With the introduction of the Gutenberg editor in WordPress 5.0, a new way of creating and managing content was introduced: Blocks. Blocks are essentially the building blocks of pages and posts within a WordPress website.
What are WordPress Blocks?
In the context of WordPress, a block is an individual piece of content that you add to your posts or pages. This could be a paragraph of text, a heading, an image, a video, a list, a button, a table, or many other types of content.
Each block is treated as an independent entity that you can manipulate. This means that for each block, you can adjust its settings, move it around on the page, duplicate it, and more. You can think of blocks as Lego pieces that you can stack on top of each other to create your content.
Different Types of Blocks
WordPress provides a variety of default blocks:
- Common Blocks: These include commonly used blocks such as paragraphs, images, headings, lists, and more.
- Formatting Blocks: These offer ways to add custom code, preformatted text, and tables.
- Layout Blocks: These include buttons, columns, media and text, page breaks, spacers, and more. They provide ways to create interesting layouts on your pages and posts.
- Widget Blocks: These allow you to add widgets (like shortcodes, archives, categories, latest posts, etc.) into your posts and pages.
- Embed Blocks: These allow you to easily embed content from external sources like Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and many other platforms.
Furthermore, many WordPress plugins provide additional custom blocks, enhancing the functionality and design possibilities of your site.
Conclusion
In the Gutenberg editor, blocks revolutionise the way users create content in WordPress. They offer a more visual and intuitive way of building posts and pages, enabling users to create complex layouts without needing to know how to code. This modular approach to content creation allows for much greater flexibility and control over how your content is displayed.
