Using the WordPress Editor, you can create media-rich pages and posts and control their layout with ease. Our guides below will show you how to use the editor.
In this guide
There are multiple ways to launch the WordPress Editor, depending on what you wish to edit:
To edit your website’s overall structure, navigate to Appearance → Editor. Here, you can edit your site’s menus, header, and footer. You can also edit the templates (which control the layout used by pages and posts) and patterns (content to reuse across multiple parts of your site).
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If you do not have access to Appearance → Editor, your theme does not support the Site Editor. We recommend switching to a supported theme to make use of the latest editing features in WordPress.
Edit the content of specific site pages using one of the following options:
Visit your site’s dashboard and click on “Pages“. Click on the title of the page you want to edit to begin editing.
OR
Navigate to Appearance → Editor → Pages. Select the page you wish to edit and click the pencil icon to start editing.
To write new posts and edit existing posts on your blog, visit your site’s dashboard and click on “Posts“. Then, click the title of the post to open it up in the WordPress editor and start editing.
Our dedicated guides will help you learn how to create content and make changes to your website:
Introduction to the WordPress Editor
If you’re new to editing in WordPress, this guide will help you get familiar with what you see in the editor.
Add Content Using Blocks
A block is a single piece of content in the WordPress Editor. This guide will teach you how to add blocks to your site.
Change a Block’s Settings
Each block of content has its own settings and customization options. This guide will show you how to find them.
Select and Move Blocks
This guide will show you how to move blocks to a different part of the page.
Blocks (The Full List)
The guide lists all the available blocks in the WordPress Editor.
Use List View
This guide will show you how to use List View, a useful feature when working with blocks.
Remove a Block
This guide will show you how to remove blocks from a page.
Write Text in WordPress
If you’re a writer or blogger, this guide will show you how to write articles, blog posts, and other text content in the WordPress Editor.
Add Links to Text
This guide explains the various ways to add links to your posts or pages.
Undo Your Changes
In this guide, we will show you the various methods you can use to undo the changes you make to your website.
Block Patterns
Block Patterns are a collection of predefined blocks that you can insert into pages and posts and then customize with your own content.
Use Pre-Made Page Layouts
Page Layouts are pre-designed pages with placeholder content that you can replace with your own text or images.
Keyboard Shortcuts in the Editor
If you want to keep your writing and editing flow seamless without reaching for a mouse, you can use keyboard shortcuts while working in the WordPress editor.
Convert from the Classic to the Block Editor
A guide to help you keep the editing process smooth as you change from the Classic Editor to the Block Editor.
Create a Pattern
Create your own patterns to use again on any page of your site.
Video Transcript
The WordPress Editor is where you’ll create pages and posts for your website. The editor is made up of three main areas, the top menu, sidebar menus, and the main content area. Let’s create a new post, and I’ll show you around.
To get started, add a title and then just start typing to add some text. In the WordPress editor, each paragraph, image, or other type of content is a distinct block with its own individual settings for adjusting things like color, width, or alignment.
When you’re editing a block, the toolbar will show automatically, and depending on the block’s purpose, the formatting buttons in the toolbar will change. Most blocks include some basic alignment and formatting options, but you can also change the block to a completely different type of block if you want. Click the options button on the right-hand side of the toolbar to show even more settings for this particular block in the sidebar. Because we’re editing a paragraph block, there are additional settings to change the color of the text itself or the background color. And there are options to change the size of the typography. And if you want even more control, you can enable additional options to change the appearance, line height, letter case, or even the spacing between letters.
Now, you can leave the sidebar open while you’re editing or click the icon at the top to close it. Remember, you can always access the sidebar anytime you like by clicking the options button in the toolbar. You’ll also find options to copy or duplicate a block, insert a block before or after this one, or even edit the underlying HTML code for this block. And if you’ve customized the options for a particular block, you might wanna save it as a reusable block to save some time.
You can also create a group of blocks or remove the selected block altogether. And notice that there are keyboard shortcuts for each of these functions. So you can work even more quickly with a little bit of practice.
There are several ways to add a new block.
When you finished editing a block, you can simply hit the Enter or Return key to create a new block below. And once you become familiar with the names of different blocks, you can type a forward slash followed by the name of the block you want to add. Then you can select the specific block that you wanna add from the list.
But you can also click the black plus icon to choose from a list of your most commonly used blocks.
Or click the plus icon at the top left of the editor to view the entire block library. Hover your mouse over a block icon for a description and preview of that particular block. As we scroll down, you’ll notice that the blocks are categorized into sections. For example, there are media blocks, like images and photo galleries, audio and video, design blocks, like buttons, columns and groups, widgets, to add custom HTML or even a list of your latest blog posts, theme blocks, like navigation menus, or post comments.
And finally, you can embed content from a whole list of services, like YouTube and much, much more.
At the top, you’ll also find a tab for block patterns. These are groups of blocks that have been combined into pre-built design elements or layouts you can add to any page or post. Click the Explore button to view a larger preview of all the available block patterns, or select a specific category from the menu on the left to find just the block patterns you’re looking for. When you find a pattern you like, select it, and the entire block pattern will be added to your page. Then you can click any of the individual blocks to edit the placeholder content and make it your own.
When blocks are grouped or nested like this, click the button to the left of the toolbar to select its parent group for editing. In fact, when you create a page like this with lots of different blocks, you might find the List View really helpful. Click this button to view a list of all the blocks you’ve inserted into the page. List View makes it easy to see the structure of your page, so you can select just the block you wanna work on.
You can also click and drag blocks into a different order, duplicate a block, or remove it completely.
Next to the List View button, you can view some details about your page, including the number of characters, words, headings, paragraphs, and blocks that are currently being used, as well as an outline view of your document.
And of course, there are also handy buttons to help you undo and redo any changes you might have made.
You can also toggle between the Edit tool, which allows you to edit the contents of a particular block, and the Select tool, which allows you to select an entire block or group of blocks. Once you’ve selected a block, press the Enter key on your keyboard to return to editing.
On the right-hand side of the top menu, you’ll find a link to save a draft, see a preview of your page or post, or publish it to your website.
Click the Settings button to open the sidebar menu, where you can edit all the details for this particular page or post.
And the Jetpack menu contains additional settings for sharing your post, adding a description for search engines, copying a short link, previewing what your post will look like when it’s shared on social media, and turning on or off likes and social media sharing buttons.
And finally, you can customize the settings for the editor itself so that it’ll work best for you. The default view is full-screen mode, which hides the toolbar that normally appears across the top and the main navigation menu on the left-hand side. This helps you focus on just your content and make the best use of your screen space.
If you want, you can view all the block formatting tools in a single bar across the top of the page rather than in context, above the block you’re editing.
And Spotlight Mode helps you focus on just the block that’s currently selected.
You can also switch from the visual editor to the code editor if you’re comfortable editing the underlying HTML.
And there are additional tools to help you manage any reusable blocks you’ve created, view a handy list of keyboard shortcuts that can help you navigate the editor more quickly, or view an interactive tour of the WordPress editor.
And you can copy all the content from a page, which you can then use to create a new page or post using the same layout.
And finally, in the Preferences section, you can enable an automated test to check for errors before you publish a page or post or customize the appearance of the editor itself.
In the blocks section, you can show your most used blocks at the top of the block library, and you can change the way the text cursor behaves inside blocks. And if you find that the block library is a little overwhelming because of the number of blocks that are available, you can disable or hide any blocks that you don’t plan to use. You can always come back here to turn them back on later.
And last, you can choose which document settings show up in the sidebar when you click the Settings button for your page or post.
We hope you found this tour helpful and that you’re able to get the most out of the WordPress editor as you create pages and posts for your website. For more help, please visit WordPress.com/support.
