March 9, 2023 — Several WordPress community theme developers and designers come together to discuss the Community Themes Initiative. The goal was to lay the groundwork and hash out ideas around building block themes collaboratively to submit to the official WordPress theme directory.

March 1, 2023 — What’s a block style? What’s a block variation? Is there a difference between the two? When should you create a variation instead of a custom style?

In this Online Workshop, we will answer these questions and more. Block styles are a great way to modify the visual aesthetic of blocks, and block variations are one of the most overlooked tools for building customized block-based editing experiences in WordPress. Learn how to use this powerful functionality in your own projects.

February 15, 2023 — Developer Hours are informal discussions where WordPress developers can talk about a variety of related topics with both peers and experts.

In this session 12 developers talk about adding a block implementation of a shortcode or widget to an existing plugin.

February 14, 2023 — In January 2023, a few community members from the FSE Outreach Program gathered to discuss various upcoming features specific to Block Themers:

– Applying local styles globally: push block design changes from post/template editor to global styles.

– Inputs for Custom CSS: add custom CSS from the site editor Styles panel.

– Exploring the Style Book: show all blocks (including third-party) in site editor, making it easier to test everything when designing.

– Edit block style variations: edit (not yet create) existing block styles of a theme from the Styles panel.

February 8, 2023 — One major benefit of block themes is that they can be built with very little CSS. For example, the Twenty Twenty-Three theme has none. All block styles are defined in a theme.json file. While theme.json is getting more powerful with each WordPress release, you will likely need to add some custom CSS in most projects.

This Online Workshop will explore ways to add custom CSS to a block theme while ensuring those styles work correctly in the Editor and on the site’s front end. If time permits, we will also discuss a Sass workflow you can employ to optimize per-block styles.

December 9, 2022 — Global Styles (theme.json) is an area of WordPress that has received some of the most enhancements in the last few releases. WordPress 6.1 is no different. This Online Workshop will review how theme.json and Global Styles work while digging into many of the changes in 6.1. This functionality is incredibly powerful and necessary for building WordPress sites that fully support all of the design features in WordPress. Join us for an interactive presentation followed by a group Q&A.

December 2, 2022 — In this Online Workshop, we’ll explore how to design sophisticated layouts using Columns, Group, Row and Stack blocks. These blocks represent the fundamental building blocks of every WordPress website. You’ll learn the nuances of each block type and how to configure them correctly, with a special focus on new features in WordPress 6.1. Join us for an interactive presentation followed by a group Q&A.

November 10, 2022 — WordPress 6.1 is here, and with it, more ways to curate the editing experience. In this Online Workshop, we will review the Block Editor Handbook article Curating the Editor Experience in a live environment. Then using real-world examples, you will learn how to tailor the Editor to suit your needs and/or those of your clients. From block locking and advanced theme.json configurations to new features in 6.1, like content-only editing support for container blocks!

September 24, 2022 — Block development can be challenging, but getting started with block development couldn’t be easier. In the past few years, WordPress contributors have created tools to simplify the process and make building blocks more accessible to those without advanced knowledge of JavaScript and React. Coupled with core components, native block supports, and a bit of guidance, every WordPress developer can add custom blocks to their repertoire. To demonstrate, let’s build a custom block from scratch in under 15 minutes. Start the clock!

September 21, 2022 — Block development can be challenging, but getting started with block development has never been easier. In the past few years, WordPress contributors have created tools to simplify the process and make building blocks more accessible to those without advanced knowledge of JavaScript and React. Coupled with core components, native block supports, and a bit of guidance, every WordPress builder can add custom blocks to their toolset.

This online workshop is a follow-up to my WordCamp US presentation “Let’s Build a Custom Block in 15 Minutes”. We will walk through the process of building a custom block using the Create Block tool in more detail and add a few additional features. For our block example, we will be “blockifying” the original Hello Dolly plugin by Matt Mullenweg.