What are blocks in WordPress?
Modern website construction platforms like WordPress frequently include ‘blocks’. You are already familiar with blocks if you use the most recent version of WordPress (5.0+).
A block is each element you add to your post or page. Blocks for paragraphs, lists, lists, galleries, audio, and more can be added. All popular content items have their own blocks, and plugins can add more.
How do I utilise blocks in WordPress?
When you begin to add material to a post or page, WordPress blocks become available. For instance, all words and graphics are contained within blocks. The controls offered for the current block are displayed in a panel on the right-hand side.
You must first type your content in order to use blocks. Simply press [Enter] to end a paragraph, and WordPress will automatically format it using blocks.
When you click the “+” button, which is hovering close to the right-hand page margin, you can add extra items, such as photographs or links, and they will be properly organised.
In WordPress, various block types are available. By adding blocks, you can increase the page’s content. Changes can be made to the header format, style, design, pattern, etc.
The possible block kinds in WordPress 5.0 are:
Heading
tailored HTML
Form
Code
Shortcode
Image
Preformatted
Table
Button
Columns
Gallery
List
Quote
Pullquote
A Page Break
Separator
Spacer
Audio
Video
Cover
Image
File
links to external websites like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube that are embedded
wrapping a block
Every block includes a unique block wrapper that makes it simple to rearrange and alter blocks. A block may also be easily moved left or right on the page, as well as changed in position. Simply hold down a block intersection and drag it (your cursor should change to show this). It becomes simple with practise.
Instead of dragging blocks, users had to cut and paste in early iterations of WordPress. The editing process frequently resulted in the loss of the entire document. Everything is made simple (at least for straightforward layouts) with the new block system.
Block advantages
In most cases, this functionality has made editing WordPress text much simpler.
You don’t need to be an expert to develop and edit content with blocks because they are user-friendly.
Blocks can be altered; for instance, you might change the backdrop colour to draw attention to a particular section or phrase.
Blocks’ standardisation produces a more unified appearance and feel.
Content copying and pasting issues are resolved.
Blocks can easily be rearranged or reordered, which makes upgrading layouts simple.
blocks are a beneficial feature for content makers because they don’t change the viewer experience. They won’t be visible to website visitors.
One last word of warning
You might be tempted to get right into the code to change the appearance if you are more experienced with HTML, CSS, etc. My own opinion is that, if at all possible, you should only use the block/visual editor.
Although the block editor is helpful, it struggles to handle complicated or badly constructed HTML. I recently wasted a lot of time attempting to figure out how to remove handwritten and block-style code from a WordPress website. The two were completely muddled up and had tags that were wrongly closed and deeply nested. So exercise caution as you work. Additionally, before making any changes, think about creating a duplicate of your page or post so that you always have a backup.
