WordPress Block Themes: Don't make this BEGINNERS mistake!

👉 Block theme course www.pootlepress.com/wordpress...
👉 One Day Sites : www.pootlepress.com/our-wordp...
👉 🔥 Instant Websites 🔥 www.pootlepress.com/instant-w...
👉 My WordPress Gutenberg plugins: www.pootlepress.com/wordpress... 🔥
👉 My courses: www.pootlepress.com/our-wordp...
👉 Become a member of my club: clubpootle.com/
👉 Contact me at: [e-mail]
👉 Sign up for my newsletter: www.pootlepress.com/sign-up-t...
As a beginner navigating the world of WordPress block themes, it’s important to be aware of the most common mistake that many newcomers tend to make. In this blog post, I will shed light on this mistake and provide you with practical tips on how to avoid it. Let’s dive in!
1. Understanding the Block Theme Mistake
The biggest mistake beginners make is placing content directly into page templates or the site editor. While certain themes may initially provide starter content in the site editor, it’s crucial to remember that this is only intended for demonstration purposes. Keeping your content within these templates can lead to confusion and hinder your ability to edit it effectively. Additionally, non-admin users may not even have access to the site editor, further complicating the situation.
2. The Underlying Issue with WordPress templates
It’s important to note that this issue is not exclusive to block themes. In fact, it stems from the template hierarchy used in classic themes, which block themes inherit. To illustrate this, let’s consider the example of the home page template. Depending on your Reading settings, the home page template can serve as either the homepage or the blog page. If you set a Blog Page in the Reading settings, the home page template will automatically transform into your blog page.
I’ve been chatting to Mike McAlister the designer behind the brilliant Ollie Block Theme and here is his view.
It seems like there are two options here, and both have their concessions.
1. Themes use front-page.php or home.php to display a pre-designed homepage. This is helpful because when someone activates the theme, the homepage is displayed as seen in the demos. It’s more of a “set up” site, versus an empty blog. or
2. Themes use a custom template for the homepage display, and don’t touch front-page.php or home.php. By default, your post loop is shown and users don’t have to figure out how to show blog posts. The downside is that the user is left to figure out how to set up a homepage. Also, you get that weird scenario where you have to create a blank page and apply a template, which displays content on the front end but is empty in the admin.
3. My Solution
To overcome this challenge, here’s a step-by-step approach to effectively manage your content and design within WordPress block themes:
Create Separate Pages: Start by creating two distinct pages - the home page and the blog or post page. Set these pages in your Reading settings, following the usual process for building a WordPress website.
Adjust the Home Page Template: Access the site editor and navigate to the templates section. Locate the home page template and ensure that it aligns with your blog page, as set in the Reading settings. Remove any existing content within the template and replace it with a query Loop pattern. This allows you to customize the page while keeping the content separate.
Avoid Editing the Page Template: It’s crucial to refrain from editing the page template itself, as doing so will affect all the pages on your site. Remember, changes made to the page template will be reflected across your entire website.
Designing the Front Page: Return to the site editor and explore the option to create a new front page template. Design this template without adding any content directly into it. Instead, use theme blocks that dynamically bring in content from the corresponding page. By separating design from content, you’ll have greater flexibility in customizing your front page.
4. Benefits of the Approach
By implementing this approach, you achieve a clear separation between design and content within your WordPress block theme. Your site editor becomes a streamlined tool for making edits, while your content resides in dedicated pages and posts. This not only simplifies the editing process but also ensures consistency throughout your website.
Conclusion
As a beginner, avoiding common mistakes is crucial to your success with WordPress block themes. By steering clear of the temptation to place content directly into page templates or the site editor, and following the recommended steps outlined in this blog post, you’ll be well on your way to harnessing the full potential of block themes. Remember, WordPress is all about the seamless integration of design and content, and by embracing this principle, you’ll unlock endless possibilities for your website.

[@jamiewp]

Hi Everyone - some of you are understandably still a little confused after watching this video, so I made a quick guide starter video that should give you a great foundation kzbin.info/www/bejne/nqfHZ5uVh9V5gK8si=-PaJytmOg-jZqlOi

[@MarkFaamaoni]

DOH! I jumped back into Wordpress after a couple of years away (I use Webflow primarily now) and experimented with the block editor using the available documentation...and it left me flummoxed, and frustrated, and this video explains EXACTLY where I was going wrong. Thank you! And the official documentation around block themes, full site editing and Wordpress in general REALLY needs to be improved. Being away for a while and coming back to it, it the fact that there are still legacy editors, gutenberg, full site editing, all kinda doing their own thing and it makes it horribly confusing.

[@TheOfficialABHS]

I also left and tried Drupal and Joomla. Lack of support drove me back to WordPress. Still not sure I like the changes. Give me a month to decide.

[@thefallinglink]

Note for anyone making a landing page with some full-width elements: you're going to want to set your Post Content block to full width, make sure "Inner blocks use full content width" is NOT toggled, set the top+bottom padding and margin to 0 and leave side padding at Default (not 0). You want to remove the padding and margins on top and bottom because those are already set within the page. If you look closely and compare the header at 2:35 to 5:56, the header looks bigger because of the margin and color match. If you change the color of the header or background or use something like a cover block at the top of your content, you'll see a gap.

[@michieltieleman9462]

I found this confusing as well, and your video helped, although I had some trouble following it. Some feedback if I may: you explain the difference between page and template clearly, but for the showing you dart around alot between editing templates and pages without being too clear which one you're editing and why. The "quick recap" image(page) at the end basically says everything you're trying to explain. It would help if they called the "Home" template, the "Blog" template instead, because that's what it really is. And the frontpage template that is optional, is what I imagine most people would understand as the home page. The frontpage template should contain only the header, post content block, and footer. BUT!!! I think I found a bug, a pretty nasty one at that if you go the "correct" way of putting content in pages and design in templates. It involves cover blocks. When you put a cover block in a "Home" template and set the background to "fixed" you can scroll smoothly through that "template live on site" and the cover image will be fixed. But when you put a cover block in a page (that you use as your homepage) which uses the "frontpage" template, which should be the correct way to do it, and set that cover image to "fixed", when scrolling through that page the cover image moves very jerky, not smooth at all. Did you ever encounter this?

[@cwhyles]

Jamie, you are quite correct in the importance of separating content from the templates, and I am not at all naive in that concept, but I got very confused trying to implement it after watching your video. I could not understand how the template wrapped itself round the page content. Eventually I realised that there are certain ‘magic’ blocks that make this happen. Obviously there are blocks for inserting content such as text, images, etc onto a page. Then there is this other class of ‘magic’ blocks that insert content from other pages. We see them in action on archive pages in particular. So for the front page template, the most important thing is to put the Page Content block where you wish the main content to appear. When you create the front page content and tell it to use the front page template the magic happens. This is the inverse of the usual use of the content blocks, where you might use one to insert a video, for example. You publish the front page URL, but the link to the template puts the whole thing together, as long as the template contains the Page Content block. All a bit muddling!

[@KevinFoulds]

Excellent. I spent 3 or 4 days, 2 hours a day and could NOT get my head around this exact thing. Thanks so much for a good explanation of how this works. I will now attempt my first full content editor website..

[@jamiewp]

That's great to hear Kevin 😀

[@frequencymanipulator]

OMG, can we just take a moment to appreciate the fact this video gets straight to the point. Bravo. I shall subscribe.

[@jamiewp]

Great to have you here 👍

[@dustboii]

To say im confused would be an abysmal understatement. This is the most convoluted system I have ever dealt with.

[@donaldmanalla992]

Just started a month ago with FSE. I’ve been struggling with this exact issue! Thanks so much for this video and helping me realize I wasn’t losing my mind. This video should be required viewing before beginning your first FSE project, but the concepts are so confusing, it would probably just scare everyone away from using this brilliant new way of life. Haha. Thanks again!!! Thumbs upped and new subscriber.

[@alanbrewis7488]

I'm new to WP and met this problem straight away using v6.2. This video explains why so thanks very much for that. You cover the material so fast, jumping around screens, etc, that, as a beginner, I'm still confused but at least know what to focus on.

[@jamiewp]

Thanks Alan - did you see in youtube you can change the playback speed e.g half as fast

[@alanbrewis7488]

Thanks for the tip. Will try that, as well as playing it again and simply stopping when stuck! You mentioned the theme Ollie. I need to get a (chess) website up in about two weeks and would get by if it just had a few simple pages. Would develop it further after the deadline. Is Ollie suitable for beginners?

[@jamiewp]

Yup 👍@@alanbrewis7488

[@geraldheagney6322]

Great explanation for something that could be confusing to some developers/designers. Thank you for all your great videos, always useful.

[@jamiewp]

thanks Gerald 👍

[@tim78723]

Love your content! Great explanation of getting started. Thanks Jamie!

[@jamiewp]

thanks Tim 😀

[@paulroos8517]

Thanks so much. You "answered" so many questions that hovered in the back of my mind. Well done!

[@jamiewp]

Great 👍

[@neilsmith9220]

Thank god I watched this before getting to grips with Spectra One, it saved me from a complete meltdown and potentially hours of wasted time. A really great video post. Thank you.

[@jamiewp]

Thanks Neil - glad it helped !

[@txgspice]

Thank you for posting this video in the Post Status Slack group! Very useful as I wrap my head around fully editable block themes.

[@jamiewp]

Thank you for watching 😀

[@inezgrey1000]

Brilliant video, thanks! It took me a few listens aaand I had to watch some of the beginner WordPress tutorials ((the "What Is the Difference between the Block Editor and the Site Editor?" video in particular)) but Now I can finally say I GET IT. I knew Nothing of WordPress or site building two weeks ago, but I'm finally getting it. Hooray!

[@jamiewp]

That’s lovely to hear - thanks for taking the time to comment Inez 🙏

[@josuevivas]

No body talks about this!!! Thankyou for this video. :)

[@jamiewp]

that's why I'm here 😀

[@josuevivas]

@@jamiewp I'm coming back here to let you know that after implementing what you showed in the video, the score in GTmetrix improved significantly: specifically the CLS dropped and now GoogleSiteKit is happier with the speed score. :D many thanks

[@BrainstormForce]

This is interesting. Glad that you talked about it.

[@dzemalduric]

I watched two times :-) and came to the following step-by-step conclusion: • PAGES STRUCTURE LEVEL: Create new pages Home and Blog • Settings/Reading: HOMEPAGE: Home and POSTS PAGE: Blog • TEMPLATES LEVEL: Create new template Front Page (no content), and edit template HOME with blog posts layout • CONTENT LEVEL: Assign Front Page template to Home page and edit content, and Assign Home template to Blog page and edit posts layout Is that a right way? Regards. Dzemal

[@jamiewp]

👍

[@XxQuidanxX]

@@jamiewp I have done the same, but I have a doubt. To edit the Blog page I must go to the site editor to edit the old home template?

[@grkongjie]

Liked, because this video, even though a little fast and confusing, has actual content and useful knowledge on WP, unlike a lot of those out there. Will be looking at the starter video for more info.

[@jamiewp]

Hi, tks, here's a great starter video kzbin.info/www/bejne/nqfHZ5uVh9V5gK8si=TREIzuxl4FDHQcOG

[@dennis_woo]

Thanks for making this video. It totally cleared up my confusion.

[@jamiewp]

Cool 👍

[@dontrez8412]

I went through this when going back and forth between Elementor's Templates and Wordpress pages/blogs for a minute. The only thing I'm dealing with now is the terminology. When everyone has different terms for things, I question whether I'm dyslexic or not. The main reason I dropped Econ 10 as a Bio major.

[@therealchrisboggs]

Great video and very approachable presentation style, thanks! Question: Where do Child-Themes fit into FSE? Should I still do it even though the theme modifications are stored in the database as JSON? Tough to find a straight answer on this so I imagine the answer is "It depends!".

[@nikikinz-nik]

Thanks, really simply cleared up a lot of my confusion. I think the whole thing s far more confusing than it has to be because of the page names that have been allotted. Great and useful video.

[@jamiewp]

thanks Niki :)

[@persmultimediadesigntutori1293]

This is one of the most usefull videos on WordPress. Thanx! Often beginners don't understand the difference between a template and the actual content. To them it's one and the same thing. However, when we say "separate content from templates" - and go into standard themes like TT3 or TT4 there is a lot of static content, that should be removed - for instance "book recommendations" and so on in the templates. IMHO the desigers in the WP crews should have a serious talk with the programmers about separating content from templates. We should take our own medicine here. To me it seems that often the theme frontend designers don't understand this basic CMS concept. In this way you can say that the standard theme TT4 is kind of a confusion contributor. That being said - TT4 is a fantastic theme, one of the most versatile ever in WP.

[@jamiewp]

thanks for your great comment - 100% agree, the separation of design from content is one of the reasons i love WordPress

[@CMSAssociation]

Thank you Jamie! You hit a painful nerve here, while teaching a valuable lesson. LOL! You call it a "beginner mistake," but I bet many seasoned sitebuilders & devs make this mistake. Appreciate you teaching this old dog proper new tricks - convoluted as it is!

[@jamiewp]

Yes, i've seen seasoned Pro's do this. It's such an easy mistake to make.

[@CMSAssociation]

@@jamiewp I use Kadence theme, which, when activated, disables visibility of the native WP site editor. IOW, on the left admin menu, Appearance/Editor is impossible. I wonder if this is the case with other themes as well. I imagine so. So to create Kadence templates, I go to Appearance/Kadence/Elements, and "Hooked Elements" must be activated (pro version).

[@abgportal]

I watched this video a few times and thought I understood. Then did the editor thing hahaha. It all makes sense now. Your videos are great for where I am right now in my business journey. Opening a digital marketing business and going through many things for the first time. Hiy Hiy.

[@jamiewp]

Great 👍 Good luck with the business

[@joukenienhuis6888]

It is still confusing, because in the settings you set the Homepage to a page called Home and the Blogpage to a page called Blog! Then why is it that the template called Home is used for the page called Blog ? And there is a confusion if the KZbin viewer doesn’t use subtitles, Blog and Block sound the same

[@jamiewp]

Those page titles can be called anything by the end-user, those are just the names I chose. Agree with you about the subtitles, I'll get those added today

[@michelehunter7086]

I agree. I completely lost the thread at that point.

[@strongerartist]

Great video, Jamie, with important points about building in the site editor. I’m curious why you didn’t use the index template for the blog page and the home template for the home (landing) page? Is it just a matter of preference?

[@iansvoboda1882]

Great video Jamie!

[@jamiewp]

Thank you Ian

[@chrismalone617]

Very helpful. I'm actually really enjoying getting to know the Site Editor. (I know, I'm weird.)

[@jamiewp]

Me too Chris 😀

[@haegarNL]

Thanks for the hints and also the further explanation. What is most confusing for me is the concept of (apparently) two edit menues for pages: 1.on Dashboard->Pages and 2. on Dashboard->Themes-Editor. In the end its always the same (block) editor!? But you can edit the "content" block only from one menue point? Maybe you can elaborate on these confusing menue options?

[@kadimgultekin]

I use the "index" template for the blog and the "front-page" template for the homepage. It is not necessary to use the "home" template. Changing the homepage design from the page editor is an old habit from classic themes. Users can change the homepage design directly from the site editor. I think block themes should work this way. And theme developers should offer several homepage patterns in their block themes. So users can easily change their homepage pattern from the site editor.

[@christopherwells7295]

Sorry Jamie, you rushed this one too much, were you trying to create a shorts video? I do get what you trying to say though as I think a few of us have been doing this exact thing, thinking where should we place out content when the template is mostly loaded - lol. Well done on trying to explain it but think you might want to follow it up with another slightly longer video of a process.

[@jamiewp]

Tks - which bits for you are still unclear ?

[@christopherwells7295]

@@jamiewp, the bits of taking away the content and adding only the blocks in the templates

[@jamiewp]

@@christopherwells7295 roger that 👍 did you understand why it's a bad idea to put page content into a template ?

[@christopherwells7295]

@@jamiewp, definitely

[@paulhackermd]

I'm a beginner and I agree that I find your videos great but this one was just hard to follow. I would suggest demonstrating the problem with the "beginners' mistake" and both (a) how to rectify it if I did it wrong, and (b) a slower, more concrete example of what to do right! Thanks for your great channel and all the work you do!

[@visualmodo]

Very good content!!!!

[@susanpearson-creativefibro]

I wish I watched this two days ago. I spent all day yesterday building my front page in the site editor and couldn’t work out what I did wrong. It will be much quicker today though now I know what I did wrong.

[@jamiewp]

Glad it was helpful Susan

[@SingaporeMathsAcademyUK]

Great video, but this is why block themes have a long way to go. In a world of slick UX the block themes have gone back to Mototrola phones. I love the blocks/patterns abut full site editors are not there yet!

[@jamiewp]

Yup agree - it certainly needs some polish

[@fiqihalfarizy4843]

thank you Jamie!!

[@jamiewp]

My pleasure 😇

[@fiqihalfarizy4843]

@@jamiewp Jamie, please consider to show us how to package our fse theme professionally to be able sold in e-commerce like themeforest or ui8. I already seen some awesome fse themes like realome in themeforest, it's awesome 🤩

[@Elsteck]

Need to watch a few more times 😵‍💫🤭 Thank you 🔦

[@jamiewp]

👍

[@RagTheNutsOff]

Whoops may have done that 😂 I don't know why the block editor gets any grief it is infinitely faster than any other classic theme I have ever used. Case in point, highly optimised Enfold theme site. Scored 57 avg site wide. Moved to OllieWP, most pages now hitting 80, some higher 😎

[@jamiewp]

Great to hear 🚀

[@umenegdesmond]

Thanks so much sir

[@jamiewp]

You're welcome

[@warbearin]

Templates, edit page, customize page, edit site, - Why is wordpress made in such a confuseing way? Sometimes the edit page button is just gone aswell. Wix is 100 times more easy to understand.

[@justsuperman487]

Lol. Sad. Btw Do you have any idea of custom development, web development or hard code development? You haven't yet unlock the real usage of wordpress yet! 🤡 Only a beginner noob clown write something like that! 🤣🤣

[@modelsport2858]

Jamie, I hit the like and subscribed. Your presentation is brilliant. Thank you. Look mate, I'm desperate to avoid a commercial theme and want to try and use 2024 to roll my own news-style site. Have you delved into this? Sorry but it seems like 100% of the KZbin folks do videos with USE THESE FREE TOOLS only to subsequently explain how I'm better off using the 'Pro' versions of said free tools leaving me with a bad taste in my mouth (of being taken for a chump because the real purpose of the video was to get me to purchase the pro tools). Thus far, you're the only guy not doing this. Not yet sure how you're eating (since nobody can work for free) but if liking and subscribing are part of the deal, then I'll certainly do my bit. Anyway, thanks again!

[@jamiewp]

Thank you for your kind words :) Yes I've done a few videos using 2024 for news websites - here's a few - 2024 Theme kzbin.info/www/bejne/p6C7ZKiEoq1ogrssi=RnGwcArZUVC436Yp and recreating New. York Times with WordPress kzbin.info/www/bejne/jaPHiXaJfrVobZosi=NfhgmX_MHON8hH8A and Recreating Techcrunch with WordPress kzbin.info/www/bejne/iJjLfISQor6qj6ssi=VWdvB--z1UheQlUN

[@MarkTwenty4K]

BRO!!!! omg thank you soooooo much

[@jamiewp]

No problem

[@MarkTwenty4K]

@@jamiewp subscribed

[@jamiewp]

@@MarkTwenty4K 👍 great to have you on board 💪

[@zrezaeimobin]

Tnx ❤

[@adwordsandinternetmarketin4024]

if you had to chose between the wordpress block themes and the spectra block theme which one would you use?I just want a homepage with blog posts and a header above it.

[@jdccool]

Lol. Gonna have to review this one a few times. But thanks, Jamie. I've definitely made some of these mistakes.

[@jamiewp]

👍

[@darinjohnson3671]

I love the Spectra One and Spectra Blocks 🙂

[@jamiewp]

👍

[@MrGivesuccess]

What if you want to add a pages loop instead of post loop on home page? I try to make a static front page but it is not easy to figure out. Where do i manually edit the page to be home with the grids w buttons to the full page. NOT post.

[@tylerdealactor]

Using the upsidedown block theme, I’ve set my homepage to display my latest post. I created content in my header and footer from this homepage, but unfortunately when I click on specific pages or posts, it hasn’t updated the header and footer content on these pages or post pages. Would you know how to correct this?

[@OinkmooSkills]

I actually ditched WP on half my sites because of things like this...I got fed up sad to say...but maybe, just maybe watching your content will help me sort it out..thanks

[@jamiewp]

👍

[@Michael-TheArchAngel]

You just saved the day!!!! You Definitely earned a Subscribe... Though i am wondering where is the Menu Editor gone? Is Twenty Twenty-Three Theme enough or there are benefits to other FSE Themes

[@jamiewp]

Great tks Michael :) It really depends on your project whether twenty twenty-three is enough for you, other themes (like ollie and spectra one) have a more extensive collection of block patterns. Re menu editor, that is now done in the site editor. Check out my other videos as quite a few cover this :)

[@peternilsson2372]

I would be very happy to see more content about how you are using templates and themes and whatsnot on an existing webpage not only how you use for example block themes on a new web page. I accidentally clicked on one of the templates just to see what happened to my existing startpage and that have made a mess of it and I don't even understand how to get rid of the template.

[@jamiewp]

Great idea 💡

[@chezhugos2779]

So for a new set up (I bought theme Breek) and did load all the sample page, post etc. If I understand correctly, you create a page called home, but do nothing in it, and choose a blog layout. Then what happens with menu? Do I create a page for lets say Contact, another page for about and the rest as blog posts i.e. adding content, like things I do and a FAQ or is FAQ also a page. Since I watch your video on Gutenberg, I can feel that there's something in this new wordpress set-up. So basically I like to start of on the right foot. Thanks for your teachings.

[@hansschuijff]

Separating content from templating/theming isn't as easy in the new situation. You can do the frontpage thing you did here and at least solve that part, but if that is how to do is, then theme's should offer it like that. But then still the sidebars are a problem, since they are now only available for update in the site editor. It seems that the site editor isn't just a theme replacement and the separation of content vs styling is a bit less clear in the new situation. The block and site editing approach has a lot to offer and solves some problems easily, so I like to go there, but the transition is not that easy depending on the level of custimazations and plugins you have. Also it would be nice if the editor offers a frontend version of what it is doing with styles, so we could easily offer style variations that can be selected by end users (like the ability of light and dark themes). If build-in style variations is there, a website should be able to offer them to visitors too. Having that buildin gutenber themes, would probably be more efficient and give better results than having plugins translate the colorscheme and that kind of functionality would be something that is purely theme-related. But it is still work in progress, so who knows where it ends. Thanks

[@jamiewp]

Great points Hans - especially about sidebars

[@hansschuijff]

@@jamiewp Thanks. One of the subject I think gutenberg has to become clear in is if it still wants themes at all. Because having themes means having design and the goal of design is to make it easier for content to be created without too much thought about how it will fit in the whole. It is meant to create a uniform look and feel or experience for the end user. Having all these design options without too much limitation, gives much of the design decisions to the content creator and that means that if I have a company with many content editors, it is more difficult to limit them to a specific design. That may seem a good thing from the perspective of the editor, but it means the content editor has to and can make much more decisions and than before, and if you're a company you perhaps want to centralize much of those decisions. Themes had the role of offering design and limit the content creation mostly to the actual content part. So we need that separation when en where we want to separate design from content so editors can focus on content. But if we want that, then all kinds of options and freedoms need to be limited by the theme and also the blocks that can be used should perhaps be limitable to a fixed set, but that seems no longer the mainstream way of doing things and that would be a problem for companies that want to separate concerns. It's not good when one block has a designed button look by default and another starts with a completely other default that may or may not be changed to the house style of the website. The style guide can solve that in themes, but when an editor is able to ad new blocks from f.i. a block library, how can a site owner be certain the style guide is then still be applied. Each block library brings it own design with it and if that is not part of the theme... whell. Right now, it seems that most value of themes in the gutenberg world is offering patterns and a starting point for all the rest. Legacy themes where often more facilitating then just that and while I think it is nice that the way things are done and blocks offer a lot, I'm not a fan of losing the separation between design and content. The main value of themes is bringing design and simplifying the proces of adding content to the website. In the new block themes, that is still less developed. Devs that need strict separation of design, still seem to favor legacy or hybrid themes, for that reason. We will need to see where gutenberg ends up going and if it will support those needs enough to bring everyone into block themes.

[@TonyGirling]

I have a use case where I do add content to an archive page that has a query loop for a custom post type. I want a section to describe that the 'list' of posts is all about. I could create a custom block that gets content from an ACF option field, but that seems clunky. I'm not sure my best option to add content to an archive page. Ideas?

[@jamiewp]

For that use case Tony, that sounds fine, as the text is pretty static im guessing?

[@dariocroes]

I lost months dealing with FSE themes like Greenshift or BlockPress and Greenshift Bloc Editor and it's incredibly confusing. So I choose to return to Astra and Spectra and I feel renovated-all the frustration is gone. For me Is not worth the time an FSE theme needs to create a production site. I prefer to wait indefinitely until they really improve to be a better option!

[@wherezthebeef]

You're not alone. Let's hope the situation with FSE improves soon, we should not need to have to have an expert explain all of the snags and gotchas, and hacks (but thank you, Jamie, for your efforts) just in order to make FSE usable and not quit in frustration.

[@ron_wayne]

Which one do you prefer between Block builder or Page Builder based theme for Blogging specifically?

[@jamiewp]

Gutenberg for me

[@bealers]

I've been a PHP dev for 20 years and still got horrendously confused playing with the new block theme stuff when redeveloping my blog. I made all the mistakes that this video rectifies. Thanks for saving me a ton of time. DON'T PUT CONTENT IN TEMPLATES.

[@jamiewp]

Thanks Darren - great to hear it was helpful

[@realfingertrouble]

Sort of related about content of sorts in templates - but you might want to know that WP 6.2.1 update just killed ALL shortcodes (yes including the standard Shortcode blocks and a lot of 3rd party ones using that functionality) in FSE templates overnight. This broke Smart Slider 3 - which they've now fixed in a beta version, and the Insert PHP Snippets plugin I use. It's apparently cos of a zero day vulnerability found by someone over at WPEngine, but a LOT of people aren't happy that a part of the functionality just disappeared overnight, and the only fix is to open up that security hole or hope that plugin devs to scramble to fix it. Just like the bad old days! Amazed that Automattic allow WP devs to just push out an update like that that takes away basic functionality of a supposedly mature platform with no oversight? The WP devs response was 'that's intentional, won't fix it' on the Trac, which went down as well as you could imagine... I understand security holes need to be plugged, but I spent ages trying to work out why shortcodes weren't working despite them previewing fine in the FSE editor! Whereas a message in the editor - or even just next to the non-working shortcode would have let me know what was going on, wasn't expecting a minor update to nuke major functionality. That's something that used to happen in v1 or v2, where things were constantly changing and breaking and I dreaded every update. I thought we moved on from that...

[@StartThenProfitINC]

Four months later I finally understand this hahah. Thanks. Have you had any issue with spectra one now displaying elements. On a few sites lately the css disappeared. on some of my designs. It made me not want to rely on it as im now sure what is causing the issue.

[@jamiewp]

Glad it was helpful. I have seen that spectra one issue before - have you contacted support?

[@StartThenProfitINC]

@@jamiewp I was told to go to funnel setting. Select asset generation then select file generate. That has seemed to fix the issue

[@jamiewp]

ok cool@@StartThenProfitINC

[@opusprime6]

So... how do you link the various templates back to the Pages? Front Page == Home, Blog Home == Blog, what template does everything else use? Still confused.

[@jamiewp]

Hi Bob , I’ll try to make a tutorial about that 👍

[@opusprime6]

@@jamiewp Fair is fair, you make the tutorial, I'll sign up for a class... love your vids!!

[@akrapovic09]

Hi Jamie, I'm quite confused at what happens at 5:36 in the video, the frame suddenly changes and you suddenly have a pattern, there was no explanation of why. I went and chose a pattern like you did and it appeared on the page but then when I went to view the site all I had was my header and footer which is in my template. What might I be doing wrong? I still don't understand why its so so so much easier to add content to the template than the page and why whatever you create on the template doesn't really appear on the page. Also, if you go to all that trouble of adding these blocks to the page and then just insert a pattern what is actually happening, it looks like its just replacing it all. So confused.

[@StartThenProfitINC]

I created home page and blog page. I click customize and edit the first page that shows.. Still shows the blog on the top level domain. I think there were a few edits or cuts that made this confusing. Like which pages you are actually editing.

[@waxmaster-c]

So if I want to design a static one page site, I should not use the site editor? I'm confused.

[@jamiewp]

For a one pager you could (if it’s just you that needs to edit it)

[@krishneide]

Hello, I am absolutely a Wordpress beginner and until this video I was creating my pages in the site editor. Thank you for teaching me the right way, honestly. I am working on fixing all my pages (luckily they are not too many), but I got into a little problem. The content block does not seem to be displaying anything. I made sure to link the right template to the page but had no luck. Do you possibly have an idea why is that? Or can you maybe suggest where I might find advice? Thank you so much

[@jamiewp]

Is there content in the page ? Sorry for asking 😬

[@krishneide]

@@jamiewp It's a very understandable question :D Yes, I have content in the page, but I've also just realised that I have this problem only with the template Page No Title, while the Pages template seems to be working fine.

[@krishneide]

@@jamiewp It's a very understandable question :D Yes, I have content in the page, but I've also just realised that I have this problem only with the template Page No Title, while the Pages template seems to be working fine.

[@LordLeviticus286]

I need an assitance, Im using site editor as well but what if I don't have the "Home" like I can't find it on my page, post or reading settings. I'm a beginner and I'm trying to search multiple videos that could give me the answer but so far I got nothing.

[@jamiewp]

Hi - I think you need to create and publish that page first and then you’ll be able to select it in reading settings

[@christopherrimplington3643]

By default, you always put blocks into a group like you did with Post Content > Group in the site editor?

[@jamiewp]

That's a great question. I put the Post Content Block in a group block because the Spectra One theme uses the Group Block to set width and spacing. Most themes i've been testing do this. It's just like a container block (infact that would be a better name for it imo). But great question Christopher 👍

[@dannefrazier]

@@jamiewp never did understand why I was using the group block beyond making list view more organized. Fantastic to know it's really a container block! I'm with you on naming it container block--makes so much more sense to a designer mind imo! Thanks, Jamie for sorting this. I remember scratching my head over this "home" page confusion a few months ago and wrestling with it awhile.

[@aksfintech]

where to use additional css in full site editing theme wordpress?

[@frankvidiyo]

Fantastic video and incredibly helpful. Question - so let's say you download Spectra (to help with Gutenberg) and a basic, theme like Spectra One. Then you spend a ton of time modifying it to your liking or needs. How do you save all the work you've done so if you build another site, you can repurpose everything you've done (or have a backup)?

[@jamiewp]

Here's a great way :) 👉 wordpress.org/plugins/create-block-theme/

[@frankvidiyo]

@@jamiewp Makes sense. Is the strategy to "Clone" the theme? If so, can you then download it?

[@markuspatzer8658]

It tooks weeks fo rme how to handle these wp block themes now I love them! Esay to build your page with. But I have a stubbron problem with any header, Logo and site title are not aligned in height , the logo sits higher than the site title, no matter if I change header pattern, the site title font size or logo size, pattern, margin, all that not works, in all tblock themes I can only use site title without logo. Do you have a tip how I can make them both aligned?

[@jamiewp]

Have you tried putting in a row and then centre aligning that row ?

[@markuspatzer8658]

@@jamiewp Hi Jamie ! No not, but tonight in my dream I got an idea, my canva logo had too much space around, I cut it aout, above, below left and right side and now voila ! Logo and site title are aligned ! What makes me confusing is that most theme snot have category description showing on frontend, all big online guy shave that with their vip wordpress plan, but most themes with free wordpress not. I tried adding a category description hook in functions.php (with the standard gutenberg themes) not works no success with that. Thank you so much and have nice day ! 👍😄

[@22271748]

I am trying to use the Home Services Blocks theme and think your solution may be the way forward. I made the mistake of adding content to the site editor. Using your method, would I be likely not to be able to use the slide features that came in the site editor? They don't seem to port over to my pages.

[@jamiewp]

Hi, i haven't used that theme, but it's better to have functionality like sliders and carousels separate . Did you see this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/oV6TXpaGl9d5ptUsi=grtZwH0g9guj7hdB

[@JosefRapaport]

Thanks so much for the explanation, Jamie. I am still confused about how to seperate the design and the structure..I have downloaded a block theme by the name of natural Coffee Beans as an initial layout but got confused as to why should i delete all the content of that theme's disign? I know you must be busy so is there a place where i can follow this at a slower pace on your website? Thanks in advance josef

[@PaulGillard-English-Artist]

You can change the playback speed (of the video) by clicking onto the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the frame. 0.75 speed was good, I thought.

[@JosefRapaport]

@@PaulGillard-English-Artist thanks a lot Paul..will try what you suggest

[@michieltieleman9462]

The reason you want to delete that content is because you want to separate the design/layout of your site from the content of your site. Content is not supposed to be inside templates. Instead you should have blocks like post content blocks and query loop blocks, that pull content from your posts and pages. Think of templates as an empty box with dividers which are carefully organized into compartments. And your pages and/or posts provide the content that fill the compartments in that empty box.

[@JosefRapaport]

@@michieltieleman9462 thank you very much Michiel .. In my great heist to fill in the blocks I have indeed ran into this mess of not knowing what is what so I hope to be able to fix it. Thanks for your help

[@nowucwindow]

Ive been struggling for months to learn what you explained in 10 minutes.

[@jamiewp]

Thats soooo great to hear

[@tuckerdog6539]

How does this change when deciding to have a front page that is static and not a blog?

[@jamiewp]

I would do it the same way

[@trevorsbass]

This is solid advice. However, there is a MAJOR flaw in creating templates for your post pages. That is that WordPress does not allow the same customization options in the template as it does in the page/post pages. I am working on a site that has a very distinct - yet universal - look to the post pages, using the "title": and "featured image" blocks. However, I cannot create that look in the template - using the SAME blocks - because all the options for what you can do with the blocks are not the same, depending on if you use them on a page/post or in a template. It's a frustrating flaw in WordPress.

[@jamiewp]

What theme are you using?

[@trevorsbass]

@@jamiewp Twenty Twenty-Four

[@jamiewp]

@@trevorsbass i'm a bit confused then. What is the design you are trying to recreate? The options should be the same. Can you share a link to a screenshot of the design?

[@trevorsbass]

@@jamiewp It's very easy to replicate. Open any page or post, insert the "Title" block. In the "Block" column on the right, you will see all of the standard default block Settings: Typography, Frame, Dimensions, etc. However, if you go into the Editor, open a template, and add the "Title" block, the only Settings options you get in the Block column are "Make title a link" and "Advanced." All of the creative options are gone.

[@jamiewp]

@@trevorsbass it sounds like you have the settings tab selected, if you click on the styles tab you'll see this www.pootlepress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/screely-1713892736617.png

[@SorensonStudio]

I've spent more time on this than I care to admit in trying to understand how this is to work but thanks to your video and watching it about 10x I think I'm grasping concept. Issue I have now is after the Header where you add the group for the post content block I have this white space between the header and the group that I can't figure out how to remove. I've looked at padding and nothing seems to fix. When I hover over that white space a Add pattern plus mark shows up. I'm wondering if I created the group wrong?

[@michieltieleman9462]

Not sure if it will help, but you could look at margin. Padding is about the whitespace inside a block, margin is about the whitespace outside a block. You could set the margin of the group block to zero. Either slide the bar back and forth from 1 to zero to get it registered as zero, or change the input style (little icons on the right side above the slider) and put in 0 px. Block distance could also be a culprit but again this would normally be for blocks INSIDE the group block.

[@wherezthebeef]

So even with Jamie's plain English, clear explanation of the problem, I too had to watch his video multiple times and read through all of the comments... until it made sense. To me, this just points to an epic fail of FSE, it's not ready for prime time if most people have no chance of being able to figure it out from either clear documentation or their own intuition.

[@richardpadgett585]

I'm experimenting with the Create Block Theme plugin. A blank theme comes with only the Index template. Am I right to think this is the equivalent of the Home template?

[@jamiewp]

Yes pretty much - in the Wordpress template hierarchy the index template is the fallback template if no other templates are available 👍

[@mohdom6]

the ollie theme already has a front page following this leaves me with a non-full-width home page got too complicated.

[@martinenriquemartinezgil]

Great explanation. But I have a problem. When I create the Front End template I don't have header and footer. What I'm doing wrong?

[@jamiewp]

It might be your theme - but you can just add a header and footer (use template parts)

[@fineasfrogshair]

This Templates versus Pages in WordPress 6.4 is a bit buggy. When you select Templates --> All Archives --> Edit pencil the All Archives template changes to the home page. I then must back out and try it again making sure I am changing the All Archives template and not the home page. Be careful when selecting Templates and editing them that you actually see the correct template name in the center top of the screen.

[@abhaykesari2403]

It's so confusing. I am banging my head with different theme and not able to design my website. It's been 3-4 days. Is there any website or video where I can read/learn about it in the details.

[@robertrado7576]

Its an important info, thanks, but still didn’t understand it after a seeing it few times… But try to reproduce it… thanks anyway Jamie!

[@jamiewp]

Thanks Robert 👍

[@PaulShadwell]

Yep! now I realise what I've been doing wrong. Thanks. 🤦‍♂

[@jamiewp]

Great to hear 👍

[@fiqihalfarizy4843]

trying to migrate from page builder to fse block theme

[@SingaporeMathsAcademyUK]

Has this changed now? As the editor now has pages section?

[@jamiewp]

There are pages but this doesn’t change the principle of keeping content out of templates

[@SingaporeMathsAcademyUK]

@@jamiewp but then what are the pages section in fse for? Not the template pages just pages?

[@jamiewp]

@@SingaporeMathsAcademyUK that's a good question,. It's an attempt to start to unify the interface of WordPress.

[@spitsparrow]

why cant I just create a new home page and tell reading settings to use it as a home page.. Why make its so confusing?

[@jamiewp]

You can but then the design and layout of your home page will be the same as all your other 'normal ' pages, and normally the home page design varies from your other pages e.g if you don't want to show the page title on the home page.

[@JRCme1]

Anything for the kitty

[@gnentrepreneur]

I undestood better before this...now I'm confuse, you got it right sure, but for me even though in the end I make it work, was always confusing, themes, builders, editors, and so on, pain in the a#@!

[@jamiewp]

Im working on a new video to try and make it easier to understand

[@MbonisiM]

My head 😂oooh blowing up

[@justadozencows4365]

I have to watch this again. I understand your point of separating the data and the template but are you saying the data for the homepage is stored in what is effectively a post?

[@jamiewp]

Yes ideally the site editor should display content that is in posts or pages, but that content shouldn't really be put in the site editor directly

[@sangheumbyun6749]

i am newbie here and after few viewing your explanation i have pool understand so forgive me questions i made... then where have i put contents?

[@jamiewp]

You should put content in Pages and Posts, not in templates.

[@sangheumbyun6749]

@@jamiewp ah! now i understand! despite of my lousy english you answer me very kindly! thanks a lot :)

[@wpmarkuk]

You have outlined a real problem with Full Site Editing. Knowing WHAT you're EDITING is particularly difficult. It appears for example when you create a template part, name it and click create, you are not taken into the edit screen for that template part. Instead you are editing something else! I wonder whether the "Site Editor" should be called the "Template Editor". We (kind of) understand the terminology of template, pages etc. but to a non WordPress or developer etc. I don't think they would be able to create anything with this in its current form, without A LOT of learning. But, maybe that is fine?

[@jamiewp]

100% agree Mark, i'd personally like a clearer separation between template (site editor) and content editing. More abstraction not less.

[@jonathanscherer8567]

I can't say that I understand. It's difficult to wrap your head around this. I'm not sure it's intuitive. Who thought of doing things in such a roundabout way? I've never dealt with WYSIWYG editors that work like this. I suppose I've only used Wordpress for blogs in the past, where anything more wasn't necessary. Now, I'm trying to figure out how to set up a more dynamic website, and I feel lost. Themes, templates, theme elements, block elements, patterns, and pages. Then there are posts. How is one to make sense of all of this? I think this video makes some sense, but it's going too fast for one new to everything to follow. Do you have any other videos explaining things a bit more slowly, as if you were talking to a child? I used to code websites by hand. Now, I've no idea what's going on. Any help would be appreciated. Point me to tips, video guides, how-to pages, what have you. I appreciate it. I think everyone helping one another out is what keeps the wheels of the web turning.

[@DarrinRich]

Wow. This is super confusing. Just started using spectra and I really screwed up Few pages doing this. I’ll grasp it eventually

[@jamiewp]

Yup the key concept is the separation of templates and content (pages and posts)

[@gagangujral7812]

Thjs is how brands shoot their own foot.

[@campaignpaintball]

Still confusing, I'm never quite sure if I'm on the site editor or on an editable page?

[@stevehorn-ib5wu]

Simply look at the bottom left hand side. There will be either "Template", "Page" or "Post". You get to "Templates" via the backend / admin area using "Editor" under "Appearance>Editor". After starting "Editor", also called "site editor", you can adjust the various Templates. Yes there are many Templates. Important: there is a second Editor which does look very similar, this is the Block-Editor or also called Gutenberg-Editor, only used to edit Pages or Posts from the admin area under Pages and Posts. The whole video of Jamie is mainly about editing the right Template and not putting content in Templates. That said, Jamie's video is more confusing than the situation actually is. All Jamie is trying to say is that the Template "Home" should have been named "Blog Articles (formerly Home)" and the Template "Page" should have been named "Home (formerly Page)". Period! It's extremely confusing terminology within the user interface of WordPress which makes learning WordPress much harder than it could be. Prerequisite to working with Templates is of course knowledge about the various functions in the backend/admin area and the various settings, differences between Pages and Posts, and most importantly how the "Block-Editor" really works. Otherwise, one will get totally lost watching this video.

[@jamiewp]

👍

[@campaignpaintball]

@@stevehorn-ib5wu Thanks Steve, very helpful, I will try again.

[@srenbanghansen8746]

This video makes me think I should avoid block themes completely. Same as the test you did with your daughter (great idea). Seems like I’m not alone on this (the other comments), so maybe you could make another video (much slower - for us morons) to persuade us this is somehow understandable? I’m currently planning a magazine site - and wonder if I should use Astra or Spectra One? Should both be combined with the Spectra builder? And could/should these be combined with the PostX plug-in currently available on Appsumo ?

[@wherezthebeef]

So developers and experienced WordPress web designers can sort of figure this mess out but for the average bloke who knows just enough WordPress to be dangerous.. maybe has customized a theme or two in the past.. this sort has Zero chance of being able to navigate the confusing mine field of fse and the confusing terminology. I'd stick to something like Kadence or Blocksy for the best alternatives that are actually fast and easy to use. For now.

[@h3h3umm]

Wish I found this useful information a month ago xD

[@jamiewp]

👍

[@zhimmitheebanks]

ARRGGHHH Jamie, you're videos are very helpful, BUT for the life of me I get so frustrated trying to follow what you are saying at times. You're voice goes up and downin cadence and volume. I have to crank the volume way up during your low seconds 4-5 times sometimes. Other times I just give up. You talk normal volume, normal cadence for a while. Then you talk so low almost sounds like you're mumbling. It's hard to follow what you're saying. I don't want to come across rude or overly critical, but I do want to make you aware of it. I really do enjoy what you give to the wp community. The content is dope, extremely helpful (especially this video about these damn templates 😁. Again, I hope this doesn't come across as rude. I know making videos is a tough thing to do. Much respect to you. Take care.

[@jamiewp]

Thanks for the feedback - i'm taking steps to improve this - could you check out this video and see if it's better for you kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y5LJfoBurtCYo9ksi=In1qoGWksq5fme9k - this was edited by the team at envato tuts+ and run through some software to improve the sound. But let me know.

[@zhimmitheebanks]

@@jamiewp Much better in my opinion Jamie! No complaints here. Excellent content as usual.