coriander in pho

This is a part of my blog post series covering Full Site Editing, coming to your WordPress websites in January 2022! Check out the previous posts about FSE: Full Site Editing: Templates! and Full Site Editing: Templates! With Pictures!

Hey! Welcome to another post about WordPress Full Site Editing! For this post, we are going to talk about two main points in FSE: Themes and Blocks.

Themes

Not all themes support FSE, and to see the magic of FSE, you will need to make sure you have the right theme for the job.

FSE supports Blockbase-based themes. Blockbase is a theme developed by Automattic theme developers with FSE as the focus. From Blockbase, the theme then derived into child themes — and you can find the themes on your Themes section here.

“Hey, Kap, I see several similar themes — Geologist – Yellow, Geologist – Slate, and so on. What’s that? Are those different?”

No. They are the same themes (Geologist) — and the color only indicates the color palette the theme is using. We just recently launched it to show how diverse our theme can be ?

Now, you might wonder what are Blockbase-based themes/themes that supporting block templates. For that, you can find them here: https://wordpress.com/themes/filter/block-templates/

This blog is using theme Quadrat (because I really like the triangle-thingy on the top) and as you can see, I’m using the regular Quadrat theme with different color palette (white).

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Blocks

Now! The Blocks! I’m so excited about this because as you explore more about blocks and templates, you will found out endless possibilities for you to build your templates and make your website awesome.

Most of the blocks will be visible on regular page/post editor, so some confusion bound to happen — and you might find the block is not working as you expect (or even crashed the editor) when being used on the regular post/page. When that happen, feel free to reach out to Happiness Engineer on help@wordpress.com for assistance.

The following screenshots will look different from this blog/website. It’s because I’m using my another site (a free WordPress.com website) as my sandbox/a place for me to explore and destroy stuffs.

Now! First, lets see the template editor. The editor looks exactly the same as page/post editor that we are all familiar with.

We have:

• Top left access menu
• Left sidebar (this sidebar will be visible when you click the “Add Block” button or “List View” button)

• Content area on the middle — where the magic happens
• Right sidebar. Usually, there are two tabs there: “Post/Page/Templates” tab (the name changed depending on the area you are working on), and “Blocks”

Okay, lets get to it! Click the “Add Block” button and see all the blocks on it’s glory!

And here they are, under the “Theme” section.

Site Title Block, Site Logo Block, and Site Tagline Block

These triumvirate is a must-have on website designs (okay, maybe just two of them) but these three are self-explanatory.

The information for these three blocks can be edited on Settings > General section on the dashboard.

On Block Editor, the texts (site title and the site tagline) are editable and you can adjust the site size.

For site logo, you can resize the site logo size. Make sure you are using high-resolution image to ensure the site logo stays sharp!

You can also use the slider on “Image width” section on the right sidebar to adjust the site logo’s size.

Now, it’s all neat and cute. But maybe you are wondering, “okay, how do I make it to be in one line? Is it possible?”

For that, my friend, we are using Row Block (I’m trying so hard not to sing “row row row your block” okay)

“Can I use other blocks, maybe? Layout Grid Block? Columns Block?”

Most definitely, yes! You are in control of how you want the site looks like, and nothing stops you!

And once you are comfortable on playing with blocks, you can even create your own preferred look. Site logo and title on the left, and menu on the right? Yep. Layout Grid Block, a couple of Spacer Blocks, and ta-da!

“I’m scared. I’m really not comfortable on doing this, and this looks like taking a really long time to achieve. You are a Happiness Engineer, Kap, so of course you know your way around. How about me?”

I’m here. Facing that kind of uncertainty is definitely not fun and there are times you might feel silly as you are on the verge of crying — and trust me, nothing silly about it. Frustration is real. Dealing with new stuffs and getting confused in the process is definitely disheartening.

Now! About the header area — and this goes to other areas too — let me introduce you this:

Block Patterns

Legit, this is one of my favorite features in WordPress.com, up there with theme Leven (gonebutnotforgotten) and Blog Posts Block.

To access Block Patterns, click the “Add Block” button on the top left corner, and click “Patterns”.

See the following GIF to see it in action.

A bit of difference; the header block pattern that I chose on the GIF above is using regular Image Block instead of Site Logo Block. You can always replace the block by removing it and added Site Logo Block.

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Query Loop Block

If you are creating a page where the page is expected to show your blog posts, pages, or your portfolio projects, Query Loop Block is your friend. What this block does is to display your website contents (post, page, or project) on a page. Be really careful about this block as you can find this block on your post editor. I haven’t tried it (I’m too terrified, really,) but I really don’t want to put Query Loop Block on a post (I imagine it will create some kind of post-ception-thingy, I guess?)

When adding Query Loop Block, you will see some options of pre-designed display (regular look or grid look,) or if you are feeling adventurous, you can click “Start blank”.

Once you got the Query Loop Block, you might notice — on some templates/some designs — that it has Pagination Block. Please note, this block only appears inside the Query Loop Block.

Now! There is this SUPER neat trick you can play with Query Loop Block. It’s possible to have multiple Query Loop Block in one template — “what’s for?” you might asked — and you can display your posts differently. For example this website’s homepage!

I’m using TWO Query Loop Blocks there — and it’s all thanks to this little awesome feature:

For the first Query Loop Block on the top — the one I want to display the latest published post — I set it to have only one (1) item per page with Offset set to 0.

For the second Query Loop Block, I set it to display six (6) items per page and Offset set to 1. What is Offset? I call it as a “jump”. It will “jump” over X number of latest post. So the second Query Loop Block will not display the last published post. If I set it the Offset to 2, it will not display the last TWO published posts.

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Post Title, Post Content, Post Excerpt, Post Date, and contents-related Blocks

Now, you might noticed some blocks with “Post” on it. I must admit, it threw me off on the first time. I thought Post Content Block is specifically to display a blog post content — and I was wrong! It’s to display contents on the page/post with the template. Having Post Content Block on the template will make the template to display contents of whatever content it is on the page/post.

I honestly not super sure why the name is Post Content and with Post-related naming, but I really hope this explanation helps!

So! You might wondering, where should or how should we use Post Content Block.

Sometimes, you might want to have your website page to not have any title (“I have a contact page, but I don’t want the page title — CONTACT — to be visible on the page. How do I do that?”

Now, you can edit the page template, then remove the Post Title Block:

But keep the Post Content block! You have to keep it, because Post Content Block’s job is to display the contents of the page.

At this point, you might also realized, “oh, so Post Title Block is to display the page title?” Yes! Yes it is! The same goes with Post Date, and the others. Remember, this is template, so it will follow the contents that assigned to it.

“Okay, so that’s for page. How about post template?”

I once showed my single post template! You can check it out here:

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Assign a template on a page/post

Switching a post/page’s template can be done from the post/page editor. Open the post/page you want to edit/switch the template, click the “Templates” tab on the right sidebar, and you can change the template:

A bit of note: Currently, there is an issue with changing template on a page/post to default template (templates generated by the theme.) The team is aware about it; but I can’t provide 100% exact timeframe on when the issue will be resolved. Rest assured, I will keep you folks updated.

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Again, all of these things might look super intimidating and super complicated — and to be honest, yes, yes it is. It can feel really tricky and difficult as you learn more stuffs about Full Site Editing and its magical and weird wonders it brings. However, you don’t have to go embark the journey alone!

If you need someone to chat with about FSE, or maybe you need another set of eyes to check (“heyyyy, I found this– Weird thingy here. Not sure if this should act like this or not. I think it bites. Can you check here too and maybe bring some kind of poke stick just in case?”), feel free to check with me or with any Happiness Engineers on help@wordpress.com. Imma bring my torch, washi tape, and stapler.

And that would be a wrap! Thank you so much for tuning in with me on Full Site Editing!

This is a part of my blog post series covering Full Site Editing, coming to your WordPress websites in January 2022! Check out the very first post about FSE here: Full Site Editing: Templates!

We are back on our Full Site Editing (FSE) Series and we are back talking about templates again because I got confused with my own previous blog post ?

Some of you might still not super clear on what template is all about, and why it matters on FSE. Now, we will touch a bit about WordPress FSE.

To activate Site Editor/FSE on WordPress.com, you can find the option on Settings section.

To access Site Editor/FSE on WordPress.com (make sure it’s activated first,) you can find the option on Appearance section.

Again, please note the beta information. If you find issues or bugs related with FSE, or maybe product improvement request!, feel free to let Happiness Engineers know about it on help@wordpress.com.

Template and FSE 101

What is template? I love analogies, so imagine this:

Think… An apartment unit, or a house. You might familiar with how folks show/display the apartment’s floor plan. There’s a living room, master bedroom, bathroom, and so on. That’s a template. You know each room’s function and you can customize how each room looks like. Just because your neighbor is using yellow sofa for their living room, does not mean you have to use a yellow sofa too. It’s your freedom to choose what goes into the template.

Lets see this single.php template. As a refresher: single.php template is for single blog post, so you can expect something like this:

We are focusing on content area first (I promise we will discuss more about header and footer). On the content area, you can see post title, post content, post date (the date where the post is published,) post category (the category of the post assigned to,) and post author.

This used to be static. I have my fair share of having folks coming to live chat and asked, “hey, can I hide the post author? I don’t want my name to appear on the blog post,” or, “hello! Is it possible for me to move the arrangement? I want to have the post date on the top of the post title. Is it possible?”

The answer for the first question is “yes. Using CSS code” — and not all folks are comfortable with CSS — and the answer for the second question is “no”. Well, if you are familiar with PHP and you have access to the PHP file (template file,) then yeaaaah, a bit, but in general, no. Trust me, I feel equally bad of saying it can’t be done/it’s really tricky to achieve that.

See how discouraging it is?

With FSE, you can move the elements. FSE takes the principal of Block Editor and make it possible for folks to move the elements around, just like building blocks, without having to be super well-versed in programming language (this is another reason why I’m so hyped about FSE. Hyped.)

I’m going to show you a sneak peek of my single.php template.

And yes! You can move it!

HOW COOL IS THAT.

Gone now the time where you are wondering how the hell we can move this post date so it will be under post content because now yes, you can! Oh, or perhaps you prefer NOT to have featured image visible on single blog post? REMOVE THE POST FEATURED IMAGE BLOCK, BABY! BOOM.

Template Parts

Next! Template parts! For this, I’m going to focus on the defaults: Header and Footer — mainly because these two are always visible/exists on every WordPress website. Rest assured, you can create more template parts. Template part is super nifty when you found you keep doing the same thing over and over again so instead of re-typing the code for the gazillionth time, you can enter the shortcut on the template you are working on.

For example, with header area of the website. It usually has, minimum, three elements: Site Title, Site Tagline, and Navigation/Menu. Add it as a template and name it header.php. Then, you can add the header.php on another template, for example, page.php (for single page. Confused between post and page? Not to worry, you can check this Support guide: Post v. Page)

Lets say you have… 15 templates on your website. All of them have footer area. Then, you realized that you have to change something on your footer area. Maybe the background color, from black to grey.

Instead of changing it on every template (FIFTEEN OF THEM!), you only need to change it once on footer.php and all templates with footer.php on it will be updated too.

You can use this principal for creating template parts: Footer, Header, Sidebar, and many more! Give it a try and explore!

Up next, we are going to dive into WordPress Full Site Editing, the supporting themes, and its blocks. Again, I can’t promise when exactly I will publish it, but I will do so before the New Year.

Okay, as promised, this is one of the many from Full Site Editing series, excitedly coming to your nearest WordPress site in January for WordPress 5.9.

I’m writing this because I personally feel FSE is something super major on WordPress and some of you might quite unsure on what it’s all about or maybe slightly weirded out about the whole thing (“we even haven’t recovered from Gutenberg/Block Editor, and now this?”)

I hope this blog post/post series on FSE can help you to feel a bit at ease and give you a little boost of confidence to explore.

A bit of tips: If you want to try new things/explore new stuffs on your WordPress.com website, it’s recommended to create a FREE WordPress.com website on your account and you can use it as your sandbox/trying out new stuffs before jumping into the real thing.

Even though it’s really tempting to jump directly to Full Site Editing (FSE), I really want to cover WordPress and template — specifically: What is template?

For this question, we need to look to WordPress Core — the software — or, as folks usually refer to: WordPress.org.

WordPress is actually a software. A CMS: Content Management System. A software for folks to manage their website contents — creating a post or a page, categorize it, tag it, publish it, delete it, and so on. Aside from WordPress, there are other CMS softwares such as Joomla, Drupal, and many more.

WordPress relies on themes. If there is no active theme on the website, you can expect to see WSOD (White Screen of Death)/blank page on your website. Inside the themes, there are: Templates.

Template is a file that defines how a certain page displayed. In general, WordPress websites have the following templates:

• single.php — a single post template, a.k.a. a template for a single blog post, for example, this one: https://corianderinpho.com/2021/12/16/state-of-the-word-2021/ — that link refers to a single blog post.
• page.php — a single page template, a.k.a. a template for a, well, page. For example, this one: https://corianderinpho.com/works/
• 404.php — a template for page 404/a page that only visible when you are looking for something that not exists on the website/Not Found page.
• archive.php — a template for archive page. What is an archive page? Archive page is a page that generated to display a list of posts or pages based from category, tag, author, date, month, or post type. For example, this one: https://corianderinpho.com/category/inktober/ — That is the archive page for posts under category “Inktober”. This page, however: https://corianderinpho.com/archives/ — is a regular page titled “Archives”
• … And many more. You can even create new templates if you want.

There are some additional elements and we called it Templates Parts. Not exactly a template as a whole, but a template for a specific area on another template.

These two are the most prominents:

• header.php, and…
• footer.php

“Wait. What? Why?”

Here’s the thing about WordPress and templates: You can create as many templates as you want, and you might find yourself typing the same code over and over again. For example, you want to create 10 templates for your theme: Page without title, page without sidebar, and so on. Imagine how tedious it can be to type the same code for the header area (the site title and the navigation menu) for ten times and more.

This is where Template Parts come into play. For example, you are creating a template specifically for a page named, say, page-without-page-title.php and instead of typing the same code again and again for the header area, you only need to type:

And what the get header(); will do is pulling everything from header.php to be displayed on the page-without-page-title.php template.

You only need to design a template specifically for the header area, and any changes on header.php will affect all templates pulling header.php on its file. The same goes with footer.php — and other elements. For example, sidebar.php (yes, you can create one) and you can use sidebar.php on another template file. If you found yourself using a certain design over and over again on your theme, you can consider using template parts.

For example, these are the templates for theme Twenty Nineteen:

The PHP files in the red boxes are template files. Twenty Nineteen is one of the basic/starter templates so the templates are not a lot — but you can check some more advanced themes and you can find a lot more templates.

For example, single.php template. How a single blog post looks like on theme Twenty Nineteen is different from the blog post on theme Twenty Twenty.

This is how a blog post looks like on theme Twenty Nineteen:

… And this is how it looks like on theme Twenty Twenty.

Notice the differences, the colors, the text placement, and even how the featured image is displayed. Those elements are defined using templates. This is why some themes have sidebar, and some didn’t. All boils down to templates.

“Okay. What it’s gotta do with Full Site Editing? Templates look really techie, I don’t know what PHP files are, and I’m not comfortable in tinkering with codes!”

Now this is where FSE coming into — and why I’m mega excited about it:

With FSE, you don’t have to have knowledge in coding on PHP language to create and edit your templates (and if you do have knowledge and comfort on doing PHP programming, that’s equally awesome!)

With FSE, you can create your own template and edit the existing ones. You might notice the “Side Editor (Beta)” tab on your WordPress.com dashboard — and yep! That’s FSE!

Please note, though, FSE is still really really new (it’s still in beta version) and you might find something not working or acting quite funky (I definitely had those moments!) If you do find something not quite right/not working as expected, or maybe you want to have a gut check with us, feel free to ring us up on e-mail help@wordpress.com or reach out to us on live chat (24 hours, Monday – Friday for Personal plan and Premium plan, Monday – Sunday for Business plan and eCommerce plan) here: https://wordpress.com/help/contact/

I hope this helps a bit on sharing what template is all about! Our next post will be Introduction to FSE (… and, uhhh, I can’t promise you when I will publish it. I promise it will be before the New Year ?)

Still confused about templates? I’m confused too! Check out the next post, still talking about WordPress template with pictures: Full Site Editing: Templates! With Pictures!