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Full Site Editing

WordPress 5 min read Entry 17 of 78
Definition

Full Site Editing is WordPress’s own way of building the header, footer and templates out of blocks, in the same editor you use for a page.

In plain English

For most of WordPress’s life the theme owned the header and the footer, and changing them meant PHP or a theme’s own settings. With a block theme, those are templates made of blocks, edited visually.

It arrives through the Site Editor rather than the Customizer, and it only appears if your theme is a block theme. Classic themes carry on as before.

Why it matters

It is the direction WordPress itself is going, so it is worth understanding even if your own sites run on a page builder.

It also removes the licence question for simple projects: templates, headers and footers with no extra plugin at all.

How it works

  1. A block theme provides templatesHTML files made of blocks rather than PHP.
  2. The Site Editor opens themHeader, footer, single post, archive, 404, all editable visually.
  3. Global styles set the defaultsColours, fonts and spacing in one place, inherited everywhere.
  4. Template parts are reusedThe header is one part, used by every template that includes it.

Do not mix the two halfway

A block theme with a page builder over the top gives you two systems that both think they own the layout. Pick one approach per site.

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