Feedback Thread for the Block Editor
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Hi @justjennifer,
if I have to change text color, I cannot use the suggested colors. Clicking on them doesn’t change the text color.
That happens to you in Paragraph Block? I can’t reproduce that on Firefox, the color changes everytime I click on one of the colors from the suggested palette.
I find that the Block Editor doesn’t remember that I want the Tools anchored at the top of the workspace
Which tools are you referring to? A screenshot would be great :)
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Hi staff-mckluskey. I’ll double check, but I believe it was in the Classic Block. I ended up converting the text I was working on to blocks. Sorry for not being more specific.
The Tools I meant is the Top Toolbar.
(screenshot removed by mod)
If I check that option in View portion of the the Block Editor sidebar menu, the tools are pinned to the top of the workspace for that session, but if I leave and come back to edit or create a new post I have to pin it again. -
I’d just like to point out to all of you who seem to be suggesting that everyone who likes the block editor is a tech expert, and that all young people are technology experts: this is NOT TRUE. Yes, we’ve grown up with technology, but that doesn’t mean we completely understand it! I am probably younger than most of you, but I am definitely NOT a technology expert.
I’ve already said my views on the Verse block, but I have a bit more feedback, in case it’s helpful.
– What’s your typical process?
– What is getting in the way?
– If you could adjust one feature, what would it be?Typical process:
I came to WordPress pretty much with no prior computer knowledge, website-making or otherwise. We’d had to make a sort-of-website in computer science class but that wasn’t with WordPress and had very different features, and I also hadn’t really understood any of it (computers rarely make any sense to me).
To be honest, when I came eight months ago, I’d half been expecting something a lot like Word when I opened the post editor, but I quickly discovered that whenever I went onto a new paragraph, a whole new ‘block’ was created. I played around with these ‘blocks’, trying to figure out how to use them. I found it fairly easy to work out, however, since the only things I really needed were text and image blocks, and buttons.
With my main site, I made draft posts that I could copy each time I made a post. I added some buttons and default text that linked to the blog page, the forum-like area of my blog and the category archive for whatever category the post was in. After that, now whenever I want to make a post in a specific category, I copy the draft post.
Once I’m editing/writing, I actually find it fairly easy to just type, unlike some people are experiencing. I’d like to emphasise that this isn’t because I’m some technology expert. All I do to write a post is what I do when I’m in Word writing my books: I write, and when I want a new paragraph, I press ‘enter’. So I think the block editor is fairly easy to use (mostly anyhow), even for someone who is not a tech expert and just wants something simple.
I think, especially from what @guitarsophist said, that the problem comes more from the idea of being overwhelmed with all the different blocks than the not being able to use them at all (although I don’t deny that it might be difficult when you first come to use them — although this could still be partly down to feeling overwhelmed). I must admit I was slightly overwhelmed, too, when I first started — but after a month or two, I was okay.
One thing that helped a lot (in case any of you might find it helpful too?) was creating a draft page and just inserting any block I thought I might use, just to find out what it did and how to use it. If ever I’m unsure what a block does, I go back to this page and test it out. I know most of the people on this thread are more for keeping the classic editor than using the block editor, but I just wanted to suggest this, in case anyone who wanted to try out the block editor read this.What is getting in the way:
I’m fairly okay with the block editor, there are some problems but I’ve already said most of my main problems. However: although I found the alignment, bold and italic options easily enough, I don’t think you should put underline and justify under the drop-down menu. That took me a while to find, because I had just assumed if it was there, justify would be under the ‘alignment’ menu, and underline would be with bold/italic (as it is in Word). I think other people have also struggled finding these options in the past?Adjust one feature:
One of the problems I’ve been experiencing recently is the buttons block. The problem with this for me is that I like to have the buttons on top of each other, not side-by-side. I’d like it if there was both an option to add a button next to the previous one, and also under and over it.
It looks like, from other people’s feedback, that the Classic Block isn’t actually as similar to the Classic Editor as people would like. If I could suggest an adjustment, it would be to continue with the Classic Block (or just to make a simple way to reach the Classic Editor), and to make it as similar to the Classic Editor as possible. -
Thanks for all that, @writer101
I think on WordPress core there was a big discussion about justify and underline causing readability issues on the web (underline because people confuse it for links, and justify because it can get difficult to read on a phone), hence tucking those away under a menu.
I appreciate too that you opened a draft and tested things out. Knowing that the selection of blocks was overwhelming, is helpful.
I’ll look into what you’re mentioning re: the buttons block. If you press shift & enter before adding another block, does that help? Feel free to open a separate thread on that if you’d like to go back and forth on some ideas.
This might be helpful for you too: basically you can “build your own block” and put it in posts as you like.
https://wordpress.com/support/wordpress-editor/blocks/reusable-block/It looks like, from other people’s feedback, that the Classic Block isn’t actually as similar to the Classic Editor as people would like.
Yeah, the issue there is we’ve actually had several editors. Right now it’s just between blocks and the actual wp-admin classic editor (vs Calypso’s editor, which also sparked a thread like this back when we introduced it) .
This:
but I quickly discovered that whenever I went onto a new paragraph, a whole new ‘block’ was created
This has felt like the main point of confusion I’m hearing from most folks. I’m wondering if there were an option where folks didn’t really realize they were creating new blocks, and if it was just as visibly clean as using Word unless you (for example) double-tapped to insert something besides a paragraph, whether that would be helpful. Not that I can wave a wand and make it so, but I can send the feedback.
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Yes all we need is one more block. Call it the “writing a post” block where you can write as many words as you like, hit enter for a new paragraph as often as you like or hit enter twice to leave a double space and also be able to insert images. That would do for me as it wouldn’t interrupt my flow like the current block editor does.
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Thank you for the quick reply, @supernovia!
With the underline — I understand that would be confusing. Actually the reason why I was looking for the underline option was to make my links more noticeable, because my theme doesn’t make links a different format by default and the bold option doesn’t make it incredibly noticeable from the rest of the text.
As for the justify — I added justify to a test post, and viewed my site on my phone, to try and understand how it viewed strangely, but it worked fine for me (maybe because of the phone I have? I’m not sure). Can you explain how it was viewing weirdly? (I’d like to use the justify on my posts but I don’t want to do it if it will make it hard for people to read if they’re using a phone to read it.) Is it because sometimes there would be large spaces between words (in order to justify it), or something else?With the buttons — the shift and enter didn’t work (although I don’t know if I did it right), I’ll try a few more times and if I can’t work it out I’ll create a new thread like you suggested.
With the reusable blocks — I tend to try and avoid those, I’ve had trouble with them in the past so I only use them when I absolutely have to. I did consider making reusable blocks instead of draft posts, but draft posts were easier for me to handle.
With the idea of new blocks not visibly appearing — although I am now used to the idea of blocks appearing as I write, I think many people would appreciate this. One idea could possibly be that you keep writing, but whenever you wanted any specific block/formatting, you type (for example)
/imageor/listto create a different kind of block, but once you’d left this block you are back to the main post, which was all just one whole “paragraph/’writing a post’ block”. -
Sorry I didn’t add this to the comment I just posted — I just thought of it now.
As for being overwhelmed — I’m not sure how many people would find the idea I just had helpful, but I think it would have helped me when I started.
(I appreciate that making something like that could be hard, but you understand how these things work and how to make them much better than I do, so I just wanted to suggest it, in case you’ve ever considered/would consider it, and it’s actually possible.)When someone first goes to use the block editor (either because they’re changing from classic or because they created their website when the block editor was default), you could offer them the option to have a sort of guided, interactive tutorial.
I know there are video tutorials and support posts, but to actually have a draft post where the main blocks — paragraph, image, list, heading, button, classic e.g. — are explained, and you are able to actually edit and use them, would have probably been helpful to me. Because I found it helpful to work it out as I went along — but I think it would have been a smoother and more efficient experience had I had WordPress guiding me through it.For example, when you enter this ‘tutorial draft post’, there is a description explaining about blocks in general, and the Paragraph block (which is the default), and how blocks appear as you press enter. Then it explains if you type
/listand press enter, the block will be transformed from a paragraph block to a list block. (It could also explain about formatting, and the Document/Block Settings.)
I wouldn’t suggest doing this for every block, just the ones that people are most likely to want to use. (I would include Classic Block in there, since some of the people using the ‘interactive tutorial’ could have come from the classic editor.)I don’t know if this sort of ‘guided, interactive tutorial’ is already available/being worked on? If this is being worked on/will be worked on, I would suggest only having it as an option that appears when someone opens a draft post/makes their new site (could it appear on the site set up list, and people could just skip it if they didn’t want to have it?) — I understand that some people just want to get on with writing instead of going through a tutorial.
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Actually the reason why I was looking for the underline option was to make my links more noticeable, because my theme doesn’t make links a different format by default and the bold option doesn’t make it incredibly noticeable from the rest of the text.
Ahhh that’s good feedback too. Want to open a new thread with a link to the site? Add modlook and that bit of feedback.
And yeah, we’re sometimes to get guided tutorials in as well. I *want* to say I’ve seen something like that already for the block editor, but it’s possible I’m remembering wrong. If it’s there already, maybe we just need a way to trigger it again.
And thanks, @themagicrobot, for this:
Yes all we need is one more block. Call it the “writing a post” block where you can write as many words as you like, hit enter for a new paragraph as often as you like or hit enter twice to leave a double space and also be able to insert images. That would do for me as it wouldn’t interrupt my flow like the current block editor does.
I’ll add that to the feedback I made re: Mabel Amber’s response.
I’ll be likely slow replying here again for a bit since we’re soon heading into a weekend (and I don’t work this time — my poor garden calls me!) but I do want to thank you all for this constructive feedback. It’s really helpful.
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@themagicrobot, quote:
Yes all we need is one more block. Call it the “writing a post” block where you can write as many words as you like, hit enter for a new paragraph as often as you like or hit enter twice to leave a double space and also be able to insert images. That would do for me as it wouldn’t interrupt my flow like the current block editor does.
Applause!
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Hey, that’s actually brilliant! We *do* need a new block! WP loves new blocks, so this could get traction. Call it “Writer’s Block“!! How great would it be, (and powerful and hugely popular) if there was a simple block that it allowed the user to just type in some text. Maybe a few frills like insert a picture, and some formatting and support for basic HTML!
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Yes all we need is one more block. Call it the “writing a post” block where you can write as many words as you like, hit enter for a new paragraph as often as you like or hit enter twice to leave a double space and also be able to insert images. That would do for me as it wouldn’t interrupt my flow like the current block editor does.
Thanks @themagicrobot for suggesting this!! I agree 1000%, and as we’ve seen and likely will see, many people agree!
Call it “Writer’s Block”!!
WordPress, if you create this block (and you really should do), please, PLEASE call it Writer’s Block! I love this name, @qbitweb! (Maybe it would inspire me to finally overcome The Bane of My Existence? 🤣)
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We do not need a new block, we just need a commitment to remain in the classic block and place it among the first options (not hidden in “formatting”).
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Hi all,
– What’s your typical process?
– What is getting in the way?
– If you could adjust one feature, what would it be?What’s your typical process?
My “process,” if it must be called that, in constructing pages or posts with a WP-Admin editor typically involves creating and assembling content consisting largely of typed or pasted-in text (often including links and lists), images inserted from the media library (displayed either individually or in galleries), and video and/or audio players. For posts, I will often add a couple of categories and up to 10 tags. I’ve used the same theme for about 10 years.Individual images are frequently inserted either within a paragraph, aligned left or right, or between paragraphs. I’m also fond of inserting side-by-side independent images (not galleries) between other content. It’s a little more tricky to center align a pair or trio of images in the WP-Admin editor than it was 10 or 12 years ago, but I’ve learned the hidden tricks to accomplishing the task and any difficulties encountered in creating such rows of images have been relatively easy to overcome.
In a WP-Admin editor, clicking on an image and then the “Edit image” icon opens the Image Details module. Here, one may add or edit optional details such as the following: caption, alignment, image size, “Link to” settings, and advanced settings such as image title attribute (which creates a tooltip or text hoverbox), CSS class, and image borders.
Most often I link such individual images to the attachment page, which may or may not be the present page upon which I’m working. However, in some cases an inserted image might be linked to another page on the site or to an external page. Occasionally, an inserted image will linked to an unattached file image, in order to prevent it from being selected as the representative image in the Top Posts and Pages widget.
What is getting in the way?
What happens when I try to run through the above “process” using the Classic Block in a the Block Editor? Major problems, for example:1. The toolbar keeps disappearing. If I select the Classic Block, and the toolbar appears, why does it disappear when I move to insert a heading or an image? Why do I find myself repeatedly needing to click on an inserted image in order for the toolbar to reappear?
2. If you insert an individual image in a post or page and attempt to edit its image details settings, you quickly discover that there is no access to them. Clicking on the “Edit image” icon merely redirects one to the media library, where your only choice is to select a different image.
As strange as that is, it gets stranger. I may insert a second image beside the first image, by choosing the option “Individual Images” under “Layout” but that image will also lack access to image details. The only way to access the option of a “Link to” setting is to choose a different layout, and the other options under “Layout” are all gallery styles. So in the Classic Block, one is forced to create a gallery in order to have “link to” options. Even if one chooses to create a gallery, the “Link to” setting is the only additional image detail setting enabled by that choice. None of the other Image Details options that I’ve mentioned above are enabled, although alignment settings are available even without clicking the Edit Image icon.
So essentially in the Classic block of the Block Editor I’m forced to create galleries in order to have control over what an image links to, and by default individual image links to nothing, with no apparent settings available that would allow one to link an individual image to something, or add a caption, a tooltip, borders, etc. Even if one creates a gallery against one’s wishes, all of the Image Details options are lacking except for the “Link to” settings.
If you could adjust one feature, what would it be?
Image Details options for both individual images and galleries inserted into post or page must be made available, as they are in the WP-Admin editors, as described above. -
“why does it disappear when I move to insert a heading…?”
I meant “title” not “heading.” It seems like the toolbar is always disappearing for unknown reasons. -
Even if one creates a gallery against one’s wishes, all of the Image Details options are lacking except for the “Link to” settings.
I should have edited that out. I’d found Attachment Details in the Edit Gallery module, which is revealed by clicking on an image in the gallery there.
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I found this issue on a few other threads and I’m sure it’s mentioned on this thread somewhere (there doesn’t seem to be a way to search inside a thread), but count this as another vote for the failure to show already-scheduled posts in the “schedule post” calendar view being a showstopper. I’m going back to the previous editor until the block editor scheduling calendar shows posts that are already scheduled.
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@hipsterkitties, I think it may have been @bookstooge in the post https://wordpress.com/forums/topic/feedback-thread-for-the-block-editor/page/3/#post-3503829 that you’re thinking of? This is the mention to the calendar block that I found, but there may be more in this thread/on other threads. It also looks like there’s another post (by @jabrody) at https://wordpress.com/forums/topic/calendar-changes/. (It looks like @supernovia has given feedback for the Calendar Block to be improved?)
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I don’t know if this has been mentioned. I generally type out my post. Then I use the crtl button to upload several images at once to insert in the post, then divide them up between paragraphs by cut and paste. In BLOCK, the crtl button doesn’t work at all, which means I have to upload images one by one.
I didn’t look for the media gallery yet.
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Writer0001
I don’t think anyone has suggested that all young people are technology experts, only some suggest that nearly all (not all ) the technology experts are young people.
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I have still had no staff response to my suggestion that the classic editor be retained as the default and the bock editor as an optional alternative for those who like it, which can still be done. No response leaves us to draw our own conclusions — apparently it could be done and would answer all the complaints, but they will not even consider it, out of obstinacy and a determination to force us to accept that they know better than us what we want and what is good for us.More serious, staff have not replied to my question: if they change the HTML would existing content be destroyed? A non-answer suggests that it would, and this is far more serious than the block editor which at least, they assure us, will not destroy existing content.
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