Looking to give your WordPress site a new look for the new year? For something fresh and different, the new Twenty Twenty-Four theme is just the ticket. It’s clean, streamlined, lightweight and able to do whatever you need it to do….mostly. At least with a little tweaking.
First, the good part. The theme comes out of the box with eight different style variations which can change the look and feel of your site with one click. With names like “Onyx”, “Fossil”, “Ember”, “Mint”, and “Ice” you’ll get a pretty good idea of the color temperature for each style right off the bat. Twenty Twenty-four also builds on the Full Site editor that users of the Twenty Twenty-Three theme will be familiar with, but goes even further towards making the building of a complete website easier than ever. The new theme includes pattern templates for the design of full pages so that you can have a completely new web page with a fresh design that fits into your chosen site style with one click. That’s a really good thing. For a really good overview of what’s new and improved in 2024, this recent review sums it up nicely.
Using the powerful Query Loop Block to display blog posts by various criteria such as category names and publish date takes some getting used to for newcomers but with Query Block Loop documentation and a few good video tutorials (see below), it’s totally doable and not super stressful.
What else? Lots of patterns for blocks make adding more visual interesest to your web pages simple. This handy reference to the block patterns will give you a good idea of what’s available. The blocks editor, for those transitioning from the former “classic” text editor, can be offputting at first, but by embracing the change, you’ll end up in a better place. Moving blocks around is quick and every block has a settings panel making it a snap to adjust color, spacing, borders, line height, and other parameters. Want a good overview of the block settings panel? Check out this guide to block settings. Still making the transition from “classic” to “blocks”? You’ll need this guide.
I know, I know. The whole full site editing thing is a huge change from the way you’re used to interacting with WordPress. I get it. But, dear reader, rewards await the intrepid adventurer. Prepare for a bumpy ride at the beginning but know that things will smooth out at some point and you will have that cool, vibrant, awesome site that you’ve always wanted but didn’t know how to get for yourself. It’s here. It’s now. It’s 2024. Oh, and if you’re looking for something that explains all that stuff about templates and templates parts, then here’s a gentle guide that explains all of the template/template parts. One less thing to panic about.
