Outline Icon Style

Icons across the theme now support an outline style alongside the existing filled style. All 126 NC State brand icons are available in both options, giving you more flexibility in how you design your pages. Outline icons work in any block that accepts icons, including the Fact Row block.

Keep in mind that within a single block, all icons must use the same style. You can mix filled and outline icons across different blocks on a page, but not within the same block.

Newswire Feed: Optional Date Display

The Newswire Feed block now lets you show or hide the publication date on feed items. You can toggle this on or off in the block settings.

Slate Embed: Website Origination Field

The Slate Embed block now includes a dedicated field for the website_origination tracking parameter. If you embed Slate forms that require this value, you can now set it directly in the block rather than working around it.

A Note on Block Usage Data

Starting with this release, the theme collects data on which blocks are being used across the platform. We’re using this to better understand how site builders are working with the theme — so we can focus future development and training resources on the blocks that matter most to you. No content or personal data is collected.

Other Improvements

Localist Event Filters

The filter and group selection components in Localist event listings within the Events block have been updated with checkboxes and a refreshed visual style, making it easier for visitors to filter events.

Mega Menu Updates

Two small but useful changes to the mega menu:

• Mega menu sub-pages are now excluded from search engine indexing, so they won’t appear in Google or other search results.
• Labels in the mega menu editor have been updated for consistency.

Search Box Block

Labels and field descriptions in the Search Box block settings have been cleaned up for clarity.

News Masthead Spacing

Spacing between the page title and the N-space Brick in the News Masthead has been adjusted to align with updated brand standards.

Accessibility: Compact Masthead

Menu items in the Compact Masthead now include proper accessibility markup, improving compatibility with screen readers and assistive technologies. No visual change.

Bug Fixes

• Thumbnail Gallery with sidebar navigation — Fixed a layout issue that caused the gallery to display at the wrong size when a sidebar was present.
• Smart Search overlay — Resolved a contrast issue that affected readability on the Smart Search overlay.
• Special characters in “In the News” titles — Fixed an issue where characters like apostrophes and ampersands appeared as garbled code on the archive page.
• Missing Home link in News Masthead — Restored the Home link that had disappeared from the Utility Bar on the News Masthead.
• Gravity Forms Poll results — Fixed incorrect styling of poll results when using the Gravity Forms Poll Add-on.
• External links — External links now correctly open in a new tab and display the expected accessibility indicator.
• Archive page image quality — Images on archive pages now load at full resolution instead of a smaller preview size.
• Giving button icon — Fixed a display issue with the giving button icon on sites that use non-standard branding configurations.
• Byline color in side-by-side header — Corrected a low-contrast color issue affecting byline text in the side-by-side header style.

Full release notes can be found in GitHub. If you do not have but would like access to these technical release notes, please email wordpress@help.ncsu.edu.

Need help?

Have questions? Feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns at go.ncsu.edu/ucomm-dev-request.