What is new in Twenty Twenty One?

Published By Categorised as About Blocks

Twenty Twenty One (TTO from now on) is the default WordPress theme and looks plain and old fashioned, but tailored around the new Block Editor.

First off there’s a selection of default colours that are designed with Dark Mode support in mind. So will suit blog posters whose audience is nocturnal.

There’s an interesting muted pastels palette to try out
Or you can spend hours trying to get a better palette yourself

Starter Content is available in a brand new TTO website. Clicking on the Publish button in the Customiser will automatically generate a basic website structure for TTO, which can help visualise your brand new site.

Starter Content only available on a brand spanking new install

There are a ragbag of attractive additions to the Block Editor too. But if you are stuck or wedded to Classic Mode still, you won’t be able to enjoy these until you switch over. You can also switch pages and posts selectively, if you are still trying things out.

There are a host of options for simplifying your blocky life. You can reduce the number of blocks you see or check ones that you don’t see inside the Block Manager. Additionally in preferences you can simplify the screen:

Nota Bene Decluttering can be taken several steps further by enabling Spotlight mode (greys out the other blocks subtly) and Full Screen modes (removes the familiar WordPress sidebar) and, my favourite, which is to move the Block Edit options to the top of the page, where they are far less instrusive and less likely to pop up at random.

Then there are a panoply of “Pattern” suggestions to layout your page, which to my mind are decidedly retro (and therefore rather fashionable, like dried flowers). However if you like the idea of content overlapping and breaking the rigidity of the traditional website grid, then you’ll enjoy TTO. To see all the available Patterns, click the big blue + sign in the top left or when you first insert a block with the mini black +, select Browse All.

And finally, if you are making a page with a number of pages that need to respect a standardised layout, create Re-usable Blocks:

And then convert to a regular block to open up the full editing options:

More about TTO here:

Twenty Twenty-One

And that is it from “a blog a day” …

By Bart Simpson

I'm Bart Simpson. Who the hell are you?