Our end of May update focuses on newly added options to the Ad Campaigns functionality, along with a slew of UX/general improvements and bug fixes. Check out the full update below and reach out to us via Freshdesk if you have any questions or feedback. You can also check out past Lede platform updates.
New Ad Campaign Options
- Ad Campaigns, also known as Sponsorships, now have two new additional options to help you further customize these placements on your site. This Freshdesk article has also been updated with annotated screenshots (scroll to the bottom), showing how the various fields associated with Ad Campaigns actually display on your site.
- Category-specific
- You now have the option of setting up an Ad Campaign that will display only on content related to a specified category, overriding any site-wide campaigns that might be live.
- You now have the option of setting up an Ad Campaign that will display only on content related to a specified category, overriding any site-wide campaigns that might be live.
- New Target: Article Card
- A new target for Ad Campaigns is available: the Article Card. This target appears to the right of post content on desktop, and below the post headline/byline on mobile. It has the same general layout as the Homepage card.
- A new target for Ad Campaigns is available: the Article Card. This target appears to the right of post content on desktop, and below the post headline/byline on mobile. It has the same general layout as the Homepage card.
Products Page: Default to Monthly or Annual
You are now able to change the default billing cadence on your /products page and any product groups you may have. This was previously a platform-wide setting which was set to “annual” in April. If you want this to be changed on your site, please contact us via Freshdesk. If you have product groups, please specify if you want them to be changed also.
UX/General Improvements
- The Featured Topics block (typically used on the Homepage) can now contain between 1-4 posts, as opposed to the previous default of four posts. Consider what new layouts you can experiment with on your Homepage using this new option. If you would like some suggestions from the Lede team, please reach out to us via Freshdesk.
- Additional tweaks were made to the layout of the Related Post block:
- On desktop and mobile, the font size of the “Recommended” header and the post title were reduced.
- On desktop only, the comment count (if available), author, and date were added below the post title.
- On desktop and mobile, the font size of the “Recommended” header and the post title were reduced.
- On desktop only, the comment count (if available), author, and date were added below the post title.
The “Previous” and “Next” buttons have been relabeled “Older” and “Newer” on the following pages: /all, /category, /tag, and /author.
WordPress Upgrade
- Lede was upgraded to WordPress version 6.5 on May 7th. Most changes were minimal, but a few new features were added which you can now use on the Lede platform:
- The “List View” in the Homepage, Posts, and Pages of your WordPress Editor got some enhancements. The List View can be viewed by clicking the 3 staggered lines at the top of the Editor on these screens – it contains a list of all the blocks on a given page.
- The drag & drop experience in this view has been made smoother and it’s now easier to move items in the list, as needed.
- A preview of the images contained in both Image blocks and Gallery blocks has been added.
- Group blocks can be renamed to help you better keep track of more complex blocks in this view.
- Box Shadow support has been added to a few blocks including Image, Button, Column, and Columns. In the Block Styles tab for these blocks, there is a new “Shadow” option that can be added and there are five drop shadow options to choose from. Consider using them on images for a dramatic touch!
- The “List View” in the Homepage, Posts, and Pages of your WordPress Editor got some enhancements. The List View can be viewed by clicking the 3 staggered lines at the top of the Editor on these screens – it contains a list of all the blocks on a given page.
- The “List View” in the Homepage, Posts, and Pages of your WordPress Editor got some enhancements. The List View can be viewed by clicking the 3 staggered lines at the top of the Editor on these screens – it contains a list of all the blocks on a given page.
- The drag & drop experience in this view has been made smoother and it’s now easier to move items in the list, as needed.
- A preview of the images contained in both Image blocks and Gallery blocks has been added.
- Group blocks can be renamed to help you better keep track of more complex blocks in this view.
- The drag & drop experience in this view has been made smoother and it’s now easier to move items in the list, as needed.
- A preview of the images contained in both Image blocks and Gallery blocks has been added.
- Group blocks can be renamed to help you better keep track of more complex blocks in this view.
- Box Shadow support has been added to a few blocks including Image, Button, Column, and Columns. In the Block Styles tab for these blocks, there is a new “Shadow” option that can be added and there are five drop shadow options to choose from. Consider using them on images for a dramatic touch!
Bug Fixes
- Known Issues – Lede v2 is currently under regular development. This is a list of known issues and limitations of the platform, as of 5/29/24. If you encounter an issue not on the list, including any issues with individual subscribers, please contact us via Freshdesk.
- If a user has a failed payment on their account and is therefore in a past due state, they will now be shown an error when attempting to cancel directing them to contact you, instead of the cancellation process just not working for them.
- Products Page: Alert messaging for coupon codes has been improved – messages now display more legibly in dark mode and give the user clearer information if they enter in an invalid code.
- The “Twitter” embed block is now compatible with the new “x.com” URLs which are generated by X, formerly known as Twitter. You should no longer need to change “x.com” to “twitter.com” to get Tweets to embed properly on your site using the block.
- Featured Comment in Comment of the Day block:
- Formatting options now properly display on the front-end of the site, including bold and italics.
- The text color selected for the “Featured Comment” block also now correctly displays on the front-end of the site.
- Formatting options now properly display on the front-end of the site, including bold and italics.
- The text color selected for the “Featured Comment” block also now correctly displays on the front-end of the site.
- Author Pages:
- If a Twitter handle is entered, but no email is entered, the email envelope no longer displays by itself.
- If no photo has been added for the author, their initials will now appear in the gray circle that takes the place of the author’s avatar.
- If a Twitter handle is entered, but no email is entered, the email envelope no longer displays by itself.
- If no photo has been added for the author, their initials will now appear in the gray circle that takes the place of the author’s avatar.