This is a user-friendly changelog for the Author WordPress theme. It’s written in non-technical language and will let you know what’s new in Author.
If you want a detailed technical version of the changelog, you can view the Author commit history on Github.
Follow #competethemesupdates on Twitter to track all of our free and premium product updates.
1.44 – February 26, 2021
- Feature: added 3 custom social icons to the bottom of Social Media Icons
- Feature: added option to decide whether or not to use Avatar for post comments
- Feature: added option to enable verified check over Twitter icon
- Feature: added social icons for Mastodon, IMDB, and diaspora*
- Fix: embeds misaligned in the post editor
- Fix: post dates sometimes incorrect when published early/late in the day
1.43 – January 6, 2021
- Fix: layout glitch when sidebar was longer than the main content
- Fix: dropdown buttons moving widgets down the page on tablets
- Fix: Featured Image links removed from keyboard navigation
1.42 – December 23, 2020
- Update: added new social media icons for Orcid, Strava, and ResearchGate
- Fix: scroll-to-top arrow wasn’t resetting keyboard focus to the top of the page
1.41 – August 14, 2020
- Update: added Untappd to the social media icons
- Update: added Brazilian Portuguese translation
- Fix: unaligned images in editor displaying all the way to the left in WP 5.5
- Fix: “read more” link was showing up in RSS feed post descriptions
- Fix: code elements inside pre elements had the first line only indented
1.40 – July 15, 2020
- Feature: added support for bbPress forums
- Feature: added support for Elementor Pro’s custom headers and footers
- Update: Google Fonts now shows backup font while loading
- Update: table styles improved
- Update: Front Page section in Customizer now named Homepage Settings
- Update: shortcodes can now be output in Footer Text option in Author Pro
- Update: removed Google Plus from social icons
- Update: added French translation
- Fix: menu dropdown buttons out of alignment under certain circumstances
- Fix: Last Updated option was too wide in post editor
- Fix: cookie opt-in checkbox below comment form not sitting next to label
1.39 – November 19, 2019
- Feature: added Pocket to social icons
- Feature: added ArtStation to social icons
- Update: removed welcome redirect after installing Author
- Update: added Spanish translation
- Update: added Finnish translation
- Fix: image caption styles fixes
- Fix: removed PHP error notice in the dashboard
1.38 – February 24, 2019
- Fix: posts showing today’s date on non-English sites using WP 5.1
1.37 – January 7, 2019
- Feature: new feature for displaying the post’s last updated date
1.36 – December 4, 2018
- Update: added Goodreads social icon
- Update: added Russian translation
- Fix: Gutenberg fixes
1.35 – November 19, 2018
- Update: full Gutenberg compatibility
- Update: styled classic post editor like front-end
1.34 – November 5, 2018
- Update: redesigned Author Dashboard
- Update: changed Customizer ad
1.33 – November 1, 2018
- Feature: added Mixcloud, Discord, Stack Overflow, Medium, and Patreon to social icons
- Update: updated Font Awesome to 5.4.2
- Update: reordered social icons in Customizer
- Update: security enhancemments
1.32 – September 14, 2018
- Feature: added WooCommerce support
- Fix: phone number social icon can’t be removed once added
1.31 – July 24, 2018
- Feature: phone number icon added to social icons
- Update: added screen reader text to scroll-to-top arrow
- Fix: keyboard access for mobile devices fixed
1.30 – July 4, 2018
- Feature: added scroll-to-top arrow
- Update: compatibility with newer jQuery versions
- Update: security enhancements
- Fix: tall logos never cut off at tablet screen sizes
- Fix: screen readers no longer reading social icons twice
- Fix: missing translation in menu
1.29 – February 22, 2018
- Update: updated Spanish translation
- Update: added social icon for OK.ru
- Update: added social icon for Bitbucket
1.28 – August 15, 2017
- Fix: Facebook descriptions created by Yoast no longer included “Read more…”
- Fix: sticky post status no longer shows in search results
- Fix: styling for author bios on author post archives
- Fix: review prompt now dismisses permanently when “X” button clicked
1.27 – June 7, 2017
- Update: simplified template routing function
- Update: added admin notice to request review after 14 days
- Update: added mobile app ad to theme options page
- Update: switched Author Pro image in Customizer to a GIF
1.26 – March 21, 2017
- Update: added Amazon, Google Wallet, and Twitch social icons
- Fix: no longer adding ellipsis after custom excerpts
1.25 – February 10, 2017
- Feature: new option added to Customizer to show comments link after posts (Blog section)
- Update: added “aria-hidden” role to ornamental icons
- Update: added Yelp to social icons
- Update: added more context to certain phrases to make translation easier
- Update: improved excerpt handling (back-end updates)
- Update: increased screenshot resolution
- Update: updated Arabic translation
- Update: updated Fitvids
- Fix: comment replies to post author no longer inherit the “(author)” label
- Fix: Customizer link in Author Dashboard now works for sites with WP installed in a subdirectory
1.24 – December 5, 2016
- Update: tested & updated for WP 4.7
- Update: added 8 new social media icons
- Update: added Arabic translation
- Update: now redirecting to Author dashboard upon activation
- Update: Author dashboard reorganized and improved
- Update: updated style & copy of Author Pro ad in Customizer
- Update: update to heading structure
1.23 – November 2, 2016
- Update: added welcome message and redirect upon theme activation
- Fix: minor style fixes
- Fix: sticky status no longer shows in search results
1.22 – September 13, 2016
- Fix: Spanish translations now working
1.21 – September 11, 2016
- Update: many improvements to harden security
- Fix: Featured Images on pages now displaying properly in Internet Explorer
- Fix: comment threading/nesting can now be turned off via the Discussion Settings
- Fix: additional bug fixes and improvements (see github changelog for more detail)
1.20.1 – July 7, 2016
- Update: added link to Skype protocol reference in Social Media Icons section
- Fix: fixed menu display issues with RTL languages
1.19.2 – April 7, 2016
- Update: improved performance of sidebar (less jumpy when scrolling)
- Update: attachment pages now show full size version of images, descriptions, and captions
- Update: improvements to heading structure
- Update: logo now uses image’s alt text if available
- Update: added styling for Featured Image Caption plugin
- Update: updated Font Awesome to 4.5
- Update: changed Customizer ad to black background
- Update: social icons now have text for screen readers
- Update: removed redundant “title” attribute on site title
- Fix: pagination links now translatable
1.18 – March 5, 2016
- Update: added link to Skype protocol reference in Social Media Icons section
- Fix: fixed menu display issues with RTL languages
1.17 – February 12, 2016
- Update: removed locked Customizer sections
- Update: Skype social icon now works with special Skype protocol links
- Update: added social icon for contact form URL
- Update: added a box to the Author Dashboard for leaving reviews of Author
- Fix: Author theme info no longer included in .pot file to avoid translation errors
- Fix: “Comments closed” message now always contained in comments section
1.16 – January 27, 2016
- Update: Custom CSS now allows direct descendent selectors and quotes
- Fix: pagination now hidden when Jetpack infinite scroll active
1.15 – December 22, 2015
- Feature: added support for Yoast SEO breadcrumbs
- Update: additional data sanitization/validation for enhanced security
- Update: refactored, cleaned up, and reformatted code across entire project
- Fix: marked numerous English strings for translation that had been missed
- Fix: option to reset Customizer options now only resets Author’s options
1.14 – December 6, 2015
- Feature: new option to change the “Continue reading” text added
- Update: Custom CSS in Customizer now updates on page instantly
- Update: additional data sanitization for improved security
- Update: added Danish translation
- Update: dropdown menu toggle buttons hover and open states now differentiated
- Fix: featured image display issue in IE fixed
- Fix: Customizer no longer outputs error messages if site has no pages
1.13 – October 31, 2015
- Update: featured images now compatible with a wide variety of plugins made to interact with them
- Update: RSS social icon now uses square version like other icons
- Update: “for” attribute added to all comment form labels
- Fix: “PayPal” now properly capitalized in Customizer
- Fix: search box now stays at bottom of the search results page when Jetpack infinite scroll is active
- Fix: footer now always positioned at the bottom of the screen
- Fix: rendering issues fixed with bold use of heading font, Rokkitt
- Fix: no longer adds space for uploaded image avatar until image is actually uploaded
- Fix: added missing space below text in search box at bottom of search results
1.12 – October 15, 2015
- Feature: added support for Jetpack infinite scroll
- Feature: category, tag, and author archives now display descriptions if available
- Update: 10 new social icons
- Update: turned off automatic hyphenation
- Fix: “Return to Blog” links for oldest/newest post now lead to blog even if not on homepage
- Fix: fatal error on WordPress versions 4.1 and older prevented
- Fix: Git icon switched to Github
- Fix: WP User Avatar plugin no longer breaks main avatar
- Fix: Jetpack Carousel gallery no longer scrolls to top of page when image is clicked
- Fix: fixed XSS vulnerability in search page
- Fix: sidebar scrolling functionality no longer breaks if screen resized repeatedly
- Fix: sidebar items no longer out of place for ~15px between layout transitions in Internet Explorer
1.11 – September 21, 2015
- Fix: added deprecated versions of functions removed in v1.10
1.10 – September 19, 2015
- Update: widgets with submenus now show their hierarchy
- Update: added additional sanitization/validation for security
- Update: improved gallery styles
- Update: added “(author)” label to Post author’s comments
- Fix: empty Color section no longer showing up in Customizer
- Fix: occasional empty space at bottom of site no longer showing
1.09 – August 20, 2015
- Update: submenus open automatically when they contain the current page
- Update: title attribute added to Avatar
- Update: more video sites embedded responsively in post content
- Update: updated Font Awesome to v4.4.0
- Update: social icon arrays are now overridable and filterable
- Update: excerpts are now removed when word count is set to 0
- Fix: avatar upload control showing conditionally again in the Customizer
- Fix: iframes no longer overflow post content at mobile screen widths
- Fix: error messages in Customizer as of WP v4.3 fixed
1.08 – July 28, 2015
- Update: “read more” tags now used even if Blog is showing full posts
- Update: date for comments now uses format set from the main Settings menu
- Fix: tagline now updates from the Customizer instantly even if not formerly present
1.07 – May 21, 2015
- Update: demo url added to theme description
- Update: comment gravatars now using commenter’s name for alt text
- Update: alt text added to featured images via title attribute
- Update: i18n for sticky post status
- Update: i18n for open/close screen reader text for primary and child menu buttons
- Update: social icons a11y and i18n improved
- Update: dates now more reliable across languages and work with timestamps
- Update: version_compare used in compatibility function for better reliability
- Update: new customizer sections ads for author pro
- Update: moved and restyled author pro ad in customizer
- Fix: footer doesn’t extend length of screen at wide screen widths
- Fix: sidebar not reaching bottom of screen when no widgets at wide widths
1.06 – April 5, 2015
- Fix: Featured Videos not displaying if post/page doesn’t have a Featured Image
1.05
- Update: post dates now work with timestamp included
- Update: customizer ad text filterable
- Update: more functions easy to override with child themes
- Update: added German translation
- Fix: setting initial date format on “init” instead of theme activation “after_setup_theme”
- Fix: “Published in” phrase in categories not translatable
- Fix: no space in title on homepage before pipeline character (|)
- Fix: HTML for tagline output even if tagline is empty