A Developers Guide to Block Themes – Part 1


This course is in the process of being updated for the latest version of WordPress, released on November 7, 2023.

Block Theme Development Fundamentals

Block Themes are an exciting new way to develop themes for WordPress. The Block Editor allows developers to rapidly create theme templates, template parts, and all the various elements needed for a modern WordPress theme.

If you’re used to developing WordPress themes using PHP, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, but you don’t know where to start with block themes, this course is for you. We will take you through the elements of a block theme, and show you how to take your existing knowledge of theme development, and apply it to block themes.

This course is Part 1 of the Developers Guide to Block Themes, which will cover the fundamental aspects of developing a block theme. Once you complete Part 1, we suggest also taking to Part 2, which covers more advanced block theme development topics.

In this course, you will explore…

  • The minimum requirements of a block theme
  • The primary elements of a block theme, and how that differs from a classic theme
  • Turning a design into a block theme
  • Different methods of creating block theme elements in the Site Editor, and then exporting them to theme files

In order to complete the exercises in this course, you will need a local WordPress development environment and a code editor. You will also need to have either WordPress version 6.1 installed, or version 6.0 with the Gutenberg plugin installed and active. You will also need a WordPress.org profile, which you can register for here if you don’t already have one.

Ready to get started? Just click the Take Course button, and you will be enrolled.

Block Theme Basics

Building Your Theme Structure in the Editor

Site Editor Changes and the WordPress Database

Creating Custom Templates and Template Parts

What's Next?