Misc and the admin
Customize → Misc
Three switches that change how WordPress behaves rather than how the site looks.
- Enable classic editor — off by default. Write posts and pages in the classic editor instead of the block editor. One filter covers every post type, the way the Classic Editor plugin does with switching turned off.
- Enable classic widgets — off by default. Use the classic widgets screen instead of the block-based one. It covers both places the block screen appears: Appearance → Widgets and the Widgets panel in the Customizer.
- Exclude pages from search results — on by default. See Search.
Neither editor switch needs a plugin. They are theme settings, so switching themes gives you WordPress’s own defaults back.
Customize → Info
The last of the theme’s own sections, and the one that saves nothing. It lists the theme name and the version you are running, and links out to the live preview, these docs, support, the feature page and Instagram.
Every link there leaves the Customizer, so save your changes before following one.
What Fern adds to the admin
Fern has no admin menu of its own. It adds two things to screens you already use:
- Page options → Hide page title? — a box in the sidebar of the page editor. Ticking it drops that page’s heading on the front end, and the theme closes the gap the heading left. Pages only; posts always print their title.
- A thumbnail column on the Posts list, right after the title, so the featured images are scannable at a glance. Posts with no featured image get an empty cell.
Under the hood
- The editor canvas is styled to match the front end, so what you write looks close to what publishes. The same stylesheet is handed to the classic editor when that switch is on.
- The theme’s colors are published as CSS custom properties —
var(--accent)andvar(--secondary-text)among them — so Customize → Additional CSS can follow the Customizer rather than repeat it. - Filters:
fern_content_widthfor the content width, andfern_header_classesfor the classes on the header element.