Using the WordPress Block Editor

- [Instructor] The WordPress block editor was designed and developed to be as simple to use as possible. That said, knowing a bit about how it works as you get started goes a long way, so let me give you a brief tour of some key features. First off, creating content from scratch. The block editor is a smart editor that anticipates your behavior. That means if you just wanna type out a bunch of content and don't want to be bothered by the block editor, just type out that content, the block editor gets out of the way, and lets you do your own thing.

Which brings us to point number two. Any time you want to add a new piece of content you have three options; either place you cursor at the end of a block and simply hit return, it will create a new block for you. Or, place your mouse where you want the block to appear, and you'll see a line up here, you then click on that line, and a new block will be entered. Or place your cursor where you want the block to appear and click on the block button in the top left hand corner. Once you've added a block you can then click on the plus symbol to get a list of all the available blocks you can add in.

Here you can either go from the suggested blocks, you can get a full list of all the available blocks, you can see a list of the inbeds you can place into a WordPress content. And if you've created any shared blocks, they will also be listed here. This feature also allows you to do text searches for specific blocks, If you know you're gonna add a column, you simply start typing in column, and all the column options appear. Third, to change to type or property of an existing block in line, move your mouse and click anywhere inside the block, or use your keyboard to focus on the block in question.

This opens the block tool bar on the left-hand side where you can change blocks specific features like alignments or heading levels or whatever else applies to this particular block. And you can also change the block type through the drop down to other related blocks. In addition you'll find a block settings menu on the right-hand side where you can access additional settings like, edit as html, duplicate, convert to shared block and transform. And you can access the trash button which removes this particular block.

Fourth, to change more advanced properties for a block select the block, and go the block component panel in the sidebar. Here you get access to the blocks specific features for further customization. As you get started, I recommend adding a bunch of different blocks to a post, then checking out this panel for each of the blocks, till you get an idea of what properties are available, and what these blocks can do. Fifth, start thinking about your content as a collection of blocks. This makes it easier to remember that each block has its own properties, that blocks can be transformed to other blocks, and that blocks can be moved around, and reorganized and copied, and even shared across multiple posts and pages.

Sixth, in the editor context, the block editor has some useful features including this i button up here in the top left-hand corner, where you can stats on the current post you're working with, word count, heading count, paragraph count, and block count and a full document outline showing you a complete structural outline of your post with all your headings. It even tells you if you've made a mistake like, I've set a heading here to age three instead of age two. And you can use this document outline to navigate through the posts down to specific headings.

And finally, if you need the classic wysiwyg editor and toolbar for some reason, there's a block for that. Just create a new block, click the plus symbol, and search for classic, and you'll find the classic editor, and you get the full wysiwyg editor, with all the classic features including the full kitchen sink of buttons. This is also what happens to your old content by the way. The content of posts and pages created before the block editor was enabled, are contained in a single classic block.

Once you're ready to upgrade a post or a page or anything written in a classic block, go to the block settings, and select convert to block, and all the pieces of content within that classic block get converted into individual blocks. Working with blocks is a whole new experience, and it takes some getting used to. A good thing to remember is WordPress saves everything you're doing as a revision, so you can always go back in time if you loose something, and, within WordPress it's very hard to break anything in a way that can't be fixed.