Gutenberg Block Editor – First Steps

Starting Tips – Gutenberg Editor

pages icon

The Gutenberg editing mode will be new to most RiderwoodLife.com Writers and Editors.

  • BE CAREFUL to use the correct editor to produce desired results when first encountering Gutenberg – which will probably be when selecting Pages on the left / black menu bar.
  • Before converting a Classic page to Gutenberg, READ the advisories on Classic to Gutenberg.
  • Gutenberg pages should not be edited in Classic mode. Attempting to do so may ruin a page.
  • Once in Gutenberg, there’s essentially no “going back.”
  • Failure to heed our advice can lead to unanticipated difficulties for those who are accustomed the current, “Classic” editor.
  • See Advice for Novices, below.

What’s A “BLOCK?”

  • Content in produced with Gutenberg is contained in blocks, in contrast to the more “free-flowing” content produced with the Classic editor.
  • A block may be a paragraph, a columnar list, an image or other media with associated text along side.
  • Block structuring enables more control over positioning elements in relationship to one another.
  • Some tools will be familiar to users of the Classic editor, mainly, styling elements, e.g. creating italicized and bold text, headers, etc. But accessing the tools will be different.
  • Read on!

The “OLD”

Pre-Gutenberg, pages appear with only the Classic editor as an option when hovering the cursor over the name of a page. With the activation of Gutenberg, the appearance of listings in Pages changes:

The “NEW”

With the Gutenberg editor available, new options appear for existing pages:

  • In this example, the page was created with the Classic editor.
  • NOTE that an option to edit with the Gutenberg (block) editor appears when hovering over the Page name.
  • To continue editing with Classic, click on Edit (classic editor). Since Classic is the default editor, clicking on the page Title will also open the page for editing in Classic mode.

IF one clicks on Edit (block editor), this screen appears on first use:

welcome to block edior

  • If one proceeds by clicking Next or dismissing the “Welcome,” further edits will be in Block editor mode.
  • To revert, return to Pages by clicking on the Pages icon in the left / black menu. Do this without making any edits in Block mode.

Classic Is The Default Mode

When starting a new page, it will automatically open in Classic editing mode and appear in the Pages listing with the annotation, Classic editor. (For illustrative purposes, this page was created with the page name “New Page.”)

Note that, as above, when hovering over the page name, the option to edit in Block mode will appear.

Advice for Novices

  • Be especially attentive to the editing options described above.
  • Uncertain? Make sure to choose Classic mode for editing, both for those created with Classic and for creation of new pages.
  • When trying the Gutenberg Block editor, create a new / test page to work with, or,
  • Advanced Skills Needed: Create a COPY of an existing page and experiment with it.
  • If trouble ensues, one can return to previous versions of a page.
    • If the page has not been Saved / Updated, just leave the page by clicking on the Pages icon on the left, black menu.
    • IF the copy is to be used as the final / live page, one must copy the whole of the copy into the original page, which is best accomplished by copying the underlying HTML – an advanced technique. Or,
    • Try renaming the old page and giving it a new slug; assign the previously used slug to the new page with the correct title.
  • TIPS – Read the Gutenberg Tips page, indexed on the top-level Tips page,  to learn about the new editor, including:
    • Tutorials that illustrate the use of Gutenberg.
    • In-depth examples.

Beyond First Steps