Enclavely, Inc., the owners of the Tailor Page Builder plugin, have announced that they will be discontinuing its development effective immediately. Andrew Worsfold, the original developer, launched Tailor in April 2016 and the plugin received an enthusiastic reception from the WordPress community. After performing a critical review of the major page builders available to users…
The next release of WordPress (5.0) will introduce the new Gutenberg editor and contributors plan to keep it rolling towards the eventual goal of providing a full site building experience. Nearly every WordPress theme and plugin developer will be impacted by the change and many are starting to look ahead to how their products may…
In this episode, John James Jacoby and I are joined by Topher DeRosia, founder of HeroPress. DeRosia provides an update on HeroPress and explains his new role creating WordPress training videos for WinningWP. Jacoby and I discussed the news of the week including, Press This removed in WordPress 4.9, Meta box support in Gutenberg, and…
Gutenberg 1.7 was released today, two weeks after version 1.6, with a fresh round of new features, design updates, and the groundwork for nested blocks and block extensibility. Last week contributors began exploring an alternative to using iframes for meta boxes. This experiment has landed in 1.7 so that the plugin now renders meta boxes…
The discussion surrounding the use of iframes for meta boxes in Gutenberg became more heated over the weekend, as concerned developers implored the team to consider the detriments of the current approach. Responses from Gutenberg’s leadership initially deflected concerns, presenting the iframe implementation as an experiment that “works ‘for now’” but isn’t what the team…
A lively and productive discussion regarding Gutenberg’s use of iframes for meta boxes is happening on GitHub. Yesterday, WordPress developer Kevin Hoffman created an issue titled “Are iframes a viable long-term solution for meta boxes?” Gutenberg 1.5 introduced initial support for meta boxes. Hoffman identified several issues with iframes that have been popping up as…
The Gutenberg plugin’s Halloween release (version 1.6) includes major updates to the writing experience and many performance improvements. The block toolbar has been relocated to the top of the editor, a suggestion that was mocked up and described in detail in a post on the Yoast SEO blog proposing an alternative approach for Gutenberg. Prior…
WordPress beta releases typically don’t generate controversy but in WordPress 4.9 Beta 3, a call to action was added to the dashboard that encouraged users to install and activate Gutenberg. Members of the WordPress community raised concerns that clients may install Gutenberg and shared ways to hide the prompt from users. The negative reaction inspired…
Gutenberg 1.5 was released this morning and introduces several major changes to the plugin. This version takes the new editor off the back burner and makes it the default for creating new posts. The team has also included a way for users to create posts with the Classic Editor, but this requires knowing where to…
Ever since the demise of WordPress’ old distraction-free writing mode, users have been forced to look elsewhere for a truly zen writing experience. Gutenberg’s current design trajectory doesn’t seem to be putting it on track for delivering the minimalist writing environment that many writers crave. The project has a lot of publishing and design-related functionality…
In this episode, John James Jacoby and I discuss the news of the week including DonateWC sponsoring its first recipient to WordCamp Cape Town, WordPress 4.9 Beta 1, and WooCommerce 3.2. We also have a bit of fun with Poopy.life and blurt out a few crappy puns. Last but not least, we dissect Matías Ventura’s…
Gutenberg 1.4 was released today with a new feature that allows users to edit HTML on a per-block basis. HTML mode can be triggered by toggling the ellipsis menu and selecting the HTML icon. This will switch the block between visual and text mode, without having to switch the entire document into text mode. Contributors…
In a post titled Gutenberg, or the Ship of Theseus, Matías Ventura breaks down the vision for how the project will transform WordPress’ content creation experience and the decisions the team has made along the way. Ventura describes how WordPress has become difficult to customize, as online publishing has embraced rich media and web design…
Gutenberg 1.3 was released this week with many small tweaks and improvements to existing features. One of the most visible updates for those who are testing the Cover Image block is the addition of an opacity slider. It brings more flexibility to the feature than the previous on/off background dimming toggle provided. Users can now…
In this episode, I’m joined by special guest co-host Brad Williams, Co-Founder and CEO of the website design and development agency WebDevStudios. Brad shared his experience at CampPress and is looking forward to attending the event again in 2018. We discussed the recent move to moderate all comments on the Tavern again. We covered the…