Curating news and community voices about the WordPress Block Editor, codenamed Gutenberg, Playground and sometimes AI.

Author: Justin Tadlock

Justin Tadlock is a WordPress Developer Advocate (sponsored by Automattic) and a regular writer on the WordPress Developer Blog. He has been building for WordPress for nearly two decades — as a theme and plugin developer, founder of Theme Hybrid, longtime writer at WP Tavern, and co-author of Professional WordPress Plugin Development, 2nd Edition. He is also a front-end developer, a gardener, and a small-town Alabama kid.

Gutenberg 24.0, the road to 7.2, a new default theme named Ipsum, and more—Weekend Edition 377

Artificial Intelligence (AI), Block Plugins, Full-Site Editing, News, Playground, Themes, Updates, Weekend Edition

Howdy, Before anything else: if you maintain WordPress sites, go update them. WordPress 7.1.2 shipped on September 22 to patch a single critical vulnerability in…

September 26, 2026
The WordPress 7.2 release squad, WordCamp World, Playground meets WebMCP, and more—Weekend Edition 376

Block Plugins, Full-Site Editing, News, Playground, Themes, Updates, Weekend Edition

Howdy, If you’re a regular reader, you might be wondering why I’m in your inbox instead of Birgit. She’s off on a well-earned three-month sabbatical…

September 12, 2026
Why WordPress Core needs more blocks

For Developers

There’s an open discussion on whether Core WordPress should include more blocks in its toolkit. This opinion piece explores why they are important for the…

September 2, 2025
Introducing the Breadcrumbs WordPress Block Plugin

Block Plugins, For Users

In 2009, I announced the release of my first breadcrumbs plugin. It was a one-file PHP script that I’d been using in my themes for…

July 18, 2023
A Walk-Through of Layout Classes in WordPress 6.1

For Developers, Themes

WordPress 6.1 introduced several necessary changes to its layout framework. Namely, core has now centralized its layout definitions, created semantic class names, and reduced code…

November 4, 2022
Building a Block-Based Header Template in a Classic Theme

For Developers, Themes

WordPress 6.1 will allow classic theme authors to begin using block-based template parts. It is one of the most exciting features of the release and…

September 30, 2022
Block-Based Template Parts: A Happy Medium Between Classic and Block Themes

For Developers, Themes

I was one of the early adopters of the block editor as a developer. Despite the flak that the Gutenberg plugin was catching before it…

September 21, 2022
Designing Style Variations for Twenty Twenty-Three: The Good, the Bad, and Everything Else

For Developers, Themes

Since the release of Twenty Ten, the WordPress community has gotten a new default theme almost every year. This has allowed the platform to amass…

August 30, 2022
Layouts and Wide Alignments in WordPress: Then, Now, and Upcoming Changes

For Developers, Themes

For most of WordPress’ history, the platform accepted a single layout width, defined by the active theme’s global $content_width variable. Theme authors were required to…

August 7, 2022
Conditionally Registering Patterns in Themes with Third-Party Blocks

For Developers

What happens when a theme registers a pattern with a third-party block? If the user has the block plugin installed, it appears as it should.…

July 27, 2022