Changelog

Every Rural Blog release, what changed, and which changes reach an existing site.

Current version: 1.5. Requires WordPress 6.0 and PHP 7.0.

A note on how to read this: a change to a default never reaches a site that already exists. The theme writes your old value into the control on update, so a published blog keeps the look it had. Where that applies it is called out below; see Update the theme.

1.5

New

  • Archives page template — a page listing every published post, grouped by year and month. The whole blog on one screen.
  • Archives page year — the year reads as a heading above its months, or takes a margin of its own beside them.
  • Content link style — seven ways to draw a link inside post copy, from a plain underline to an accent fill or a highlighter marker. Every one changes on hover.
  • Post text — print the whole post under each listing title instead of the excerpt.
  • Meta position — the date, categories and comment count as a kicker above the title or a byline below it.
  • Stacked alignment — left, centre or right for each entry in the stacked display.
  • Page title alignment, with a per-page override in the Page options box.
  • Sidebar gap and sidebar divider — the space between the columns, and an optional rule down it.
  • Border colour — one setting for every hairline the theme draws.
  • Text logo typography — weight, letter spacing and case for the masthead, alongside the size boxes.
  • Text logo colour and tagline colour, each with its own picker.
  • Menu hover background — a block of colour behind a top-level item on hover and for the current page.
  • Footer border — none, a light line, a strong line or a shadow.
  • Post title, meta and excerpt colours in Design → Blog.
  • Social links can be turned off in the header and the mobile menu together.

Changed

  • The meta line is no longer small caps. New sites only; an existing site keeps the small-caps line.
  • Footer padding now gives equal space above and below the content. Compact and Spacious are a little tighter.
  • The grid goes up to six columns.
  • The menu sits on a tighter line, and changes colour the moment the pointer reaches it.
  • Design → Blog leads with the post title, meta and excerpt controls; thumbnail options follow under their own heading.
  • The seven block patterns added in 1.4 are gone from the inserter. Pages that already use one are unaffected — see Block editor support.

Fixed

  • Nav below with the header border set to None left the line between the two rows.
  • Turning the date, categories and comment count all off left an empty meta row.

1.4.1

1.4

  • New: the Design → Blog section — featured image border, colour and radius, post title font and meta font, each also styling the matching post block.
  • New: featured images declare their real rendered width, so a four-column grid stops downloading full-viewport files. Filterable with rural_blog_thumbnail_sizes.
  • New: seven block patterns (removed again in 1.5).
  • Changed: post body copy back to the base size — this one reached every site; default content width 1170px and sidebar 260px, down from 1400/300; the default heading font is the Helvetica stack.
  • Changed: a packaged release ships minified stylesheets, cached against the theme version.
  • New: the theme ships a theme.json.

1.3.1

  • Changed: headings render as typed rather than uppercase; the menu reads at body size and weight. New sites only — an existing site keeps exactly the look it had.
  • Changed: blockquotes follow the heading font’s case, weight and tracking; button labels lost their wide tracking (this one reached every site).
  • Changed: the theme script loads in the head with defer on WordPress 6.3+.
  • Fixed: the current page is highlighted in the footer menu.

1.3

1.2

1.1

1.0.0

Initial release.

Last updated September 12, 2026

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