles will automatically be applied to every block within your header. That being said, you have the ability to override global block styles in your header by assigning different colors, text sizes, dimensions, and more to the blocks in your header.

Customizing Your Website’s Header Is Easier Than Ever

Thanks to full site editing, it’s possible to make your website’s header look and function any way you’d like. You’re no longer stuck with a boring header where it’s impossible to make even the smallest of changes without a ton of coding. Using a full site editing theme such as Twenty Twenty-Three, or a more robust theme like Divi, gives you more options to style your header to match your branding, add important elements, and make a good first impression.

What tools do you use to customize your website’s header? Let us know by sounding off in the comments below.

The post How to Customize Your WordPress Header (in 2023) appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

11.01.2023
Torque Social Hour: The WP Community Collective

The Torque Social Hour is a weekly livestream of WordPress news and events. On this week’s episode, we talk with SÃ© Reed and Courtney Robertson about the WP Community Collective, a group that aims to help fund WordPress contributors and community initiatives. This was a fun conversation about who open source contributions can get funded, then we spend the second half of the show talking about fun things like Andorsands, the site editor, and other WordPress news.

The Torque Social Hour

Join us on December 21st for our next livestream.

The post Torque Social Hour: The WP Community Collective appeared first on Torque.

16.12.2022
Torque Social Hour: Learning to use the Site Editor

The Torque Social Hour is a weekly livestream of WordPress news and events. On this week’s episode, Brian Gardner teaches Doc the fundamentals of editing a block based WordPress theme with the new Site Editor. Brian is the designer of one of the Style Variations that came in the new Twenty Twenty Three theme.

The Torque Social Hour

Join us on December 14th for our interview with Courtney Robertson and Se Reed from the WP Community Collective.

The post Torque Social Hour: Learning to use the Site Editor appeared first on Torque.

08.12.2022
WordPress Full Site Editing: A Beginnerâ€™s Guide

Full site editing (FSE) is the newest buzz in WordPress. Although there have been premium themes utilizing this up-and-coming technology for several years now, it’s finally made it’s way into the mainstream thanks to the adoption of Gutenberg back in 2018. In this post, we’ll give you the low down on what WordPress full site editing is, what it’s built on, and how to use it. Let’s get to it.

What is WordPress Full Site Editing?

In years past, WordPress has had a very distinct structure. You would use the WordPress Editor to add content to posts and pages, then install plugins for extra functionality. WordPress core files were responsible for headers, footers, content areas, sidebars, and other elements. In recent years, WordPress full site editing has changed all of that. Based on blocks, full site editing makes it much more possible to edit every aspect of your WordPress site. You can create custom headers, footers, and build custom content just about anywhere. Full site editing also extends beyond the core of WordPress with page builders like Divi that take it to a whole new level of design capabilities.

Benefits of Full Site Editing in WordPress?

One of the greatest benefits of full site editing is the ability to customize your site any way you want from top to bottom. For example, you can now create and edit post and page templates, headers, and footers all on the front end. Plus you can add global styles to your site and blocks and create your own color palettes, fonts, spacing, and more. It allows WordPress users to create custom sites easier than in the past because of minimal coding requirements. As previously mentioned, full site editing themes use blocks, so you can utilize them throughout all areas of your site to create a custom site tailered specifically to you.

Easy to Use

Another benefit of full site editing in WordPress is the ease of use for your clients. If you’re a freelancer or web agency professional who wants to be able to hand off a website after completion, FSE themes are the way to go. There’s no need for them to dig down into the theme’s code to make design changes. You see, full site editing themes utilize a theme.json file which allows developers to add styles and functionalities easily. Creating a global color palette, assigning fonts, and other styles can be set globally, making it easy for end users to add and edit content.

Optimized For Speed

Lastly, FSE’s are typically faster. They generally have less bloat, are optimally configured, and process requests much faster than traditional WordPress themes. That being said, hosting is a factor, so you should choose a reputable hosting provider that utilizes caching, is compatible with the latest version of PHP, and preferably provides cloud hosting options. For more, check out how to optimize page speed for SEO.

WordPress Full Site Editing Is Only Available on Block Themes

It’s important to note that not every theme supports full site editing. Built on Gutenberg blocks, which launched back in 2018, is the foundation for FSE. When first introduced, blocks were only supported in the content area of websites – such as posts and pages. With FSE themes, that functionality expands to literally every aspect of the theme. As previously mentioned, the theme.json file controls all of the site’s global settings and styles. In previuos generations, the theme customizer controlled site settings. Now the WordPress Site Editor controls all global styles and settings, plus give users the ability to add blocks throughout the theme.

That being said, there still aren’t a ton of options for full site editing themes out there. There are thousands of WordPress themes out there, with only a smidge over 160 FSE themes currently available. While full-site editing is growing in popularity, the technology is just now starting to take hold.

What is a Block Theme?

To put it plainly, a block theme is a WordPress theme that contains templates completely built on blocks. This not only includes posts and pages, but literally everything else. Sidebars, footers, headers, post templates, and every other aspect of the content on the theme.

In the past, WordPress websites consisted of a series of traditional PHP files. Now, block themes are all built on block templates. As previously mentioned, all block themes have a theme.json file that allows for developers and users to add additional functionalities, set global styles, and more.

Default themes such as Twenty Twenty-Two are considered block themes. Instead of using the old WordPress customizer to add your site’s taglines, choose colors, or select fonts, you use the WordPress Site Editor to control those things. Additionally, you use blocks to add content to templates to personalize it.

What is the Difference Between Static and Dynamic(Theme) Blocks

Before we start showing you how to use full site editing in WordPress, there are a couple of basics to understand in regards to WordPress blocks. There are two types of blocks in WordPress FSE – static blocks and dynamic Theme Blocks. Static blocks are made up of content that is known at the time you create and publish a post. Some examples of static blocks are paragraph, heading, image (although those can be dynamic too), quote, page breaks, buttons, and more.

On the other hand, the new FSE dynamic blocks (called Theme Blocks or Site Blocks) are designed to be used when building templates and can pull content from the backend of your site dynamically to display it on your site. These dynamic Theme Blocks can generate for blog post feeds (with a query loop block), post titles, post content, featured images, and many more. The post content block is a great example because any changes to the post content on the backend will automatically update each instance of that post content block throughout your site.

Getting Started with Full Site Editing in WordPress

Now that you have a basic understanding of what full site editing is, let’s talk about how to use it. In this section, we’ll help you understand how to choose a block theme, how to customize templates contained within the theme, set global styles, use dynamic theme blocks, and introduce you to block patterns.

Choosing a Theme that Supports Full Site Editing

Currently, there are 150+ full site editing themes available in the WordPress repository. There are two ways to choose a FSE theme. You can choose a free one from the WordPress repository, or purchase one from a premium vendor. For this post, we’ll choose a FSE in the WordPress repository.

First, log in to your WordPress dashboard and click Appearance > Themes. Next, click the Add New button.

Next, click the Feature Filter link to set filtering options.

There are three options to sort by including subject, features, and layout. You can choose the subject of the theme if you desire, otherwise you only need to tick the Site Editor box. Once you make your selections, click Apply Filters.

Your screen will refresh and reveal the choices available to you. You can choose a theme to follow along with this tutorial, or simply choose the Twenty Twenty-Two theme, which is what we’ll be using for this post. Once you make your choice, activate your theme to get started.

Customizing a Template

With your new theme active, the next step is to start customizing. For this tutorial, we won’t go into editing theme.json. We’re going to stick to the basics of Twenty Twenty-Two to get you acclimated to how full site editing themes work. That being said, head over to Appearance > Editor.

Once the site editor loads, you’ll be defaulted to the home page template.

To edit other templates within your theme, simply click the WordPress logo in the upper left corner of the site editor, then click Templates. In Twenty Twenty-Two, there are a number of templates you can edit including single post, page, 404, blank, search arhive, and more. To select a different template to edit, click on it to activate the site editor for that page. Additionally, you can create a new template for your site by clicking the Add New button on the top right hand corner in the dashboard.

There are several options for new templates in Twenty Twenty-Two including front page, author, category, date, tag, and taxonomy pages. That being said, these options will differ depending on which theme you chose in the previous section.

Template Parts

The next area you can edit in a page template are template parts. In Twenty Twenty-Two, you can edit the header and footer template parts on each template. However, each template has different template parts that are editable. For example, the home page template offers a blog template part as well.

For this example, let’s edit the header template part. Here you can edit the existing blocks or add new ones to the template. To add more blocks, toggle the block inserter by clicking the blue + button in the top left corner of the editor.

This will reveal all of the blocks available to you. You can add a block in one of two ways. Either click and drag your chosen block into the template part, or click the + icon to add one.

Additionally, you can edit existing blocks within a template. Simply click on the block you wish to edit to bring up its options. For example, if you want to edit the site logo, click on it to add a new image.

How to Set Global Styles

Another great feature of a full site editing theme is the ability to set global styles. You can choose fonts, colors, color themes, and adjust spacing. You can opt to set styles across your entire site, or only on certain blocks. This is a huge timesaver compared to themes of the past.

To access the styles for your site, click the styles icon at the top right of the site editor.

Once activated, you can browse the available styles in the Twenty Twenty-Two theme by clicking the browse styles link to choose a color scheme for your site.

The next option, typography, allows you to choose the font options for your text and links. This includes font family, size, line height, and font weight (appearance).

Under colors, you can edit the colors used in your global color palette. You can assign colors to the background, text, and links. In Twenty Twenty-Two there are 17 solid colors and 20 gradients. Additionally, you can add custom colors and gradients to your site, which is great for branding purposes.

Lastly, you can adjust the padding to your layout. Padding can be set for top, left, right, and bottom as a whole, or set individually.

Using Dynamic Theme Blocks

The block editor contains more than 90 blocks that can be utilized to build page templates in the site editor. Among those, there are some dynamic theme blocks that will populate dynamic content shown on the front end of your site. For example, when clicking into the single post template, you’ll see a few that are used including the post title, post featured image, and post content blocks. These are useful for building a dynamic template to display your blog posts dynamically.

When editing themes, you can utilize theme blocks to build headers, footers, and more. In all, there are 27 theme blocks. We won’t go through all of them here, but we’ll go over a few so that you get a good understanding of what you can do.

Building a New Header for Your Templates

Let’s demonstrate how to use a few theme blocks to build a new header template part for your site. Start by navigating to the Templates menu. Next, click Blank template to start.

If you want to be able to see which blocks are utilized in your page, you can use the layers view. It’s accessbile by clicking the layers icon in the top left part of your site edtior screen.

Click the blue + icon to reveal the blocks, then scroll down to the theme block options. The first theme block we’ll select is the template part block. This is very useful for creating global sections for your site. We’re going to use a template part to create a custom header for your site that can be assigned to certain pages.

Drag the template part block into your site editor’s blank page. Select start blank to build a new template part.

Assign a name for your template part, then click create.

First, bring up the blocks and search for spacer, then add it to your pasteboard. Give it a height of 20px. This will add 20px of space at the very top of your template.

Next, find the columns block. Drag it into the pasteboard. Select the 33/33/33 column variation. This will put three columns in your row. The each column will occupy 33% of the available site space.

Your template part should now look like this:

Add Blocks to Your Header Template

Bring up the blocks menu by clicking the blue + icon. Scroll down to the theme blocks and drag the site logo block into the first column. Upload an image or assign one from your media gallery.

Next, drag the navigation block into the second column. For the navigation block, you can add pages from your website to the menu, or create custom links. Adding menus in full site editing themes is a bit different than in other themes. You no longer use Appearance > Menus to add them. Now, all menus are created and added in the site editor. Click start empty to create links for your site or select pages. To add them, hit the enter key on your keyboard.

Finally, add the social links block to your third column. Add the social media icons you wish to feature by clicking the + at the right site of the social icons block.

NOTE: You are not limited to adding Theme Blocks to your templates. You can use any WordPress Block. In this example, the social links block isn’t a dynamic theme block but is still a useful element to add to a header.

With your blocks all added, your header should now look like this.

Adjusting the Layout of the Template

Now that you have all of the blocks in your new header, you’ll notice that the spacing seems a bit off. No worries, as is with every aspect of full site editing, you can adjust that too. First, click on the first column in the layers view. In the settings panel under Column Settings > Width, click the dropdown to reveal the different sizing options. Choose %. Type in 20 for the width of the first column.

Repeat the steps to adjust the second column to 60%, then the third column to 20%. You header should now have better spacing. Save your template by clicking the Publish button in the top right hand corner.

Your template should now look like this.

Using Block Patterns to Jumpstart Your Designs

When building templates, there is an easy way to drop in a series of blocks to make the design process easier. These groups of blocks are called block patterns. WordPress comes standard with a few block patterns you can use, or you can build your own to reuse them throughout your site. To access block patterns, click the blue + icon at the top left in the site editor, then click the patterns tab. There are several categories of block patterns to choose from including footers, headers, buttons, galleries, columns, and more.

Each block pattern can be edited to suit your design choices. Color, font, and padding styles can be adjusted within individual blocks in the pattern. If you want to save a block pattern you’ve created, simply click the ellipsis menu in the list view, then click Add to Reusable Blocks. Alternatively, you can also save it as a Template Part.

Divi: The Ultimate Full Site Editing Theme for WordPress

If you are looking for a versatile, feature-packed full site editing theme for WordPress, look no further than Divi. Take full site editing to a completely different level by utilizing the most advanced Visual Builder in the world. Users can apply hover effects, add shape dividers, apply animations, edit elements in bulk, and apply global styles and color palettes, to name a few features. Plus, Divi has over 200 elements in its arsenal to help you create a stunning, highly functional website. With elements such as blogs, sliders, call to actions, pricing, testimonials, and more, users can create a truly unique website.

Divi Theme Builder

In addition to the unlimited design capabilities of Divi, users can also expand customizations to their entire website. You can design headers, footers, product templates, category and archive pages, 404 templates, post templates and more. Plus, you can do all of this with Divi’s proprietary Visual Builder, which allows you to see design changes in real time. There’s no limit to the number of templates you can create. Additionally, Theme Builder templates can be assigned as global elements, or to individual pages if desired.

Divi Dynamic Content

Divi also has the built-in capability to create dynamic content for your website. Using the Template Builder and/or Visual Builder, users can assign dynamic content to posts, pages, products, and templates. You can use dynamic content in all Divi elements, which allows you to build dynamic modules to display information pulled directly from your database.

Dynamic Modules in Divi

Dynamic modules are great for use in all types of websites. They can be used to build modules for travel websites, recipes, rental services, and more. Using Divi’s Visual Builder, you can assign dynamic content based on the type of template you wish to build. For example, when building post or category templates, the dynamic content available for a text module has options that differ from those of an image module. For modules with text, you can choose things like post/archive title, post excerpt, publish date, comment count, tags, category description, and more. On the other hand, image modules are used to set dynamic content such as featured image, author profile picture, and site logo image.

Dynamic WooCommerce Modules

Ecommerce website owners get an added bonus with Divi. When WooCommerce is installed, Divi adds a series of dynamic WooCommerce modules that offer the ability to add dynamic content when building product, cart, and checkout page templates. It’s no longer necessary to utilize CSS when using WooCommerce in order to make your site’s product and cart pages match your branding. Plus, WooCommerce modules can be used anywhere within Divi to highlight products, create product galleries, and much more.

FAQs About WordPress Full Site Editing

After all of the information that we’ve handed you, we’re sure you have some questions. Not to worry, we have answers for you.

If I Swap To a Full Site Editing Theme, What Will Happen To My Website?

Thankfully, full site editing themes are built on blocks. So, if you are swapping from another theme based on blocks, you should only have to do a few things to get your site looking good. The first thing is to set a site logo and navigation by creating a header template part. Chances are, your old theme used the Customizer. With FSE themes, the site editor is used to create your site’s header.

Where Can I Find a Full Site Editing Theme?

There are two ways to find a full site editing theme. The first way is to conduct a filtered search in the WordPress theme section of your admin dashboard. There are more than 160 themes to choose from. The second way is to purchase a premium full site editing theme such as Divi.

My Old Site Uses Widgets. Will They Stay in Place if I Swap to a Full Site Editing Theme?

Since a FSE theme is built entirely on blocks, it doesn’t utilize widgets the same as in the past. However, there are widget blocks that are available. You’ll probably need to replace old widgets with new widget blocks or add new block patterns to help speed up the process.

What Version of WordPress Do I Need to Use a Full Site Editing Theme?

Full site editing is compatible with versions of WordPress since the release of 5.8 and more Theme blocks have been added in recent versions. If your install doesn’t have 5.8, you’ll need to upgrade it in order to use a FSE theme. The good news is that you need to upgrade anyway, as using outdated versions of WordPress leaves your site vulnerable to security hacks and all sorts of other nasty issues.

I’m Not Very Tech Savvy. Can I Use a FSE?

Yes! It’s easy for nearly everyone to learn how to build a website using Full site editing. Because FSE themes utilize drag-and-drop visual editing, it’s easy to build beautiful layouts with ease.

Will Using a Full Site Editing Theme Speed Up My Site?

Yes, it can, but there’s more to it than that. First, full site editing themes can give you a performance boost because they are built in a way that requires fewer plugins for added functionality. So, you shouldn’t need to install many to get the site where you want it. That being said, FSE themes aren’t automatically designed to be faster out of the box. There are other considerations such as hosting providers. A good hosting provider such as SiteGround, will run the latest version of PHP, and provide a CDN and other speed enhancements that will make websites run faster.

Full Site Editing is the Future of WordPress

Full Site Editing is gaining ground in the WordPress community. With the ability to edit every aspect of websites, developers and creatives are beginning to see the value in it. Premium themes such as Divi have been using this technology since 2021, and have stayed ahead of the curve. That being said, with the release of WordPress Twenty Twenty-Two theme at the beginning of this year, we can expect full site editing themes to become the norm shortly. Knowing how to utilize full site editing in WordPress development is an essential step to keep you set up for the future.

Do you use full site editing in WordPress? Give us your thoughts on it below.

The post WordPress Full Site Editing: A Beginner’s Guide appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

05.12.2022
Full-Site Editing Themes in WordPress; Are They There Yet?

The goal of this article is to bring you the latest opinions on Full-Site Editing Themes in WordPress and whether FSE is gaining footage in the WordPress ecosphere. Iâ€™ve been following the development of FSE for a while now and Iâ€™m happy to say that there has been a lot of progress over the past year.

The post “Full-Site Editing Themes in WordPress; Are They There Yet?” first appeared on WP Mayor.

18.10.2022