What’s new at WordPress.com: New buttons, sticky headers, and time-saving shortcuts

At WordPress.com, we're always pushing our platform to do even more so you can easily create, design, and publish great things. Our latest features go a little deeper into the settings, making them especially suited for those who call themselves tinkerers. Even if you don't consider yourself a pro, come in and play anyway! You're more capable than you think, and if you break something, our team can always get it back – we've all been there.

And in this case, a little experimentation can reap big rewards. All it takes is a small change or two to make a huge difference in how people see (and interact with) your website.

Let's jump in and take a look.

Make your website buttons pop

Giving your buttons a shadow effect is a simple and powerful way to give your pages a little extra panache. Now you can use new preset options in the Styles menu of your website.

In the styles sidebar, click “Blocks” and then “Buttons.” From there, you'll see four options for how to style your buttons. This feature is only available on block themes.

When to use this feature: You are a master of CTA (call to action) and you put a button at the end of every blog post asking readers to watch a YouTube video, listen to a podcast or buy a book. You've thought the buttons look a bit musty and flat. Use the new shadow presets to invigorate your default buttons with a depth and freshness that wasn't there before.

Reuse a beautiful design

Not only can you copy and paste text from one block to another, you can now copy the entire style of a block—colors, typography, and all—and paste it into another block of the same type.

Select “Copy Styles” from a block's settings menu. Then once you've added a new block, select “Paste Styles” from the settings menu to transfer all those design goodies.

When to use this feature: You've spent some time playing around with gradients and type settings to get a Quote Block looking really nice, and it's paid off—now you want to bring that primo style to a Quote Block on another page. Instead of recreating the steps you took, simply use “Copy Styles”/”Paste Styles” and get a gold star for efficiency.

Give readers a problem

A “sticky” component on your website is a piece of content (often a header + menu, but not always) that stays stuck at the top no matter how far down you scroll through a page or post. It's a handy feature for visitors to your site, especially on mobile, where scrolling back up to a menu can be annoying.

There are also other uses, such as an important message or promotion that you want to be visible at all times.

However, only a group can be made sticky rather than any individual template part. So you will first wrap your desired sticky blocks in a group, select that group, and then open the “Sticky” option from the settings sidebar.

When to use this feature: Your website has long pages or posts that require a lot of scrolling. Maybe you are a baby name consultant and have many long lists of names. Use a sticky header and menu so visitors don't have to scroll all the way up to quickly access the next name category to read.

Twice as nice: copy your entire page!

Are you a web building professional? We have launched a new feature that allows you to easily copy the entire website. Once you've created your base template site, you'll be able to create new client sites without starting from scratch.

An important note: copying a site also creates a new plan. For example, copying a company website creates a new business plan at the same time.

From wordpress.com/sites dashboard, click the three-dot menu, tap “Copy Website”, go through a couple of confirmation steps and you're done. This feature is available on Business and Commerce plans with active hosting features.

When to use this feature: You are a solopreneur website builder and you often use previously built sites as inspiration for current builds. If you're working on a new website and thinking about using a framework or feel like you've already created one, copy the website with a single click and start the project with some of the work already done.

In case you missed it

In case you missed our other recent updates, below is a quick snapshot.

A new mobile experience for WordPress.com

Our new and improved Jetpack mobile app offers everything you need for WordPress on the go.

Professional design, without designers

This primer on Styles gives you the lowdown on making your website pop in just a few clicks.

A new home for WordPress.com courses

Our courses have found a new home at WordPress.com/Learn. The best part? All courses are completely free and no registration is required.

A more varied image library

The Cocoamattic ERG, a human resources group at Automattic, partnered with Nappy.co to release a collection of 90+ beautiful photos of black people interacting with technology.