WordPress Updates August 2022

We are excited to announce several recent changes to Baylor’s WordPress networks at blogs.baylor.edu and sites.baylor.edu! Both sites have been updated with a fresh look and feel. The default theme for new WordPress sites has been updated to CampusPress Flex. This theme provides dozens of layouts, styles, and branding options. The default editor for WordPress is also upgrading from the Classic Editor to the Block Editor. Finally, we have also enabled several new plugins which are worth exploring.

CampusPress Flex Default Theme

The default theme for all new WordPress websites at Baylor will now be CampusPress Flex. This theme was built with flexibility in mind to meet the needs of most client websites. With dozens of layouts, styles and branding options, you’ll have a professional, fully functional website quickly. Although you can still choose from hundreds of other themes available, CampusPress Flex can be easily customized for personal or professional blogs, updated with departmental graphics, and can be easily adapted for almost any purpose. Because it was developed by CampusPress, this theme is modern, fast, and secure!

WordPress Block Editor

The default page editor in WordPress is now the Block Editor. The Block Editor uses a block-based approach where each item you add to your post or page is a block. You can add blocks for paragraphs, images, galleries, videos, audio files, lists, tables, and more. Each block is its own entity that you can manipulate, move, and edit. Since each block is separate, you can add things like custom backgrounds or text to specific blocks. The Block Editor displays visual elements exactly how they will look on your site. The new Block Editor looks different from the Classic Editor. However, it does all the things you could do with the Classic Editor, and it allows you to build more complex designs than those achievable with the Classic Editor.

If you would like to switch between the two editors, you can open the Writing menu under Settings to easily change your selection:

1. From your site’s Dashboard, click on Settings > Writing.
2. Next to "Default Editor For All Users" select either Block Editor or Classic Editor.
3. Click the Save Changes button.

To learn more about the Block Editor, visit https://help.edublogs.org/block-editor.

Newly-Enabled Plugins

WordPress plugins are apps that allow you to add new features and functionality to your website. Plugins allow you to do anything from building a basic contact form or embedding a calendar on a page to converting your blog into an academic Course Site fully integrated with the Canvas LMS. CampusPress has created and carefully curated a growing list of plugins that are pre-installed on Baylor’s WordPress networks which are chosen based on security, performance, reliability, and user-friendliness. Although dozens of plugins are available to be activated from the Plugins menu of your site’s Dashboard, the following are a few recent additions:

CoBlocks adds over twenty extra blocks to your block editor creating a more page-builder like editing experience.

Accessible Social Share adds accessible social share buttons to every post or page so your readers can easily share your content on their social networks.

Feature Videos Plus allows you to display featured videos on posts and pages.

Polylang is used to create a bilingual or multilingual site. Write your posts, pages, categories, tags in the different languages and then your readers can click on the Language switcher to change to their language.

PublishPress Future allows you to add an expiration date and time to posts which you can configure to either delete the post, change it to a draft, or update the post categories at expiration time.