What to expect when migrating to the UVM Catamount WordPress theme

UVM is rolling out the new Catamount WordPress theme, which brings improved performance, modern design, and closer alignment with native WordPress functionality.

Most sites will migrate smoothly—but there are a few important changes you should know about before and after your transition.

This guide explains exactly what to expect so you can prepare.

Watch the full video overview

Overview: What’s changing?

The Catamount theme:

Aligns more closely with native WordPress
Automatically applies UVM branding
Improves performance and consistency

✅ For most sites, migration is straightforward

⚠️ However, WordPress itself has evolved significantly since the previous (2019) theme—so some updates are required.

Change 1: Navigation is now block-based

One of the biggest changes is how navigation menus are built.

Old system (Classic menus)

Built using the Menu tool
Drag-and-drop interface
Familiar dropdown structure

New system (Block-based navigation)

Navigation is created inside the Site Editor
Menus are part of the header
Built using blocks instead of the classic menu tool

Block based navigation is attached to the header in the new WordPress.

What this means for you

⚠️ Your existing navigation will not carry over automatically

✅ You will need to:

Rebuild your navigation manually
Use your current menu as a reference

💡 Tip: Take a screenshot of your existing navigation before migrating.

Creating a new menu in WordPress based upon a screen grab of an older menu

Change 2: Atomic Blocks are no longer supported

If your site uses Atomic Blocks (AB Blocks), this is the second major impact.

What are Atomic Blocks?

They were commonly used for:

Accordions
Multi-column layouts
Styled content sections

Here are some examples of where Atomic Blocks have been used and how they display when migrated to the new site. These layouts will need a little layout attention.

The new theme does not support the Cover block. In the new theme, H1 page titles are in lockup with the header with a green background.

On the new theme, H1 page titles appear in lockup with the header and have a brand green background.

Images layed out with Atomic Blocks/ab-columns are not resizing responsively. They will need to be layout out again in a grid or in the text container and sized appropriately in the WordPress Block controls (right panel in your page editor)

What’s changed?

⚠️ Atomic Blocks has been deprecated and is no longer supported in WordPress.

This is a platform-wide change (not specific to UVM).

Important note

There is no one-size-fits-all solution for rebuilding layouts.

Each page will need:

Individual review
Custom adjustments using modern blocks

What does NOT require major changes

✔️ Your content will migrate easily
✔️ Pages not using Atomic Blocks will migrate cleanly
✔️ Your pages and posts will still exist
✔️ Branding will automatically update

In most cases, you are refining—not rebuilding your entire site.