As I’ve been doing this blogging thing a little while now and it seemed a good idea to pass on a few of the things that I’ve learned over the five years that I’ve been doing this. In easy and often geeky steps you’ll be taken through the steps and point out the pitfalls of taking your blog seed and growing it into something really amazing.
The Gutenberg editor has really landed now and is causing much of a stir. All the old ways of doing things have been messed about with and many are confused. I’m here to say to you all – don’t panic (see what I did there? Douglas Adams would have liked that). You don’t even need a towel to cry into, since my last post on the Gutenberg editor it seems WordPress have been making some changes and trust me on this, it’s making our lives easier.
I’m covering a few things in this post which I’ve heard people complain about and some things I’ve notices that are quite sweet.
1. Adding pictures to a post or page
It used to be that a picture was added inline to a post, but this is not the case anymore. Think blocks, everything from a paragraph to a title, picture is now a separate block so when you want to add a picture hover your mouse over the middle of the paragraph or other block and a + is shown.
Click that and scroll to Common Blocks, find image and then you have a familiar image upload / insert command page to use.
Images can be inserted into a block as a background with text over top like this:
Science Fiction
Again insert the block, go to common blocks and add cover. Add the image and then write in the text you want. Easy.
These text seems to be set at that size, but it’s a great creative little thing we couldn’t do before.
2. Adding the read more tag
This seems to have confused a few people, but it’s dead easy, easier than it was before…
Add a block (getting the hang of this aren’t we?) scroll to layout and add ‘More’
Done. Clean and no messing about with code.
As a little side note, as you use the blocks they appear at the top of the Add Blocks box as most used so you don’t have to hunt for them. Nice.
3. Ordering Blocks
Remember in the old editor you had a block of text before a picture and then you thought ‘crap, I want it after now!’
Gutenberg has this covered, no copy and paste move the mouse to the left side of the block and some up / down arrows appear – you can change the order. All that needs to be done is that you start thinking in blocks.
4. Copy Post
I missed this and it was annoying me, it’s not quote the same but if you want to copy a post to use as a template go to blog posts under the ‘My Blog’ settings section, find the post you want, click on the three dots and there’s a duplicate post function that works quite nicely. So now even I’m happy.
I hope this is useful, this has taken some time to get used to but seriously, setting aside some time to familiarise yourself with Gutenberg is worth it, this is a really powerful way of giving us far more creativity at our fingertips. It’s cool stuff!
Let me know how you’re finding Gutenberg and what issues you’re having!
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Simon's Space 
Oh thanks for all this information! I had tried it before and it’s a pain in the butt to get used to but I wound up switching back anyway because I could not get links to work at all. Maybe they got that worked out? Right now I’m sticking to the old editor.
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Oh I see, yes the links do work a little differently. I find the easiest way is to copy your link, type the text you want displayed, highlight it and then press the link button and paste in the text. From there you have options on the open in new tab etc.
Good luck with it!
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Simon thank you!! I hadn’t tried the new editor yet, and you’re inspiring me to do that. These tips are really helpful.
Have a great weekend.
Blessings
Debbie
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Thank you… I’m still using the classic editor as I don’t like change!
But your guide will be handy when they change the editor over 🙂
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If you don’t like change then you can carry on using the old editor.
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Ooo, thanks for the pictures! It actually looks kinda cool?!
Those texts with the blue background: is that also now a function? Cuz i have something similar, where i add background + frame around some text, but i have to paste the code manually.
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Yea there is now a super easy way to change text and background colour in there too. No code needed.
It is pretty cool and it actually makes a lot of sense. Try it and if you get stuck give me a shout. But if you look at this post and the other I wrote some weeks back it should help.
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Hi Simon, please keep posts like these up as new developments are made. It’s not always obvious to newbies what changes have occurred and posts like this really help. Thanks for taking the time to put it together.
Cheers
Jade
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Hi jade, I’ll make sure I do my best. This change had been pretty major and hard to keep up with but there are so many benefits, anything you need help with let me know and it may well become a post 🙂
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I’m not sure. I’ve not pressed that button yet to start using it. I’m used to the old ways & darn’t change because I’ve heard many bloggers don’t like it and I don’t want the hassle of battling when I’m doing ok with the normal way. If that makes sense?
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It makes sense, you can change back and it will be daunting. But when you get it, it’s great.
If you decide to go let me know. I’ll help you.
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I hate all editing, lol.
I want to picture it, write it, and blink and have it done 🤷♀️
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There’s nothing to stop that… If that’s what you need it works much the same 😀
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Ha
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You don’t sound convinced 😂
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I’m just starting to play with Gutenberg. Most of the problems I’m having are, I think, just me not being used to it yet. And it has cleaned up some of the formatting issues I used to have whenever I added images to my posts.
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It will do that, your have to think of everything in blocks. Text, pictures, titles, separators, the lot. Once you get it, it makes so much sense.
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Yeah, I kind of see the advantages. I just need time to get used to it.
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There is that…
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