Full Site Editing (FSE): The Future of WordPress

Full Site Editing represents the most significant evolution in WordPress since the introduction of Gutenberg. By extending block-based editing beyond post content to encompass every aspect of site design, FSE transforms WordPress into a truly unified, visual website building platform.

What Full Site Editing Really Means

Full Site Editing removes the traditional boundaries between content editing and site design. In the classic WordPress model, users edited post content in the block editor but relied on the Customizer or theme options panels for headers, footers, sidebars, and global styles. FSE unifies these experiences into a single interface where every element of your website—navigation menus, footers, archive layouts, and search results pages—can be edited visually using blocks.

This paradigm shift is powered by block themes that replace PHP templates with HTML template files. These templates are fully editable in the Site Editor, storing customizations in the database as reusable blocks. The implications are profound: non-technical users gain unprecedented control, while developers benefit from cleaner architecture and reduced maintenance overhead.

Core Components of FSE

FSE consists of several interconnected systems working in harmony. The Site Editor serves as the primary interface, providing access to templates, template parts, and global styles. Templates define page layouts for different content types—homepage, single posts, archives, 404 pages. Template parts are reusable components like headers and footers that can be inserted into multiple templates.

The Global Styles interface controls design tokens across your entire site: typography scales, color palettes, spacing presets, and block-specific styling. These settings are stored in theme.json and exposed through an intuitive visual interface. Navigation blocks replace traditional WordPress menus, offering inline editing and responsive behavior out of the box.

The Site Editor Interface

Accessing the Site Editor from the WordPress admin reveals a focused environment for template editing. The left sidebar lists available templates and template parts, while the main canvas displays the selected template with full block editing capabilities. The top toolbar provides access to Global Styles, list view for hierarchical block navigation, and revision history.

List view becomes essential when working with complex templates containing nested blocks. This tree structure shows parent-child relationships clearly, making it easy to select specific blocks, reorder elements, or understand template architecture. The inspector panel on the right provides block-specific settings and design controls, matching the familiar post editor experience.

Template Editing and Customization

When you edit a template in the Site Editor, you’re modifying a database-stored version that takes precedence over the theme’s default file. This approach allows safe customization without directly editing theme files. You can reset to the theme default at any time, discarding customizations. Changes made through the Site Editor create a “customized” version that survives theme updates.

Query Loop blocks power dynamic content display in FSE. These blocks replace traditional PHP loops, letting you visually configure post queries with filters for categories, tags, authors, and dates. Inside Query Loop blocks, you nest Post Title, Featured Image, Excerpt, and other post blocks to design your archive layouts. Pagination blocks provide navigation between results pages.

Working With Template Parts

Template parts solve the reusability challenge in FSE. Instead of duplicating header or footer code across multiple templates, you create these elements once as template parts and reference them wherever needed. When you edit a template part, the changes propagate to all templates using that part, ensuring consistency.

Template parts can be locked to different levels. “Prevent removal” keeps users from deleting the part but allows editing its contents. “Lock all” prevents both deletion and content editing. “Disable movement” keeps the part in place while allowing content changes. These locking options help maintain design integrity when enabling client editing.

Global Styles and Design Systems

The Global Styles interface exposes theme.json settings visually, allowing changes without code editing. Typography controls set font families, sizes, line heights, and letter spacing across the site. Color controls manage palettes, duotone filters, and gradients. Spacing controls define padding and margin scales using preset values that ensure visual consistency.

Block-level styles within Global Styles let you set defaults for specific block types. You might define that all heading blocks use a particular font family, or that all button blocks have specific border radius and padding. These settings cascade throughout your site while remaining overridable at the individual block level when needed.

Navigation in FSE

Navigation blocks replace the traditional WordPress menu system with inline editing. Add a Navigation block to your header template part, then build your menu by adding Page List blocks for automatic page links, Custom Link blocks for external URLs, or Social Icons blocks for social media links. The responsive behavior works automatically, with mobile menus generated from the same block configuration.

Navigation blocks support nested submenus, creating dropdown menus without additional configuration. Styling options control link appearance, spacing, and hover states. You can create multiple Navigation blocks for different site areas—primary navigation, footer navigation, or utility navigation—each with independent content and styling.

Managing Revisions and Resets

FSE includes revision history for templates and template parts. Click the revision counter in the Site Editor toolbar to access previous versions, compare changes side-by-side, and restore earlier iterations. This feature provides confidence when experimenting with designs, knowing you can always revert problematic changes.

The “Clear customizations” option removes all your Site Editor modifications, returning templates to their theme defaults. This reset capability proves valuable when designs go astray or when switching creative directions. Consider exporting your customizations before major changes to maintain backups of working configurations.

Performance and Workflow Optimization

FSE can feel overwhelming initially, but adopting systematic workflows improves efficiency. Start with Global Styles to establish your design system before editing templates. Create all necessary template parts (header, footer, sidebar) before building individual templates. Use patterns to speed up repetitive layout creation.

Performance considerations include limiting deeply nested block structures that can slow rendering. Use Query Loop blocks efficiently, setting appropriate post counts and avoiding excessive queries on single pages. Leverage theme.json for styling instead of adding custom CSS, as this generates optimized stylesheets automatically.

Full Site Editing represents WordPress’s future direction, and its capabilities continue expanding with each release. Understanding FSE concepts and workflows positions you to build modern, maintainable WordPress sites that empower users while maintaining professional design standards. The learning curve is real, but the payoff in efficiency and capability makes FSE an essential skill for contemporary WordPress development.