Full site editing will change how everyone uses themes,
-and how we build them.
What is full site editing?
Full site editing is a set of new WordPress features:
Block themes, template editing, site blocks, and global styles.
Block themes
With block themes, you use blocks to create entire pages or websites.
Everything you see on a page is a block.
Template editor
Templates are page designs and layouts created with blocks.
With the template editor you can add templates to your posts and pages.
You can combine existing content with new templates, and give your posts and pages individual designs, headers, site footers or colors.
You can create your own custom templates or edit existing templates without code.
New site blocks
You can customize your pages using new site blocks, including: Site title, logo, navigation, post title, featured image, date, categories and tags.
Global styles
With the global style options you can change the website’s background color and typography settings like font family and font size.
You can set default colors for blocks, and create your own custom color palette.
A new theme configuration file for developers
Theme developers can use the new configuration file with both classic themes and block themes. With the theme.json file, you can define default block settings, content width, fonts and colors, and drastically reduce the CSS needed to create themes.
When will full site editing be added to WordPress?
Template editing is available from WordPress 5.8 when supported by a theme or plugin.
The site editor, global styles and new blocks are planned for the WordPress 5.9 release in January 2022.
All features can be tested today with a full site editing theme and the Gutenberg plugin.
Wait, what if I’m not ready?
Even with WordPress 5.9, many of the features are optional and only available if you use a theme or plugin that enables them.
If you want to continue using your current theme, you will still be able to use the new blocks in your content.