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In the thirty-eighth episode of the WordPress Briefing, join Josepha Haden Chomphosy and special guest Hauwa Abashiya for a discussion on the WordPress Training team and LearnWP initiative.

Have a question you’d like answered? You can submit them to wpbriefing@wordpress.org, either written or as a voice recording.

Credits

Editor: Dustin Hartzler
Logo: Javier Arce
Production: Santana Inniss
Song: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod

Guests

Hauwa Abashiya 

References

Hauwa Abashiya HeroPress Essay
make.wordpress.org/training
make.wordpress.org
WordPress 6.0.2 Security and Maintenance Release
WordCamp Asia call for speakers (deadline extended to September 30, 2022)
WordCamp US Livestream information

Transcript

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:00] 

Hello, everyone! And welcome to the WordPress Briefing, the podcast where you can catch quick explanations of some of the ideas behind the WordPress open source project and the community around it, as well as get a small list of big things coming up in the next two weeks. I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Here we go!

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:42] 

Helping people who are new to WordPress learn how to make the most out of their CMS used to be one of the most clearly impactful things I ever did as a contributor. Whether it was making sure a brand new installation simply worked, or if the original setup needed to grow along with a solopreneur’s growing business needs, I found great joy in seeing how my local community was learning new tools together.

You’ve probably heard me talk about the Learn WP initiative or the training team on this podcast before, but you might still be a little shy to get started with the team. So I have invited one of their team reps today to talk through what the team does.

All right. I have with us today Hauwa Abashiya. She is one of the team reps for the training team and also works on the learn.wordpress.org site. Thank you for joining me today, Hauwa.

[Hauwa Abashiya 00:01:33] 

And thank you for having me, Josepha, quite exciting to be on your podcast.

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:01:37] 

Oh, I, you know, when we were talking about doing this topic, I was like, you know, who would be an excellent person is Hauwa. Like you were such an interesting person to work with when we were working on the 5.6 release. And then also, you just have such a lovely way of explaining the complicated things that we have going on in WordPress and especially on the training side of things. And so you were the first person that came to mind for me.

[Hauwa Abashiya 00:02:02]

Thank you. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:02:03]

Speaking of all the learn.wordpress.org things, you’ve been contributing to the WordPress project as a team rep for the training team for a bit. But that’s not really where you started. Can you tell me a bit about how you found your way to this team? 

[Hauwa Abashiya 00:02:15]

Well, I started by attending a WordCamp, and that was WordCamp Brighton. And if anyone’s read my article on HeroPress, then they will know that I learned WordPress in one week. Went through beginner sessions of it. And then, I was like, yeah, let me just go turn up and see what it’s like.

So turned up, and I met some wonderful people there. One of them being Jenny Wong, who introduced me to the London meetup team. So, I then went there. They were looking for volunteers because they were planning WordCamp London for 2019. And me being me, I was like, yeah, sure. Why not? And got thrown into the deep end, but no, an amazing team.

I got to meet some really amazing people. And yeah, just went from there then, you know, because I was doing stuff with WordCamp London, ended up going to WordCamp Europe. And I think there’s probably quite a lot of people who say they fully got into contributing in WordCamp Europe. So I was doing little bits and pieces then on like, marketing team and then met Jesse [Owens] at the training team cause Abha Thakor introduced me to him and just went from there.

And then in terms of team rep, I mean, Courtney Robertson sent out SOS, because Learn had just launched, and there were a couple of things that we needed. So that was during the soft launch. And I was like, yeah, sure. I’ll help you. I’m not doing much. And that’s how I ended up doing team rep.

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:03:46]

I love that so many initial stories in the WordPress community start with like, well, I went to a WordCamp cause I was like, what in the world is this? And then people were like, we need some help. And I thought to myself, what else am I doing? Like, so many stories start that way. And I just love it. 

[Hauwa Abashiya 00:04:03]

Yeah. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:04:03]

So you mentioned learn.wordpress.org. That is a part of the training team in the WordPress project. Correct?

Yeah. So can you give us an idea of the difference between the two? Cause like normally, with a project as big as Learn, you would expect to see like a whole separate team. But these are two intertwined teams using two intertwined concepts.

And so can you give us an idea of the difference between them? 

[Hauwa Abashiya 00:04:29]

So I like to see learners, that’s the content. So it’s the content that we have on the platform, and the training team wrangles all the content on Learn. So that would be like your videos, your lesson plans, and online workshops. Yeah, so we wrangle the content that’s on there.

We try to bring a lot of different teams together, and that’s one of the things the beauty, I think, of Learn is that there is a lot of cross-team collaboration, which started from the beginning and I think just will continue and get better and better.

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:04:59]

Yeah. And the workshops, those are once a week, right? 

[Hauwa Abashiya 00:05:04]

Yeah. So you have online workshops, which used to be called social learning spaces, which used to be called discussion groups. So those run once a week. There’s a number running, and there are some that are launching in Japan. And I think Ben Evans has been quite key in getting quite a lot of those going, and I think Destiny Kanno as well.

So, that’s the beauty is you get to see a lot more languages coming up. Those run once a week. And then we obviously have lesson plans, which traditionally that’s what the training team used to always make for Meetup organizers. So if you didn’t have a speaker, you could go and get a lesson plan and run through something, or anybody could pick one up.

So they are used mainly by like our Meetup users and then people who are running any boot camps or sessions, or you wanna just take somebody through WordPress and teach them, you can pick one up and run through it. And now we’ve got courses on Learn, which is quite exciting. Got a couple of courses.

And I know there’s about three or four courses in development. There is a bit more WordPress development based rather than user based. There’s a fourth piece of content, and that is just the general workshop. So tutorials, I think no tutorials is what we’re calling them now. So there’s like all our online videos. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:06:17]

I tell you terminology in any project, the age and size of WordPress is hard to keep everything straight, but especially when you’ve just changed it you’re like, what do we call it though? 

[Hauwa Abashiya 00:06:27]

Yeah. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:06:30]

So if I understand correctly, because as you mentioned, like you have this post up on HeroPress, you don’t actually come from a training background. Like you aren’t a teacher or corporate trainer or anything, but you have really committed to contributing to the training team and to learn.wordpress.org.

So, from your perspective, from like the, I’m not a trainer perspective, what’s the most exciting thing for learn.wordpress.org in the near future? 

[Hauwa Abashiya 00:06:58]

I think it’s the collaboration. It’s the potential that Learn has. So I don’t have a training background, but interestingly enough, I come from Kaduna, Nigeria. And Kaduna cause all the states in Nigeria have a tagline, and, Kaduna is actually the center of learning. So there must be some link there, so yeah.

So, I think the beauty of that is you don’t have to have a training background. You can come in and impart your knowledge, and there are people available in the team that can help you impart that knowledge. So if it’s like a lesson plan that you wanna draw up, we’ve got people that can help and assist in that.

Or you wanna run an online workshop. There are people that can assist you. And I think that’s also the beauty of WordPress is that we’re all there to help each other. So just seeing that and seeing how, as time has gone on how the team has actually just been growing cause more and more people are coming.

And then with that, you’ve got more of like the different languages coming in, and I know we might touch on that later, but it’s, I think to me, that is the beauty that anyone can actually now come in and learn. And Learn as this platform that is accessible to everybody. So it’s not necessarily behind a, like a paywall or anything, which is, there’s nothing wrong with that, but there are people that it’s like, well, okay, you can access something by the community for the community.

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:08:32]

I think like your last thought there, something that’s by the community for the community. That’s one of the things that I noticed early on about the WordPress community. So I’ve been in the WordPress community for a long time, but when I started doing the administrative back office, things that are invisible and no one wants to know about, because it’s boring.

When I started doing that work, one of the things I noticed and that I really treasure the most about the WordPress community is that they want to do things together. They want to look at the problem together. They want to find a solution together. And a lot of times they just want to learn together as well.

We see that there is a real, I don’t know, not, it’s not a safety and numbers question. I think it is a long-standing feeling that we can all kind of get further together and that we are better together. And so I like your thought there.

You mentioned, though, translations, and I know that this came up at WordCamp Europe.

We don’t actually have a lot of translated content on learn.wordpress.org. There’s some technical issues that exist there, but are there a few languages that we already are sort of seeing translated courses for? Translated lessons for? 

[Hauwa Abashiya 00:09:47]

Yeah. So we have a couple in Hindi, I believe. And I know we’ve got some Greek translations that have been coming up, so I know, I think it was last year WordCamp India, during contributor day, we had quite a lot of people translating stuff then, and I suppose the online WordCamps that we’ve been able to rank. Cause I think our first like face to face is this year, so they didn’t do that much translation there, but we’ve seen an increase in people wanting to translate. 

And I think those are the ones that come to mind. And I know Japanese, I think that was just recently, in the last two weeks, somebody’s translated one or two of the tutorials have been translated.

But we’re getting more and more requests coming through. And I know we kind of touched on this in our earlier discussion, but it’s like, how do you manage that? Cause you’re right, we don’t have a way to easily manage polyglots on Learn at the moment or WordPress in general. But I think seeing that, and I keep saying to people, I don’t wanna lose that engagement cause if you’ve got the people engaged, let them just do it.

And I don’t normally say this, but let them do it, and we’ll figure out how to sort out the whole pile when it comes in later. Because you kind of don’t want to lose them because I feel like if we say, no, we’ll wait until that comes in, we’ll lose a lot of the engagement. And come that time, people will be like, oh no, I’m not that interested. Or it might be an even more effort to try and bring more people on board.

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:11:18]

That’s always a struggle, like wanting to be able to get something good out without insisting that it be perfect. Like that whole perfect is the enemy of the good sort of concept. 

[Hauwa Abashiya 00:11:30]

Yeah. Mm-hmm 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:11:30]

When we were talking about this way back in June, I was like, I obviously would love to get a perfect solution out immediately, but like, you’re right.

In the meantime, do we just be if you don’t speak English, you cannot learn here?

Like that’s not fair.

[Hauwa Abashiya 00:11:45]

No.

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:11:46] 

We want everyone to be able to learn here in their own languages, and yeah. That’s just a living, breathing issue with a global project, I think. 

[Hauwa Abashiya 00:11:56]

Yeah. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:11:57]

Now that we left us on like a really juicy topic, just the lightest thing we could find. Is there anything else that you wanna be sure to share with the WordPress Briefing listeners before we head out?

[Hauwa Abashiya 00:12:10]

Come and join the training team. Like I said, you don’t have to be a trainer. You can come in, and help us take notes. You can come in and edit, and review. If you are a subject matter expert, we also have the faculty program, which was launched. Was it a month ago now?

Sorry. Days, months, weeks merge for me these days. But yeah, so that’s like a dedicated volunteer team. And in there, we’ve got content creators, editors, subject matter experts, and just admin stuff. If you wanna help us with the admin stuff. If you’re a GitHub guru, get in touch cause we are trying to automate some of our processes, and we could use the help, but yeah, just come join us.

Join one of our meetings, which run on Tuesdays at 7 AM UTC and 4:00 PM UTC. 

Yes, that’s right. I get my time right.

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:13:03] 

If it’s not right, we’ll put it. We’ll correct it in the show notes. 

Also, if you are not necessarily familiar with the WordPress project and how to get started with contributions, you can find the training team and a lot of information about them and all the other teams on make.wordpress.org.

I will share that in the show notes as well. make.wordpress.org/training is where you can find Hauwa’s team. Hauwa, thank you again for joining me today.

[Hauwa Abashiya 00:13:30]

No, thank you for having me. It’s just a wonderful treat. I get to listen to you, and now I get to be on it. 

So, yeah, it’s good. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:13:37]

I hope that some of you feel inspired to stop by and see what the team is up to learn something new about WordPress or contribute a little something yourself. And with that, I’ll bring us home with the small list of big things. First thing, there was a freshly pressed minor release last week. You probably didn’t notice it.

It probably went quite smoothly in the background and never interrupted you at all. However, if you want to read what was in it, you can head to wordpress.org/news now, or click on the link in the show notes. 

Second thing, is that coming up at the end of this week, September 9th, 2022, WordCamp US is back and ready to help broaden your WordPress knowledge. If you will be there, I hope it is a wonderful time, but if you won’t be there in person, I’ll include a link to register for the live stream, or you can watch all of those sessions afterward on wp.tv or the WordPress YouTube channel.

Third thing on our list of small list of big things is that WordPress Translation Day is coming up. That’s normally at the end of September, it coincides with a global day of appreciation for translators just generally across the world. And so that is coming, it’s normally around the 28th or so. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:14:55]

So put that in your calendars. As soon as I have any information, as soon as I have a link to share with you all, I will have that for you as well. 

And the final thing on my list today is that if you are hoping to speak at WordCamp Asia, 2023, you have 10 more days, September 15th, 2022**, to apply for that.

We need topics of all sorts, from security hardening and backend development to entrepreneurial best practices, WordPress out of the box all the way back around to the importance of securing open source freedom. Even when people don’t know they need them. If you’ve got something you’re a bit passionate about, something that you are a passionate expert about especially, we want to see your application. And that, my friends, is your small list of big things.

Thank you for tuning in today for the WordPress Briefing. I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. And I’ll see you again in a couple of weeks.

** Special note: the deadline to apply as a speaker to WordCamp Asia was extended to September 30th, 2022, after the recording of this episode.

If you’ve been looking for a simple way to access and quickly navigate between your multiple WordPress.com websites, we have an exciting announcement for you today. We’ve launched a new dashboard to help you manage all your WordPress.com and Jetpack-connected websites.

You can access this new Sites page at WordPress.com/Sites.

From here, you can locate a site and jump into its dashboard, launch a site to the public, or view your site’s Hosting Configuration to grab its SFTP details.

A Simple, Centralized Starting Point

Once you’re managing more than a few sites, it can be difficult to keep track of where everything is. The Sites page organizes all of your websites in one place.

For public sites, you’ll see a preview of each site’s homepage, making it easier for you to find the site you’re looking for.

Use the dropdown filter to find the “Private” or “Coming Soon” sites you’re currently working on. Our “Coming Soon” feature gives you a safe space to build and edit your site until you’re ready to launch it to the world.

Switch to the “List View” and navigate all of your sites with a more compact presentation:

Switch back to “Grid View” to see larger previews for all of your sites. This display mode is saved for the next time you come back to the page.

Build Your Next Site on WordPress.com

This is the first version of the Sites page, and we plan to continue improving it in the future. It’s also the first in a series of new tools for those building multiple sites. Our goal is to make WordPress.com an enjoyable, indispensable part of your workflow.

What else would you like to see in the Sites page? How could we make WordPress.com an even more powerful place to build a website? Feel free to leave a comment or submit your ideas in our short feature request form.

This month, as we approach WordCamp US, we feature Bud Kraus, a WordPress trainer who has made a career in helping others learn about software. He also shares how he has developed an approach to using technology in order to overcome longstanding difficulties with his eyesight.

In this People of WordPress series, we share some of the inspiring stories of how WordPress and its global network of contributors can change people’s lives for the better.

Teaching WordPress strengthens your understanding

Bud has taught web design since 1998, with students from more than 80 countries online or in person. He was determined not to let his sight difficulties stop him from his wish to help others learn website building and maintenance skills.

As WordPress evolves and new features release, Bud decided to extend his training services around helping new and existing users improve and practice their skills. He supports others in open source through volunteering to speak at WordPress events, and encourages others to do so too. He also gives time to help produce material for the free-to-access resource Learn WordPress, which is part of the WordPress.org project. 

As a contributor to the Test and Training teams, Bud is keen for others to try contributing to these areas and help support the project’s future development. One of his current training priorities is to help people with using the block editor and Full Site Editing. He is an advocate for the usability of WordPress today, saying: “I can design all aspects of a website now with a block.”

Using WordPress as a traditional developer

Bud’s WordPress journey began with a lunch at Grand Central Station in New York in 2009. A friend and former client was promoting the idea of using WordPress, which Bud initially resisted.

“I’m a code guy…,” he told his friend at the time. “I will never use anything like that.”

However, the friend persisted. Eventually, Bud gave it a try and found a new approach with things called themes and plugins. His first encounter was with WordPress 2.6. Bud signed up with a hosting company and found a theme where he could learn to edit and understand child themes.

He said: “Once I saw that you could edit anything and make it yours, I was hooked. The endorphins were freely coursing through my veins.” Bud was hooked.

Teaching WordPress strengthens your own understanding of the software

There’s an old saying that the best way to learn something new is to turn around and teach someone else.

Bud was already an instructor at the Fashion Institute of Technology when he thought, “I could teach WordPress!”

And so he did, packing classrooms all through those first years of WordPress as it swept through the design world and further.

But Bud had more to discover. He said: “Two big things were about to happen that were really going to change my life. They would show me the way to the WordPress community – not that I even knew what that was.”

Sharing lessons learnt with the WordPress community

In 2014, one of his students suggested he start going to the New York WordPress Meetup. 

As he started going to WordCamps in New York City, he realized that WordPress was getting very large. What’s more, it had a community of people with whom he felt at home and could learn alongside.

Bud gave a talk for the first time in 2016 at the only WordCamp to this day that has been held at the United Nations. He shared his knowledge of “Lessons Learned: Considerations For Teaching Your Clients WordPress.” 

From there, Bud went on to speak at other WordCamps in the US. He also volunteered as a speaker wrangler for his home camp in New York City in 2018 and 2019.

From speaking to writing about WordPress

At some point before the Covid-19 lockdown, Bud found another outlet, this time in writing. 

Bud heard a magazine was advertising for submissions related to WordPress. His first attempted article did not make the cut.

So in his second submission, Bud took the risk of writing about something deeply personal – a topic he really didn’t want to write about at all.

He gathered his courage and revealed to the entire web design world that he was legally blind.

The article appeared as  “Using Low Vision As My Tool To Help Me Teach WordPress”.

Since the age of 37, Bud has had macular degeneration in both eyes, which affects his central vision. It is a leading cause of legal blindness in the United States and many other countries. 

He relies on his peripheral vision and finding ways to compensate. He also tends to see things in a flat dimension and has a difficulty discerning contrast  – he  is glad there are starting to be improvements in color contrasts in web design!

He uses tools like Speech to Text, larger sized cursors and bigger font sizes, and heavily uses zooming back in and out when working with WordPress. He is able to recognize patterns but has to rely on detailed preparation and memorizing materials. 

In his first magazine article acknowledging this situation, he shared the added difficulties that technology creates for people with visual conditions, and tips that he had found to try and find alternative routes around them. He uses the technique of finding alternatives in his training work to help people learn and understand, realizing that all people have different ways of reading and understanding. His words and subsequent stories have inspired others and enabled more people to highlight accessibility. He describes himself as a ‘stakeholder in ensuring that the WordPress admin is accessible.’

A year after its first publication, the piece became a WordCamp talk, ‘My Way with WordPress.’ The talk was a hit and started many conversations about accessibility and the importance of raising awareness.

A few months later, he gave a Gutenberg talk at the first WordCamp Montclair. There was no way he could have done it from a laptop, so instead, he did it from his 27” desktop computer.

Bud said: “It was a presentation on Gutenberg plugins. Since I couldn’t do this from a notebook screen (the screen is too small and the keyboard is hard for me to manipulate), it was decided that I would bring in my 27″ desktop machine to a WordCamp. I’m probably the first person to ever have done this. It was good thing I only lived a few miles away.”

He added: “I sat behind my computer, did my thing, and every once in a while peered out to make sure people were still there.”

Different ways of contributing to WordPress

One of the main ways Bud supported the community around the software was through talks at WordCamps and helping others to speak.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, he was keen to continue contributing when WordCamps were no longer meeting in person. He turned greater attention to supporting the Learn WordPress resource, a free to use learning platform made by and for the community itself. 

More training materials on the block editor can be found on Learn WordPress and his WordCamp talks are available on WordPress.tv.

Global reach and meaning through WordPress

Bud’s training materials and willingness to talk about accessibility have helped so many people find their way with WordPress. He in turn is an advocate for the community around open source.

He said: “The software is really good, and the people are even better.”  

He added: “I get a sense of accomplishment whenever I launch a new or redesigned site. It’s also given me a great feeling to know that many people have learned WordPress around the world from my talks and presentations. This might just be the most gratifying thing of all.”

Share the stories

Help share these stories of open source contributors and continue to grow the community. Meet more WordPressers in the People of WordPress series.

Contributors

Thanks to Abha Thakor (@webcommsat), Mary Baum (@marybaum) , Surendra Thakor (@sthakor), @Meher Bala (@meher), @Larissa Murillo (@lmurillom), and Chloe Bringmann (@cbringmann), for work on this feature. Thank you too to Bud Kraus (@trynet) for sharing his experiences.

Thank you to Josepha Haden (@chantaboune) and Topher DeRosia (@topher1kenobe) for their support of the People of WordPress series.

We get it. Life’s to-do list seems bottomless, and maybe building your own website isn’t anywhere near the top of it. And yet your business needs it. Yesterday, if possible. Your audience, your customers, are waiting. 

If you’re in need of a professionally designed, budget-friendly, mobile-optimized website to showcase your business, product, or service, consider Built By WordPress.com Express. 

1. Click here to get started.
2. Tell us a little bit about your business.
3. Select a design from our catalog of themes (or let us choose the right one for you!).
4. Provide your content, including your logo and any images. 
5. Sit back and relax!

Our in-house experts will build the site for you, all in four business days or less. The cost is $499, plus an additional purchase of the WordPress.com Premium plan. 

We’ve built sites for professional bloggers, local service professionals such as roofers, a surfing school, consultants, attorneys, nonprofits, churches, restaurants, even an online sports streaming network. If your primary goal is to tell the world about your project or business, or maybe you have a long wish list of things you’d like your website to do and just need a head start, Built By WordPress.com Express was created just for you. 

We can’t wait to delight you.

WordPress 6.0.2 is now available!

This security and maintenance release features 12 bug fixes on Core, 5 bug fixes for the Block Editor, and 3 security fixes. Because this is a security release, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately. All versions since WordPress 3.7 have also been updated.

WordPress 6.0.2 is a short-cycle release. You can review a summary of the main updates in this release by reading the RC1 announcement.

The next major release will be version 6.1 planned for November 1, 2022.

If you have sites that support automatic background updates, the update process will begin automatically.

You can download WordPress 6.0.2 from WordPress.org, or visit your WordPress Dashboard, click “Updates”, and then click “Update Now”.

For more information on this release, please visit the HelpHub site.

Security updates included in this release

The security team would like to thank the following people for responsibly reporting vulnerabilities, and allowing them to be fixed in this release:

• FVD for finding a possible SQL injection within the Link API.
• Khalilov Moe for finding an XSS vulnerability on the Plugins screen.
• John Blackbourn of the WordPress security team, for finding an output escaping issue within the_meta().

Thank you to these WordPress contributors

The WordPress 6.0.2 release was led by @sergeybiryukov and @gziolo.

WordPress 6.0.2 would not have been possible without the contributions of more than 50 people. Their asynchronous coordination to deliver several enhancements and fixes into a stable release is a testament to the power and capability of the WordPress community.

Alex Concha, Andrei Draganescu, annezazu, Anton Vlasenko, Ari Stathopoulos, Ben Dwyer, Carolina Nymark, Colin Stewart, Darren Coutts, Dilip Bheda, Dion Hulse, eMKey, Fabian Kägy, George Mamadashvili, Greg Ziółkowski, huubl, ironprogrammer, Jb Audras, John Blackbourn, Jonathan Desrosiers, jonmackintosh, Jonny Harris, Kelly Choyce-Dwan, Lena Morita, Linkon Miyan, Lovro Hrust, marybaum, Nick Diego, Nik Tsekouras, Olga Gleckler, Pascal Birchler, paulkevan, Peter Wilson, Sergey Biryukov, Stephen Bernhardt, Teddy Patriarca, Timothy Jacobs, tommusrhodus, Tomoki Shimomura, Tonya Mork, webcommsat AbhaNonStopNewsUK, and zieladam.

Since we launched Patterns in 2020, we’ve been steadily adding to our library of prebuilt Block templates for you to easily make your site stand out even more. There are now over 260 Patterns that can be inserted into your pages and posts in just seconds.

If you’ve never used Patterns before, you can access them by hitting the “+” button at the top left of any page or post you’re working on. From there, you can do a few things:

• Use the search box to search for a term like “Header,” “Subscription,” or “Link in Bio” and select from the results
• Or click on the “Patterns” tab and use the drop down menu to explore the top results across various categories
• Or click on the “Explore” button to bring up our entire library of Patterns, organized by category

Here’s a quick demo that shows how to add an image gallery using the new Pattern explorer:

We’re always adding more Patterns, month by month — we’ve added over 45 new ones since July! — and we can’t wait for you to see some of the fun designs coming up. Think of them as an ever-growing library of sophisticated slices of web design you can customize and add to your posts, pages, and Block themes.

Below is a quick look at some of our favorites from the year so far.

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If you use a lot of images in your posts, we have numerous options for you. There are some great Patterns for galleries, portfolios, and even product listings.

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The adage “good things come in small packages” holds true with some of our smaller Patterns that take up less real estate. It all depends on the nature of your website, but a Pattern for donations on a non-profit site or call to subscribe on almost any blog can make a great end for a post or page.

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And finally, simply exploring some of our bolder Patterns can provide inspiration on working with color, type, and images on your site!

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Patterns are an incredibly useful resource in your website design toolbox. Customize, experiment, and take advantage of them whenever you can.

If you need help with Patterns, click here for a more detailed guide.

And be sure to let us know in the comments how you’ve used Patterns on your site and any ideas you have for new ones. We’re always working on more!

The WordPress experience has significantly evolved in the past few years. In order to highlight the power of WordPress on WordPress.org, the last few weeks have seen a homepage and download page redesign kickoff and shared mockups. Today, these new designs are going live! Like the News pages before them, these refreshed pages are inspired by the jazzy look & feel WordPress is known for.

The new homepage brings more attention to the benefits and experience of using WordPress, while also highlighting the community and resources to get started. 

The new download page greets visitors with a new layout that makes getting started with WordPress even easier by presenting both the download and hosting options right at the top.

This redesign was made possible through great collaboration between Design, Marketing, and Meta teams. Thank you to everyone involved throughout this update:

@abuzon @adamwood @adeebmalik @alexandreb3 @alipawp @angelasjin @aniash_29 @annezazu @beafialho @bjmcsherry @chanthaboune @colinchadwick @crevilaro @critterverse @dansoschin @dd32 @dufresnesteven @eboxnet @eidolonnight @elmastudio @fernandot @geoffgraham @iandunn @javiarce @joedolson @jpantani @kellychoffman @laurlittle @marybaum @matt @maurodf @melchoyce @mikachan @nikhilgandal @pablohoneyhoney @peakzebra @poliuk @priethor @psmits1567 @renyot @rmartinezduque @ryelle @santanainniss @sereedmedia @sippis @tellyworth @tobifjellner @webdados @willmot

Your comments, including some feedback from the 2016 redesign, were taken into consideration with this work. Expect more updates to come as efforts to jazz up WordPress.org continue.

We’re all looking for ways to grow our audiences for our sites. Sometimes, we change our content to optimize it for search engines (here’s a shameless plug for our new SEO course). Other times, we find ways to reach new people, such as using tags so our blog posts show up in the Reader. 

Now, WordPress.com creators are getting access to an all-new tool to increase their audience. 

Originally released as Microsoft News, the revamped Microsoft Start is a global news and information feed that currently syndicates content from over 4,500 premium publishers to about a billion people! In an effort to expand and diversify this network, Microsoft has started an exclusive pilot program — and is looking for 500 highly qualified, independent creators in the U.S. to apply. 

Yes, this means you.

Using the Microsoft Start plugin to connect your site to the platform, you’ll be able to build your brand and gain exposure by delivering your content throughout Microsoft Start’s ecosystem, which includes MSN, Bing, and Microsoft Edge. Additionally, you’ll be able to earn ad-sharing revenue via the platform, as well as 100% direct support through readers and your affinity links. Creators on the Microsoft Start platform act as their own syndicator and will maintain 100% ownership of their content. Even better, previously published posts can be repurposed as evergreen content using the built-in WordPress.com feed functionality. 

Do you qualify?

Desired applicants are reputable topic specialists publishing content at least 5 times per month. Priority will be given to the following genres: food and drink; travel; health and wellness (which includes nutrition and fitness); relationships; parenting; demystifying science and tech; career and personal finance; the craft of writing; and DIY how-tos. Ideally, you also have an archive of at least 25 blog posts.

If you’re interested in applying, Microsoft will sweeten the deal by paying 500 accepted candidates a $100 bonus upon publishing regularly for 60 days. (To qualify, candidates must submit their application by 11:59pm PDT on Sunday August 28, 2022 and enter “WordPress” as your referral.) Please note that there are terms and conditions all participating publishers must agree to in order to work directly with Microsoft Start. This opportunity is not an affiliate program between Microsoft Start and WordPress.com; it’s simply a special, limited-time opportunity we’ve helped to leverage for WordPress.com creators.

One of the most exciting things about WordPress is that it’s constantly improving. In fact, did you know that Gutenberg releases new functionality and improvements every two weeks?! There have been a number of really cool and powerful capabilities rolled out over the last few months that give you even more control over the design of your site and your content. We wanted to take a minute to highlight some that we’re especially excited about.

Note: These updates are most relevant to those of you who have a block theme activated.

1. Use Your Featured Image in the Cover Block
2. Patterns Are Easier to Find and More Convenient to Use
3. Borders in Layout Blocks
4. See What Margin vs Padding Actually Does
5. Patterns Are Easier to Find and More Convenient to Use
6. Leveling Up the Query Block
7. Notable Mentions

Use Your Featured Image in the Cover Block

Over the last few months the Gutenberg team has really powered up the cover block and its ability to leverage the featured image set in your post/page. Not only can you do that when creating new content, you can use it in your templates too, making it easier than ever to make your featured image a bigger part of every post.

Patterns Are Easier to Find and More Convenient to Use

Gutenberg 12.7 brings patterns front and center to help save you time and energy. Why recreate a layout block by block when you can start with something more complete? Take advantage of all of the great patterns the WordPress.com designers put together for our customers or maybe consider adding a pattern of your own to the WordPress.org pattern directory.

Borders in Layout Blocks

See What Margin vs Padding Actually Does

I’ve been working in the web space for a long time and I still get confused with how padding and margin will impact my layout — especially when there are multiple layers of blocks involved! You will now see exactly where the change is being applied as you adjust your settings.

Patterns Are Easier to Find and More Convenient to Use

Leveling Up the Query Block

The Query Loop has grown a lot over the past few months. Not only can you filter by different authors or taxonomies, but you can now filter to show all content under a parent category. This is perfect for creators who create different types of content or jump between drastically different subject matters. It’s really the ultimate block for displaying a collection of posts and it just keeps getting better.

Notable Mentions

• You can now customize and display text on your social icons.
• We’ve made it easier to transform your content into different blocks without losing the work you’ve already done.
• Your new buttons will keep the design settings you already applied, preventing you from having to re-apply the settings for every button you add.

This is just a small subset of new features released over the last few months. Let us know what you think in the comments and feel free to share your favorites!

July 2022 brought a lot of exciting announcements and proposals for the WordPress project, from an updated timeline for the WordPress 6.1 release, to design updates on WordPress.org. Read on to learn more about the latest news from the community.

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WordPress 6.1 development cycle is now published

Mark your calendars! The WordPress 6.1 development cycle has been published along with its release team. The expected release date has been updated to November 1, 2022, to incorporate feedback received on the first proposed schedule.

In the meantime, you can upgrade WordPress to version 6.0.1. This maintenance release became available for download on July 12, 2022, and includes several updates since WordPress 6.0 in May 2022.

Want to get more involved with WordPress? Join Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy, as she guides you through the five stages of contribution in a recent episode of WP Briefing.

A new look for the WordPress Homepage and Download page

Following the revamp of WordPress.org/News and the Gutenberg page, further design updates are coming to WordPress.org to create a fresh and modern user experience that reflects the future of WordPress.

The WordPress.org home and download pages will be the next pieces to get a refreshed look and feel. The redesign project kicked off on July 8, 2022, and the development work is already underway.

Take a look at the design mockups and join the conversation.

Gutenberg versions 13.6, 13.7, and 13.8 are here

Three new versions of Gutenberg have been released since last month’s edition of The Month in WordPress:

• Gutenberg 13.6 shipped on July 6, 2022. It includes 26 bug fixes and accessibility enhancements. This release also builds on previous work to expand theme.json and to allow you to create a cohesive design across blocks.
• Gutenberg 13.7 brings an updated modal design, the ability to apply block locking to inner blocks, and new template types, to name a few highlights. It was released on July 20, 2022.
• The latest Gutenberg release, version 13.8, went live on August 3, 2022. It comes with ​​fluid typography support among other enhancements, a new feature that will allow you to define text size that can scale and adapt to changes in screen size.

Follow the “What’s new in Gutenberg” posts to stay on top of the latest updates.

Team updates: WordPress mobile app changes, pattern previews, Five for the Future improvements

• The Mobile Team announced last week that it will be refocusing the WordPress mobile app on core features. To better serve the needs of all app users and reduce confusion, the Jetpack and WordPress.com features will be moved to a separate app in a gradual process targeted for completion later this year.
• The Community Team is looking for supporters to help reactivate WordPress meetups around the world.
• As part of the ongoing efforts to improve the Five for the Future (5ftF) initiative, the Meta Team added automated recognition for a number of non-code contributions. Check out this post to learn more about other proposed improvements to the program.
• The WordPress.org Theme Directory introduced a new feature that allows visitors to preview patterns bundled in a theme without requiring installation.
• The Design Team proposed to release a curated set of style variations designed by the community (instead of a new default theme) for WordPress 6.1.
• Josepha Haden Chomphosy reflected on progress towards the 2022 goals of the WordPress project in this mid-year review.
• Over the past few months, the Training Team published six tutorials along with a variety of lesson plans and online workshops. See what’s new in this summary post.
• Curious about how the WordPress 6.0 release process went? Read this WordPress 6.0 retrospective recap for insights.
• The Themes Team shared a follow-up post to address questions about the use of locally-hosted Google fonts in themes.
• There is an open call for a new Accessibility Team Representative.
• The Performance Team has a new dedicated Make blog. Follow updates on their work and proposals at make.wordpress.org/performance.
• The July 2022 edition of the Polyglots Monthly Newsletter is live.
• The latest edition of People of WordPress highlights Carla Doria, a customer support specialist from South America.
• July’s Meetup Organizer Newsletter features several tips and tools for engaging and growing your community.

WP Briefing celebrated World Wide Web Day 2022 with a special episode! Tune in to hear contributors from the community reflect on how WordPress impacts their world.

Feedback & testing requests

• Josepha Haden Chomphosy suggested giving Full Site Editing (FSE) a more user-friendly name. Share your thoughts in this post.
• The WordPress Notifications Feature project is ready to begin collecting feedback. Efforts to help test the feature plugin and comments are welcome.
• The Training Team kicked off a discussion to gather feedback on how WordPress certifications should be approached.
• The Performance Team shared a few proposals to integrate new features targeting the WordPress 6.1 release. You can help by testing, reporting bugs, or contributing fixes and ideas:
  • Proposal: Persistent Object Cache and Full Page Cache Site Health Checks
  • Proposal: Add a dominant color background to images
• Version 20.4 of WordPress for Android and iOS is available for testing.

The Community Team is calling on all meetup members and organizers to complete the 2021-2022 Annual Meetup Survey. Your feedback will help strengthen the WordPress meetup program for years to come. Please respond and help spread the word.

WordCamp updates

• WordCamp US is only five weeks away! The organizing team announced the Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship recipients for this year. Congratulations to Margherita Pelonara, Simona Simionato, and Pooja Derashri!
• 20 organizations have stepped forward to support underrepresented speakers from all over the world to get to WordCamp US 2022. Visit the Underrepresented Speaker Support page to donate to the fund or ask for support if you are part of an underrepresented group.
• WordCamp Asia 2023 opened a new Call for Speakers and Media Partners. The deadline for speaker applications is September 15, 2022. The organizing team also shared more details on the ticket release timeline.
• Don’t miss these upcoming WordCamps:
  • WordCamp Jinja, Uganda on September 2-3, 2022
  • WordCamp Kathmandu, Nepal on September 3-4, 2022
  • WordCamp US in San Diego, California on September 9-11, 2022
  • WordCamp Netherlands, The Netherlands on September 15-16, 2022
  • WordCamp Pontevedra, Spain on September 24-25, 2022

Join #WPDiversity with a free, online speaker workshop for Indian women in the WordPress community. The event will take place on September 24-25, 2022. Sign up now!

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Have a story that we should include in the next issue of The Month in WordPress? Let us know by filling out this form.

The following folks contributed to this edition of The Month in WordPress: @chaion07, @laurlittle, @mysweetcate, @sereedmedia, @dansoschin, @rmartinezduque.