FolioBlocks has grown a lot over the past few releases. What started as a focused set of gallery blocks has become a broader toolkit for building photo, video, and portfolio experiences directly inside the WordPress Block Editor.
That part is still very important to us: FolioBlocks should feel native to WordPress. No short-codes. No separate gallery system. No extra place where your content has to live before you can use it. You add the block, choose your media, adjust the layout, and keep working in the editor.
As we start planning the next larger update, I wanted to share some of the features we have thinking about and where the plugin is heading on it’s roadmap.
More Flexible Gallery Transforms
One of the smaller but very useful improvements on the roadmap is better block transforms.
Right now, some FolioBlocks galleries can transform into related layouts, but we want to make that more flexible. The goal is to let you move between Grid, Masonry, Justified, Carousel, and Filmstrip galleries more freely.
We also want to make it possible to transform a standard WordPress Gallery block into a FolioBlocks gallery. That should make it easier to experiment with FolioBlocks on existing pages without rebuilding galleries from scratch.
The Modular Gallery will likely remain separate because it has a more intentional custom layout structure, but the rest of the gallery blocks should become much easier to move between.
Global Defaults for Blocks
Another feature we want to add is global block defaults.
This idea came directly from a FolioBlocks user request, and it immediately made sense. At the moment, each FolioBlocks block is configured individually. That gives you a lot of control, but it can also mean repeating the same settings if you like a specific layout style, lightbox behavior, spacing, overlay style, or image resolution.
The plan is to add admin settings for each block where you can define your preferred defaults. These would apply when you add a new block, without unexpectedly changing galleries you have already built.
This should make FolioBlocks faster to use, especially for photographers, agencies, and anyone building multiple galleries across a site.
A Cleaner Image Click System
This is one of the bigger pieces we’re exploring.
Today, features like Lightbox, WooCommerce integration, image downloads, and overlays all affect how visitors interact with images. As FolioBlocks has grown, those settings have naturally become more connected.
We want to make that clearer by separating things into two ideas:
Image Click Settings would control what happens when someone clicks an image or action icon.
Image Hover Settings would control what appears visually when someone hovers over an image.
As part of this update, we’re also planning to introduce new image linking options. Visitors would be able to click an image to open the media file, open the WordPress attachment page, or follow a custom URL. These would be new options in FolioBlocks and would live alongside existing behaviors like opening images in a Lightbox, downloading images, or linking to WooCommerce products.
If the lightbox is active, related options like displaying the image caption in the lightbox would appear there. If WooCommerce is selected, the e-commerce settings would live there too. The goal is to make these options feel like one clear system instead of several separate settings competing with each other.
This will require careful planning because it touches many existing features, but we think it could make FolioBlocks much easier to understand and much more flexible.
A Dedicated Proofing Gallery
The largest feature we’re planning is a dedicated proofing gallery.
This is something we’ve talked about for a while, and we know it is important for photographers and client-based work. Rather than adding proofing controls to every existing gallery layout, we think the better approach is to build a new gallery block designed specifically for proofing.
The idea is a grid-based proofing gallery where clients can:
- Heart or like images
- Add color flags
- Leave comments on individual images
- Save their progress and come back later
- Submit their final selection
Once submitted, the site owner would receive the results by email.
The proofing gallery is planned as an advanced professional feature and will be available to users on the Business and Agency subscriptions. For photographers and studios working directly with clients, we think this will become one of the most valuable tools in FolioBlocks.
The proofing gallery would be password protected by default, because most client galleries are not meant to be public. There are still details to work through, especially around saving progress and how proofing results should appear inside WordPress, but this is one of the most important features on the roadmap.
Keeping FolioBlocks Native to WordPress
As these features are planned, one thing will stay consistent: FolioBlocks should continue to work directly inside the WordPress Block Editor.
The goal is not to build a separate gallery dashboard or force a new workflow. The goal is to make the native editor better for people who work with images, videos, products, portfolios, and client galleries.
Some of these updates are smaller and will likely arrive sooner. Others, like the image click system and proofing gallery, need more careful development and will be coming later this year. But together they point toward the next stage of FolioBlocks: faster workflows, clearer settings, and better tools for real creative work.
We are very excited about where this is heading.