Author: Jamie Marsland

Most of us treat WordPress like a black box. You log in, publish a post, maybe install a plugin, and a website appears. It feels seamless. But beneath that simplicity lies a small network of programs that work together every time someone visits your site. The Four Layers That Make WordPress Work A live WordPress…

One of the most exciting things about Automattic’s Telex is that it lets anyone build custom blocks for WordPress. That is a big deal. Over the past few weeks, we have seen some really creative examples pop up: everything from video scrub-on-scroll effects to timelines, even a playable version of Pong. It is fun, it…

I just built a tiny WordPress plugin that adds a scroll-to-scrub effect to the Cover block… and honestly, I can’t stop scrolling it 🤓 It’s super simple right now, but already a lot of fun. If you want to play with it, you can: I built it using Cursor, so if you want to dig…

If you’ve ever wanted a headline that always fits its container—no manual font sizing, no media queries—Stretchy Type delivers. It’s a Gutenberg block that scales your text to the exact width of its container in both the editor and on the frontend. Click here to download the Stretchy Text Block. The core trick In plain…

Based on James LePage’s post on the WordPress Core AI Blog – July 17, 2025 WordPress is laying the foundation for a smarter, more flexible future with the introduction of AI Building Blocks — a set of tools designed to integrate artificial intelligence into the platform in a consistent and open way. These tools are…

There’s a new free WordPress plugin that can make your website feel dramatically smoother and more professional — and most people haven’t heard of it yet. It’s called the View Transitions plugin, and it uses a clever bit of browser technology to give your site beautifully smooth page transitions — the kind of slick experience…

You’ve got a brilliant idea, you’re ready to launch a website, and then it hits you: you need to pay for a domain name. Twelve pounds, twenty dollars, whatever the currency. But why? Why are we paying for something that sounds like it should just exist online, freely available like fresh air? It’s a fair…

AI tools that build websites or apps from a single prompt, like Lovable or Bolt, can feel almost magical. You type something like “Build me a travel blog,” and seconds later, you’re looking at a working website. But what’s really going on behind the scenes?Surprisingly, the magic isn’t just about the AI getting smarter. It’s…

Say hello to drag-and-drop image uploads in PootleWriter – fully optimized and seamlessly integrated with WordPress. New Features Upload to WordPress Media LibraryDrop an image, and it’s instantly uploaded to your WordPress site. Filenames and alt text? Automatically cleaned and added. Drag-and-Drop SimplicityDrag images straight into the editor. You’ll see a blue dashed border and…

We’ve just shipped a new PootleWriter update with three powerful improvements to streamline your writing and publishing workflow. WordPress Categories — Automatically PulledPootleWriter now connects directly to your WordPress site and automatically pulls your existing categories using the WordPress REST API. Just pick the right category from a dropdown — no need to remember or…