I’ve started to build my own themes based on the current publii examples, and would like to know if the new version will introduce breaking changes and/or what changes will we need to do to our themes to update them to the new version.
I’m yet to look at the code to check for differences, but i’d guess that we’ll have at least a couple of new template for the different posts and a few more config options on the json file.
Also will documentation be added on release for theming as well?
In termos of feedback, I have a few issues with the usability of the block editor. I understand you tried to focus on the writing experience by main the ui as neutral as possible, but the lack of affordances and positioning make this a little harder.
Also going into edit mode for all blocks, or editing just the single one isn’t very intuitive. I think adding at leat a few more affordances would already help. If you consider similar ui’s you usually have these affordances that immediately let you understand well the structure, look at some things like the new google sites or notion for ex.
Having a single more to toggle between distraction free and edit mode would possibly be more intuitive, and to get the shortened content for reordering you could simply collapse content, this way you don’t really change the mental model but only an alter the state.
Similarly within the content editing the lack of and expected consistent interaction also applies, with the editing layout changing a lot depending on being paragraph, heading or code. I would set the code to an advanced option probably next to advanced options, and consider a more consistent way to change between content types. For now it’s hard to memorize and options jump around with every option.
Do let me know if you plan on improving any of these and I can make a deeper study and consider more thought out options, aligned with what you are trying to achieve.
More on the line of a change request it would be a great option to be able to set layouts, even if just simple 2-3 columns to be able to create more structured content. I really like the way google build the layout editing experience in google pages, but I understand it’s hard to implement properly but having some control on this would be a super feature, since the option is then limited to either custom themes or custom html editing.
Keep up the good work, and do let me know if you want more in depth UX feedback.
