WordPress Block Themes Are Amazing 🔥  ## Metadata - Author: [[Jamie Marsland]] - Full Title: WordPress Block Themes Are Amazing 🔥 - Category: #articles - Document Note: --- tags: - #blockthemes - #customposttypes - #wordpress Author: Jamie (YouTube Creator) Source: YouTube – *WordPress Block Themes are amazing 🔥* Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZW8wREJT6A date created: 2025-08-23 23:59 --- # 🎨 WordPress Block Themes: Custom Post Types & Layouts ## 📑 Table of Contents - [📝 Summary](#-summary) - [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes](#️-notes) - [📖 References](#-references) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items](#-action-items) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-deib-diversity-equity-inclusion-and-belonging-assessment) - [✅ Logical Validity](#-logical-validity) - [🔍 DARVO Analysis](#-darvo-analysis) - [🔍 SEO Evaluation](#-seo-evaluation) - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) --- ## 📝 Summary The video demonstrates how WordPress Block Themes, combined with plugins like **Advanced Custom Fields (ACF)** and **Meta Field Block**, enable users to create **custom post types (CPTs)**, unique single-post layouts, and archive pages. It also highlights the power of the **query loop block with CSS Grid support** for advanced layouts, showcasing how block themes streamline content presentation and customization. --- ## 📖 Main Content WordPress block themes simplify creating dynamic content experiences: - **Custom Post Types (CPTs)** allow differentiation between content categories (e.g., blog, art, photos). - **Advanced Custom Fields (ACF)** makes defining custom metadata (like location for artwork) straightforward. - **Block Themes** let users design distinct layouts per CPT, both for single posts and archives. - **CSS Grid support in the query loop block** expands layout possibilities without heavy coding. This approach empowers creators to design tailored experiences while maintaining efficiency and flexibility. --- ### 🗒️ Notes - [00:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZW8wREJT6A&t=4) Block themes → different layouts per post type. - [01:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZW8wREJT6A&t=87) CPT creation with ACF → ensure *archives enabled*. - [02:38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZW8wREJT6A&t=158) Design single-post templates for each CPT. - [03:44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZW8wREJT6A&t=224) Custom archive pages auto-generate URLs. - [04:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZW8wREJT6A&t=297) Link featured images → better archive UX. - [06:07](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZW8wREJT6A&t=367) Meta Field Block plugin → display custom field data. - [07:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZW8wREJT6A&t=431) Query loop + CSS Grid → advanced layouts possible. - [08:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZW8wREJT6A&t=499) Gutenberg Pro plugin enhances grid-based designs. --- ## 📖 References - [Advanced Custom Fields](https://www.advancedcustomfields.com) - [Meta Field Block plugin](https://wordpress.org/plugins/meta-field-block/) - [Gutenberg Pro](https://gutenberghub.com/) --- ## 🗣️ Paraphrase 1. Original: *“Block themes make it simple to design unique archive pages for custom post types.”* Paraphrase: With block themes, users can effortlessly create archive pages tailored to specific CPTs, adding flexibility to site structure. 2. Original: *“Query loop block now supports CSS grid for advanced layouts.”* Paraphrase: The query loop block’s new CSS grid support allows creators to build sophisticated, responsive layouts directly in the editor. --- ## 📰 Newsletter 🔥 **Block Themes Level Up WordPress Customization** Block themes aren’t just the future—they’re the now. In this week’s highlight, we explore how creators can craft **custom post types and layouts** that adapt to their content needs. Want your art posts to showcase location details while your blog stays clean and minimal? With **ACF + block themes**, that’s just a few clicks away. Bonus: The **query loop block with CSS Grid** brings next-level design flexibility, no custom code required. If you’re looking to modernize your WordPress build process and impress your visitors, this is the toolkit. 🔗 Watch the full walkthrough: [WordPress Block Themes are amazing 🔥](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZW8wREJT6A) --- ## ✅ Action Items - Develop training for WordPress contributors on **block themes + ACF** integration. - Showcase how CPTs improve **open-source project documentation and contributor recognition**. - Apply these techniques to GoDaddy’s WP projects, enhancing product demos with **custom layouts**. - Advocate within The WPCC for **standardized contributor profile pages** using CPTs + block templates. --- ## 🧪 Hypotheses - H1: Block themes reduce development time compared to PHP-based template editing. - H2: CPT-specific layouts improve engagement and content discoverability. - H3: CSS Grid integration increases adoption of the block editor among developers. ### 📊 Methodology - Compare site build times pre- vs. post-block theme adoption. - A/B test CPT archive pages vs. default blog archive for engagement metrics. - Collect developer satisfaction surveys on CSS Grid adoption. ### ❓ Questions - How do block themes affect accessibility compared to legacy themes? - What role could CPTs play in contributor recognition systems? - Could query loop + grid replace popular grid plugins long-term? ### 🔮 Future Research - Automating CPT creation through WP-CLI + block scaffolding. - Studying CPT usage trends in WordPress.org repositories. - Tracking adoption of CSS Grid features in new block themes. ### 💡 Implications - Streamlined workflows for site creators. - More **inclusive design opportunities** for contributors. - Influence on plugin ecosystem (less reliance on heavy grid plugins). --- ## 🧠 Learning Styles Assessment - **Visual**: Strong—demonstrations and editor UI. Could improve with infographics. - **Aural**: Moderate—video narration present; no transcript audio. - **Verbal**: Clear explanations, but more analogies would help. - **Physical**: Limited—recommend adding “try-it-yourself” challenges. - **Logical**: Present—step-by-step instructions. - **Social**: Moderate—comments section encourages peer interaction. - **Solitary**: Strong—viewers can replicate steps individually. - **Naturalistic**: Absent—no environmental metaphors. --- ## 📊 Accessibility Assessment - **Screen Reader**: Limited (video format). Transcript helps but no alt-text for visuals. - **Keyboard Navigation**: Not applicable. - **Contrast/Readability**: Video font choices clear, but no accessibility guarantees. - **Improvement**: Provide full captions, add described screenshots. --- ## 🌍 DEIB Assessment - **Cultural Relevance**: General WP use case; lacks global diversity examples. - **Inclusive Language**: Neutral and jargon-light. - **Neurodiversity**: Good pacing, but dense instructions may overwhelm; break into steps. - **Representation**: Presenter’s examples are personal; broader industry contexts missing. - **Psychological Safety**: Friendly tone fosters learning. --- ## ✅ Logical Validity - **Strong Deductive Reasoning**: CPT → unique content needs → CPT layouts improve UX. - **Causal Reasoning**: Enabling archives in CPT → archive template creation possible. - **Weakness**: Occasional assumption of technical familiarity (hasty generalization about ease). --- ## 🔍 DARVO Analysis - **Deny**: None. - **Attack**: None. - **Reverse Victim/Offender**: None. ➡️ The content is purely instructional; no DARVO present. --- ## 🔍 SEO Evaluation - **Keywords**: Block themes, custom post types, WordPress layouts. - **Meta Description**: Missing—should add for better discoverability. - **Headers**: Present in transcript summary, not in video itself. - **Length**: Tutorial length adequate (~2,000 words if transcribed). - **Links**: Should include plugin repo links in - Summary: WordPress Block Themes allow for the creation of different post layouts and single post layouts depending on the post type. By creating a custom post type using Advanced Custom Fields, users can design specific templates for their posts. The block theme also allows for the creation of custom archive pages, with unique designs for each post type. Users can add custom fields to their posts using plugins like Advanced Custom Fields and display that information on the front end using Metafield block. Additionally, the WordPress Query Loop block now supports CSS grid, allowing for more complex layouts and the ability to create amazing designs with core blocks. - URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZW8wREJT6A Good morning, in today's video you're going to learn how to do these. Beautiful things. Sometimes in life, you might want different post layouts depending on the nature of the post. For example, on my personal site, this is my photo layout for my post. But if I go to my art doodles... You'll see that has a different layout, and if I go to my blog, that has a different layout as well. This is all achieved by creating a custom post archive layout using a block theme. What you can also do in a block theme is create a different single post layout depending on the post type. For example, this is my blog post layout, but if I go to my art doodles here, you'll see that has an entirely different layout. The other great reason to use a custom post type in WordPress is to display specific information that only relates to that post type. For example, in my art doodles, I have the location presented here. And that's just done using a block. Step one is to create a custom post type.. It's super easy. Just go and grab a free copy of Advanced Custom Fuels and activate it on your site. As soon as you do that, you'll see a new menu in the bottom left. Come down here, hover over ACF and then come to Post Types. Click on Post Types. This is where you're going to create your post type. Just simply click on the big add new button at the top. And this is where you give your post type a name. So in my case, I'm calling it photos. Give it a singular label as well. And then come down here. There's one important thing we need to do. Come down here to advanced configuration. Click on this. And then we come across here to URLs. And the most important bit today. is to make sure the archive is turned on. And then all you need to do is come up here to the top and click Save Changes. And two very exciting things will happen as soon as you create that custom post type. Number one, when you look in your dashboards here, you'll have a brand new menu that says Photos in my case, where I can create post types just of that type. Number two, when I go into the Site Editor, And go to templates and click on the new template icon up here, we'll see two brand new options. Number one, I can create a template specifically for the photo post type for my archives. Number two, I can create a template specifically for the single post layout. just for the photo custom post type. So all I need to do now to create a custom layout just for my post type of type photo is come down here and click on single item photo and then I'm going to select all photos here. Now I can design this page however I like. Let's quickly design this template and remember this template is going to apply to all my posts of type photo. So I'm just deleting all the blocks on the page. I want this a bit more visual so I'm going to add the cover block in here. I'm going to use the featured image and then I'm going to make this, let's make this full height. And in the middle here I'm just going to put the post title. Now I'm going incredibly quickly here but I just want to show you how easy this is. I'm going to save it. Let's go and have a look at the post. And there's my custom single post template just for post type photos. You'll see when I go to my blog here. Completely different layout on the single post page. So the beauty of this is you can have different post layouts depending on the post type. And remember these templates you're creating apply to all the posts of that particular post type. An archive page is the page that shows a collection of all your posts, and typically you have one in WordPress, which is your blog page, but with custom post types, you can have unique custom archive pages, like in this example here, here is the archive page for my art, this design, whereas my blog archive page has a completely different design. And once again, block themes make this incredibly simple. Just come to the site editor, click on templates, Click on the plus new button up here to add a new template. Come down here and you will see a brand new option that says archive photo in my case. Click on that and now we can design this page however we like because it's just using blocks. And you'll see that your new archive templates will be listed now in the template list in the site editor for you to edit. And here's the one I created for my art doodles. You'll see at the top here, it actually tells you the name of the template you're editing. And all I've done in this one is add some columns, and in this second column, I've added the query loop block, and I've designed it to look like this. When you create a custom archive, it automatically generates the URL for you. Here's mine for art, you can see it's just my domain name, followed by forward slash art. If I replace that with my photos one, You will see that it's done exactly the same thing. So all you would need to do to add that to your menu is copy that URL and add it as a menu item. One other top tip for you is that when you're creating your archive pages, you can make the featured image link to the single post page for that archive. You do that by coming across to the block settings and there's just a little option here. to link to that post type. Just make sure you have the post featured image block selected. That means when somebody is visiting your custom archive pages they can click on the image and it takes them straight to the single post page. One of the benefits of using a custom post type is that you can display specific information. to that post using custom fields from a plugin like Advanced Custom Fields. In this example I'm displaying the location of where this doodle was painted. And last week I discovered a really simple no code way to do this. So this is how I created and displayed that location field within my custom post. All you're going to do is come down to ACF and click on field groups. Then you're going to click on the blue add new button here. So I've kept this really simple today. All I've done is kept the field type as text. I've added a field label and a field name. And then down here you've got some settings, some very important ones. The first one is in location rules. This is where you tell this where to appear, what post type to appear in. So I said post type should be equal to art. That's it's going to appear in the art post type. And then in presentation here. You can say where it's actually going to appear. I've stuck this one on the side, so it's going to be in the sidebar. And then the final thing, which is super important, you have to turn on show in rest API. When you come to create your posts, you just come to art and click on add new, and you create your post as you normally would in WordPress. You add a featured image and then over on the right here, you should see. A brand new field. This is the custom field that we've just introduced in the last step. And to display that field is super easy. We're just going to use the free Metafield block plugin, link in description below, to show that field within any of our templates. So I'm going to add it into my art single post template. I'm just going to find the template here and click on it. Now I can edit this. And luckily there is a brand new block that's been added when we've added the plugin called the meta field block. You're just going to add that into the page. I've added it into a row block. Just come across here to the right. Choose ACF. Then you just need to pop in the field name. Beware, it's case sensitive, so make sure you get that right. Just click save. And here we go. Now we have nice custom field information displaying on the front end. For just our post types of type art. You can see I'm going through each one and there's a different location being shown. Did you know that the WordPress query loop block now supports C s S grid? What this means is we can do even more complex things just with the base core blocks. Now, if you want to, you can go and learn CSS grid, and you can apply that to the WordPress Query Loop block, but look out for themes because more and more themes are gonna start to integrate this functionality. into the theme to give you these options to create amazing layouts. There are also some plugins that hook directly into the WordPress core query loop block that let you do amazing layouts. Here's a really quick example of how our Gutenberg Pro plugin does this. This is not a free plugin, but I want to show you because It's really cool, and it shows how you can tap into the core blocks. You'll see I'm going to add the query loop block. I'm starting from scratch. We've got these brand new options that we've built in. Pro Postgrid and Pro Masonry Grid. Click on Pro Postgrid. And then we get a selection of grids that we can choose. Now these are being generated by CSS Grid. So all I'm going to do is insert one here. Let's choose that one there. And it brings in the query loop block in a really, really cool layout. And you'll see when I open the list view, it's just using core Gutenberg blocks. But I can come down here and customize it. So in this case, what I'm going to do is change the height of my grid. I'm also going to make it link. So when somebody clicks on one of the images, it actually takes them on off to the single post. And then the final thing I'm going to do here is just change the opacity of the cover block, because we're using the cover block to actually create these lovely grids. And then I'm going to change the focus area. Phew, that was a lot. So thank you so much for watching. There was tons of stuff in there. I hope you found it useful. If you did. If you can hit the like button now, it would be amazing because it does make a huge difference in terms of how many people get to view this video. It really, really does. So thank you if you can hit the like button. And also every time you do hit that like button, our cats get a little treat. If you want to see more videos just like this, hit that subscribe button and you'll be notified every time I release a new one. Keep well and I'll see you soon. Bye for now., WordPress Block Themes Are Amazing 🔥, Jamie Marsland, 01hbxe8trvccwpc168xeb93fnq.