Flat Blocks WordPress Theme v1.9x Updates

Version 1.9 Summary: Added new Template Parts for Site Copyright (with current year), Theme Tagline (Flat Blocks theme by XtremelySocial), and Social Icons so you can edit them. Added 2 new Footer Template Parts and updated the one with Site Motto to use the site name and tagline. Outline style buttons are now colored just like standard buttons (with Highlight color). Overhauled and expanded Duotones for images. Drop-down Navigation menus are now wider. Preset font-sizes can now be edited directly in the Site Editor (WordPress v6.7+).

Version 1.9 Details

• Removed CSS for automatically adding padding to Group blocks that don’t have a colored background. This simplifies the Template Parts throughout the theme.

• Added new Template Parts for Site Copyright (with current year), Theme Tagline (Flat Blocks theme by XtremelySocial), and Social Icons. Updated all the Footers and Sidebar to use these new Template Parts. That way, you can edit these Template Parts and the updates will be reflected on all the various Footers and Sidebar.

• Added new Block Patterns to support the new Template Parts: Current Year, Site Copyright (which uses Current Year), Theme Author, Theme Name, and Theme Tagline (which uses Theme Author and Name).

• Added two new Footer Template Parts: Footer Compact with Nav Menu and Theme Tagline, Footer 3 Blocks with Nav Menu and Site Copyright.

• Updated the Footer with Motto, Social Icons, and and Site Info to use a new Site Title and Tagline Block Pattern instead of the more generic Title and Text Pattern.

• Presets for font-size Large and up now use the new WordPress v6.7 format in theme.json which allows you to edit them! They still work with older WordPress versions, but you can’t edit them directly in the Editor.

• Outline style buttons now default to the Highlight color (instead of the text color), but will inherit the text color on certain colored backgrounds, just like standard buttons.

• Changed up all the Duotone colors (effects that can be added to images) to have lighter colored shadows to look better. Simplified the Duotone names to Primary, Primary Alt, Secondary, Secondary Alt, Tertiary, and Tertiary Alt.

• Added all of the default WordPress Duotones too, although using this theme’s color palette. This includes Purple and Yellow, Blue and Red, Midnight (Black and Blue), Magenta (Red) and Yellow, Purple and Green, Blue and Orange. These are compatible with your duotone selections created with other themes that use the WordPress defaults. It also means you can take them with you to other themes that support the defaults.

• Adjusted drop-down menu width to default to 240px by adding new new custom variable in theme.json –wp-custom–navigation–width. The WordPress default is 200px. Also added –wp-custom–navigation–wide-width to set the width of the mobile-only nav menu. It is still 360px wide.

• Added a new Site Contents section to the Sidebar with a Pages List so it lists all the pages on your site.

• Set default Separator color back to Neutral Alt, but it is easily changed in the Site Editor now (since Flat Blocks v1.8).

• More enhancements to default text (contrast) colors on colored backgrounds. Specifically, set white and off-white as default colors on dark backgrounds so that Foreground Alt can now be set to a dark color to allow for alternate lighter color palettes.

• Changed quote accent color and separator color to Highlight color. It was Primary color and by default they are the same, but this allows for a light Primary color in theme styles or child themes.

• Added Base background color to Header Fixed and Header Logo Fixed.

Updates v1.91 through v1.97

= 1.9.7 =
December 7, 2024

More updates to CSS for margins for WordPress v6.7. Specifically for users that have edited the Sidebar or other Template Parts or Templates.

= 1.9.6 =
December 6, 2024

Version Summary: All custom Block Styles and Font Sizes now available in the Styles Editor and more updates to support changes in WordPress v6.7.

• Added new Footer with Site Motto (tagline) and Social Icons. Updated the Footer with Site Motto, Social Icons, and Site Info to use it.
• Set Footer Colored to underline links on hover since the links are the same as the text color.
• For Never Mobile navigation menus in the header, now highlight the current link and any nav link on hover.
• Added No Readmore custom block style to the Post Excerpt and Latest Posts (with excerpt) blocks.
• More updates to the CSS for default vertical margins based on changes made to WordPress v6.7.

= 1.9.5 =
December 3, 2024

• Fix issue with Post Comments not displaying.
• Added new Templates for Page No Sidebar, Page No Comments or Sidebar, Post No Sidebar, Post Featured Image No Sidebar. This is so the Flat Blocks Classic child theme that uses them will retain the Template when changing from the child theme to the parent theme and back.
• Adjusted some of the CSS for vertical margins and padding to use the global Block Gap setting (–wp–style–block-gap) rather than Spacing 40 (–wp–preset–spacing–40). By default these are the same, but if the user changes the Block Gap, the vertical spacing will be more in line. This was also to fix the theme preview on WordPress.org.
• Featured Images on Posts and Pages with Sidebars now have a rounded border to match Featured Images in the blog.

= 1.9.4 =
December 2, 2024

• Due to changes in WordPress v6.7, added vertical margin and padding in the Editor to match the front-end.
• Updated Call to Action Block Pattern to wrap Button in a Buttons Block for consistency with recent WordPress versions and for the WordPress.org theme preview.
• Set light default link and button color on Midnight Blue and Dark Midnight Blue backgrounds. This is more consistent with the handling of other dark accent colors.
• Enhanced CSS to prevent empty Comments section from adding margin before the Footer.
• Added Block Bindings for Current Year (e.g. 2024), Theme Name (with link) and Theme Author (with link). We may use these in a future theme update as Block Bindings mature in WordPress (e.g. can just now see them at all in the Editor in WordPress v6.7). These are used currently in the Flat Blocks Classic child theme as they work better than PHP-based Block Patterns in the WordPress.org theme previews.
• Refactored the code in functions.php to load included files using an array. It loads both this theme and child theme files if they exist. This new function also includes a filter for child themes to alter the list, whether to add to it or remove from it.

= 1.9.3 =
December 1, 2024

• Revert replacing theme slug for patterns within patterns in child themes.
• Let Paragraph top and bottom margin default based on the font size (i.e. “1 em”).

= 1.9.2 =
November 30, 2024

Update to fix child theme patterns within patterns.

= 1.9.1 =
November 30, 2024

Update to fix child theme patterns within patterns. This is related to the Site Info and Theme Tagline Block Patterns that use the new Current Year, Theme Name, and Theme Author Block Patterns. Specifically replace “slug”:”flat-blocks/” with the child theme slug.