We added the new WordPress blocks to replace some popular shortcodes from the retired Organic Shortcodes plugin. The new blocks are a major improvement over the old shortcodes. Additionally, each new block features several customization options. As a result, the blocks can be styled to match your website design and colors — directly within the Gutenberg editor.

Toggle Block

The Toggle Block displays content within an expandable box that may be toggled open or closed. As a result, it’s an excellent tool for creating FAQ and documentation pages.

View Toggle Block Examples

Modal Block

The Modal Block displays content within a dismissible pop-up container. Clicking the modal button or text link will reveal the pop-up content. Which then displays above the rest of your website content.

Pop-up modals are a great tool for displaying content that you would like hidden from the rest of the page content. For instance, a contact or newsletter form, or a list of downloadable files.

View Modal Block Examples

Alert Block

The Alert Block notifies visitors of important information on your website. It’s a useful tool for notifying visitors of changes, sales, and promotions on your website.

There are two ways of displaying the Alert Block. Directly within your page content, or as a dismissible pop-up upon first loading a page.

View Alert Block Examples

These new WordPress blocks are a useful addition to our growing Organic Blocks Bundle plugin. Additionally, 9 more premium blocks are available in the bundle. Get the plugin today, and spice up your WordPress pages!

In addition to the Gutenberg optimization, we have made some other theme updates that existing users should be aware of.

New Portfolio Style Blog Layout

Upon activation of the latest Portfolio and Portfolio Lite themes, if your homepage is set to display “Your latest posts,” posts will now display in a 3 column, portfolio style layout. A Featured Image or Title will display for each post, rather than the full post content.

With previous theme versions, the latest posts on the default blog displayed in a more traditional, single column blog layout. However, we felt that since this is a Portfolio Theme, it should look like a portfolio upon activation. So, we made this change as of Portfolio Theme v6.3 and Portfolio Lite 1.3.

If your blog suddenly changes, don’t panic! We’ve also included a new blog page template with both themes. So, you can still have the same traditional blog layout. It will just require a different setup process. For creating a traditional blog, follow these instructions:

1. Navigate to Pages > Add New.
2. Add a Page Title (Usually “Blog”).
3. Select the “Blog” template from within the Page Attributes section.
4. Publish the page.
5. Add the page to your Custom Menu.
   

Voila! It’s that simple. Your new blog page will display as it did with previous theme versions.

Adding Slideshows With Gutenberg

Gutenberg replaces the traditional WordPress image gallery with the new Gallery Block. This is great! The Gallery Block looks way better than the old WordPress image gallery.

However, the Portfolio Theme uses the traditional WordPress gallery for creating and managing slideshows. The theme accomplishes this by taking the first image gallery added to your post content, and using those images to create a slideshow. It’s a clever bit of code that we’re quite proud of. Unfortunately, the Gutenberg Gallery Block does not perform this way.

Never fear, you can still add a traditional WordPress gallery to your content within Gutenberg for managing slideshows! This is accomplished using the Shortcode Block.

The WordPress Gallery shortcode looks like this:

Within a post, or page with the Slideshow Page Template applied, add a Shortcode Block as pictured above to your content. Change the image IDs to match the order and IDs of the images you wish to be displayed in your slideshow. Then, publish or update the page.

After adding a Gallery Shortcode to your post or page content, the images will display in an elegant slideshow on your website.

That’s It!

We hope you enjoy the Portfolio Theme updates!

The Home Page Template

The Music Theme features a beautifully simple home page. The design of the home page template molds to the size of the browser window. Upcoming tour dates are anchored at the bottom. A full screen background image or video displays behind the custom logo. The header features a custom navigation menu, and a social media menu for displaying links to musical profiles on sites like Spotify, Soundcloud or Last.fm. Additionally, you can display an email and phone number for clients to contact you directly about booking gigs.

Theme Features and Options

All theme options have moved to the WordPress customizer. So setup and customization changes can be made in real-time with ultimate ease. Additionally, several new options have been added for managing the design, fonts and colors. The theme features a dark color scheme by default. However, changing to a lighter color scheme will result in the content automatically adapting to always be visible.

The Music Theme features a custom post type for displaying tour dates on the tour and home page templates. Additionally, Jetpack custom post types can be used to create a discography with the portfolio page template.

Audio files and playlists are easily be added to any page, post or widget area. The theme has also been tested with several third-party audio plugins, and it’s fully compatible with WooCommerce for creating a shop with your band merchandise. Additionally, the theme utilizes the powerful Organic Customizer Widgets plugin for creating pages with dynamic content and layouts.

Please Note: Upgrading from the older version of the Music Theme will drastically change the appearance of your website. This new theme version is an entirely new theme. When upgrading options will need to be rest in the WordPress customizer.

Overall, the Music Theme rocks! It’s a perfect website solution for any musician looking to promote their work.

The Seed Theme is growing! With the release of WordPress 3.9, we have updated the Seed Theme to take full advantage of the WordPress theme customizer. We have removed the Options Framework in favor of adding all theme options to the customizer for a much more seamless user experience. In addition, several other enhancements have been made to the code, and minor updates to the design.

Moving forward, all new Organic Themes and major theme updates will utilize the powerful WordPress theme customizer!

We are making this transition because the customizer is supported by the WordPress core, and the power, speed and experience of managing a theme with the customizer is unsurpassed. Also, it is inline with the WordPress.com development standards, and will make for an easier transition of our WordPress.org themes to the WordPress.com marketplace.

This update adheres to our belief that WordPress is such a powerful framework by itself, there’s no need to pile additional frameworks on top of it. It brings us back to the basics of WordPress theme development — providing our customers with everything they need for a solid, “healthy” WordPress theme, and nothing they don’t.

The free version of our famous Structure Theme has been updated with a plethora of new features! While it still doesn’t offer the full functionality of the premium version, it’s leaps and bounds above its predecessor. Check out the updated demo for the free version, and see why the Structure Theme remains among the best free WordPress themes available. A few of the new features include:

Responsive Layout

Even the free version of the Structure Theme now has responsive media queries for your iPhone — sweet!

Color Change Options

Change the link and highlight colors within the Theme Options.

Options Framework

The free version now uses the Options Framework for managing the homepage layout and settings.

CSS3 Transitions

Slick CSS3 transitions and animations have been added, providing a greater user experience.

Social Media Buttons

Facebook Like, Tweet and Google Plus buttons can optionally be displayed throughout the theme.

Numbered Pagination

Navigating through posts has been made much more efficient with numbered pagination.

Much More

Countless other improvements have been made to this free version of the Structure Theme.

Just to be clear, there is nothing wrong with the original version of the Bold Theme. So if it ain’t broke, why fix it? Well, the first variation of the Bold Theme was perhaps too bold for some, with its high contrasting red and black colors and a ginormous featured content slider. Thus, the blue and white version was created to offer an appealing alternative. Several minor changes were made to the Bold Theme Blue including:

• Full Width Menu
• Full Width Header/Logo Image
• Color Changes
• Minor Layout Changes
• Repeating Pattern Background
• Slightly Smaller Featured Slider
• Portfolio Page Template
• Traditional Full Blog Layout For Blog Template
• New Option To Hide Content In Slider

While some theme shops might consider this variation a whole new theme, Organic Themes doesn’t play that game. We believe duplicating a theme with minor variations and selling it separately is not only unfair to our customers, but bad business. Instead, we have taken note of requested changes to the theme from our valued customers, and created a new variation based on their desires. Organic Themes will continue creating variations of our existing themes in addition to completely new theme designs. We believe this adds more value to our themes, community and brand.