At the end of 2018, WordPress changed how editing works.
The new editor is the “block editor” (also sometimes called “Gutenberg”) and the old version is now called the “classic editor”.
(Almost) everything is a block
In the main content area, everything after the title is a block.
(By default, you can’t see the borders of the blocks, but they are still individual chunks of content.)
Add a block
Click the plus button to add a new block. It’s always in the upper left corner, and sometimes it also shows up temporarily in other spots.
More about adding blocks
If you see “Type / to choose a block”, just start typing to make a paragraph block (what you usually want for normal text).
- You can also hit the slash key ( / ) to see a list of blocks, and then start typing the name of a block to filter that list.
Whenever you’re adding a block, you can start typing the name of the block (or a related word) to search.
Working with blocks
Click in a block to select it. Edit text like you would in a word processor (type, click, highlight, use arrow keys, etc.).
When a block is selected, you’ll see two settings areas:
- The toolbar (above the block)
- More detailed settings (on the right)
- No settings on the right? Click the gear icon at the top
and make sure you’re on the “Block” tab 
- No settings on the right? Click the gear icon at the top
When editing text, you can type like you normally would in a word processor.
- Hitting “Enter” makes a new paragraph block
- You can use arrows to move up and down (and the cursor will move up/down to the next block)
Moving blocks
You can move blocks in two ways:
The up and down arrows on the toolbar move the current block one block at a time
Click and drag on the six dots on the toolbar to move the block anywhere in the document with your mouse
Common block settings to watch for
Text alignment
Click the three lines to get options for aligning text left, center, or right (just like in a word processer). Works on text blocks like paragraphs and headings.
Links
Create a link
Highlight text and click the chain link icon.
For links going off your site, consider opening the link in a new tab.
Edit a link
Click anywhere in the link.
Click the pencil icon in the popup to edit.
Click the break link icon in the toolbar or popup to remove the link.
Headings
Headings have multiple levels. H1 is the biggest, top level, down through subheadings to H6, which is the smallest/most detailed level.
Pages should only have one H1, and in WordPress that’s the title.
Make sure your other headings start with H2 and follow an outline structure:
- H1
- H2
- H3
- H3
- H4
- H5
- H4
- H2
- H3
- H4
- H3
- H2
- H3
- H2
Choose the heading level based on the document structure, not the size of the font.
Use the following section to control font size.
Font size
Many text blocks have a font size section.
Click the custom size icon to enter a specific size number. Use this option sparingly – if possible, use one of the default options.
Images
When you add an image block, you have a few options.
- Upload opens a file dialog to browse your computer
- Media Library lets you browse files that have already been uploaded to the site
- Insert from URL doesn’t upload the image to your site at all, just use an image from another site. In general, this is not a great idea.
If the image has already been uploaded or used for your site, choose Media Library. Uploading it again creates a duplicate (which takes extra space and makes media harder to manage).
Media library
Make sure you’re on the “Media Library” tab at the top of the popup.
Click on an image to select it and click the “Select” button in the lower right to insert it.
Other tips for inserting images
- You can drag and drop an image file from your computer straight into the content to insert it and create an image block at once.
- You can paste a copied image directly into the text, which also automatically uploads it to the site. Make sure you have copied the actual image, and not just it’s URL or filename.
Beware that both of these methods will create a new image in the media library, which will be a duplicate if you’ve used the same image on the site before.
Alt text
Every image should have alt text describing it for those who can’t see it.
With the image block selected, enter a text description in the “Alt text” box on the right.
Image alignment
To align an image left or right in a block of text, you will have to:
- Set its alignment
- Make it the right size
Click the alignment icon to choose an alignment for the image.
Click and drag the edge or bottom of the image to resize it.
