Gutenberg: every paragraph is a block. Why?

  • It’s just one of the many annoying ‘features’ in the new Gutenberg editor: every paragraph is a block (unless you make ‘line break’ paragraphs with Shift+Enter, but my normal use for that is to have a new line within a paragraph).

    The question is: why was anybody thinking this is a good idea? I’m not aware of a text editor block in any page builder that does it like that. The result is that the writer has no real overview of his work.

    One of the moderators wrote (here):

    Each paragraph should be its own block, because otherwise you wouldn’t be able to put things like images between them.

    ??? In the classic editor, you just put your cursor where you want your image, insert it, choose whether you want it left, right or centered, done.
    These paragraph blocks don’t make that any easier, on the contrary I’d say.

    So, back to the question in the title: why is every paragraph by default a block? What’s the purpose? What is it good for? What does it make ‘simpler’? I honestly have no idea.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • Tom

    (@chapteradmin)

    My thoughts exactly. Blocks make it very difficult to write. Even writing in Word and then pasting into WP doesn’t help. If blocks were such a good idea MS Word would be using it. Am going to download the Classic Editor plugin and see howthat works.

    Moderator Samuel Wood (Otto)

    (@otto42)

    www.remarpro.com Admin

    That’s not the real question. The real question is this: why do you think that having paragraphs be their own block makes it harder?

    If I use the new editor and just start typing, then I hit enter, I get a new paragraph. I didn’t need to make a block. I didn’t need to do anything special, I just typed it in. Same as I would do with the old editor.

    If I need to merge a paragraph with the one before it, then I go to the beginning of the paragraph and hit backspace. The editor merges the two blocks for me. I don’t have to think, or even care, that each paragraph is its own block.

    The only time it matters that paragraphs are blocks are when I’m trying to insert stuff between them. Which is why they’re blocks, because I can click the + icon above one and insert a new block, like an image block or something.

    The purpose of having block structure is to more directly model the underlying system. In HTML, Paragraphs really are blocks. They have <p> tags surrounding them. Now, you’re used to not having to deal with that, because WordPress has always gone through and auto-p’d your text for you. Well, it still is here, it’s just doing it more directly, in your browser, where you can see it happening.

    Webpages are not Word documents. They move around, change according to what device you’re viewing them on. Blocks give the document structure and allow that reformatting to happen. If you don’t like them, then you can generally ignore them, because typing isn’t any different. Just type and let the editor handle the blocks for you.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
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