Themes & plugins Intro
When a custom post type earns its place
Pages are usually enough. But the point where they stop working is quite distinct — and the signal is not how many items you have, it is whether…
Technote
Themes & plugins
Choosing themes and plugins, vetting them, finding alternatives, and understanding their performance cost — what a wrong choice charges you later.
54 articles· Themes & plugins
Themes & plugins Intro
Why updates break — and why it is rarely core
If you are postponing because the last update broke something, it is worth asking what actually broke. Naming the cause correctly changes how you prepare for the next…
Themes & plugins Advanced
Parent theme updates: keep a list of what you depend on
Update reviews turn into excavations because nobody wrote down what the child theme depends on. With a list, it becomes a checklist.
Themes & plugins Practical
Secondary queries in templates, and what forgetting the reset does
You add a related-posts list and everything below it starts pointing at the wrong post. It looks like a template bug; it is one missing line.
Themes & plugins Practical
Three reasons old content breaks in a new design
Inline styles baked into the body, shortcode remnants from plugins that are gone, hard-coded widths. These are where a new design system stops being honoured.
Themes & plugins Practical
Decide the editable regions before you design them
A design the CMS cannot express stays up for negotiation long after it ships. Deciding what editors may change, first, removes the negotiation entirely.
Themes & plugins Advanced
Interactions without JavaScript, and the rule that makes them safe
details, :target, :focus-within, :has() and scroll timelines cover a surprising amount of interaction. One rule keeps them safe: the default state must be the finished state.
Themes & plugins Practical
Template parts: give shared markup a single owner
Duplicated markup always drifts. You fix one copy, the other stays wrong, and nobody notices until the two screens disagree.
Themes & plugins Practical
Icon fonts, SVG sprites or inline SVG?
All three draw the same picture on screen. What differs is how many colours you can use, what assistive technology hears, and how many icons actually ship to…
Themes & plugins Practical
Dark mode should be a decision, not a default
Dark mode is not one feature; it doubles the surface you must maintain and verify. Some sites have a clear reason for it, and some do not.
Themes & plugins Intro
Load order: declare a dependency instead of reaching for !important
Most "my CSS does not apply" cases are a child stylesheet loading before the parent. Declaring a dependency guarantees the order and removes the need to force anything.
Themes & plugins Intro
Template hierarchy: finding the file that renders this screen
Every child theme task starts with the same question: which file is drawing this screen? There is a way to confirm it instead of guessing.