Writing with the block editor

You use the same editor to write a message (a newsletter or a portal notice) and the text sections of your website pages. It works like a simple document: each paragraph, heading, picture or button is a block you can add, move and remove.

• Type / on an empty line to open the block menu. Keep typing to narrow the list (for example, type "/call" to find Callout), then press Enter or pick one.

• Or select the + that appears at the left of an empty line.

• The menu opens on a line of its own. Inside a list, a quote or a heading, / is just a slash.

• When the writing assistant is available, Draft with the assistant is the first choice in the menu. See Drafting with the assistant.

• Text, Heading and Small heading. Headings split a long message or page into sections.

• Bulleted list and Numbered list. Press Tab to move an item in one level and Shift+Tab to move it back out. A list can go five levels deep (fewer inside a callout, toggle or quote). Past that, the editor says "A list can't go any deeper here."

• Quote sets a quote or a kind word apart.

• Image and Gallery. A gallery shows up to 12 pictures in a grid. See "Pictures" below.

• Button. Button text and a link. A button without both is not finished.

• Callout. A tinted box that draws the eye to one note. Choose Note, Good news or Warning, and add an icon if you like.

• Toggle. A heading that readers select to see more, good for questions and details. In an email the toggle shows fully open, with its heading in bold.

• Video. Paste a YouTube or Vimeo link. In the editor the video shows as a plain card with its link. The link counts as soon as you press Enter, click somewhere else, or save. On a web page the video plays in the page. Email can't play video, so the email shows the video's picture with a link to watch it (for YouTube) or just a link (for Vimeo).

• Divider. A line between sections.

Callouts, toggles, galleries and videos go only in the main flow of the text, not inside another callout or toggle. Pictures and buttons can't go inside a list or a quote.

Readers never see an unfinished block: a button missing its text or link, a video without a link, or an empty picture spot is left out of the email and the web page, so a half-made block can't go out by mistake.

Select some words to show a small toolbar:

Strikethrough draws a line through the words, for example a date or a price that changed. It shows crossed out on the web page and in the email.

A link, a button, a linked picture and a caption link can all go to:

• a page on your club's website, starting with / (such as /join);

• a web address (if you type example.org, the editor adds https:// for you);

• an email address, written mailto:office@example.org;

• a phone number, written tel: and the number;

• a spot on the same web page, starting with # (such as #schedule). Pages brought over from the old editor sometimes use these. Email has no page to jump within, so in an email the words show as plain text, and a button that points to one is left out.

If a link can't work, the editor says so and shows the kinds of links you can use.

Add a picture with Image in the block menu, or drag a picture from your computer into the text, or paste one. Image opens your club's media library, where you can upload a picture or pick one from your library, GIFs or stock photos.

On a picture you can:

• describe the picture for people who can't see it (screen readers read this aloud);

• add a caption, and a caption link if the photo needs a credit;

• choose Normal or Wide for its width;

• use Link this picture to make the whole picture a link, for example a flyer that opens your sign-up page;

• Replace it with another picture, or Remove it.

A stock photo's credit ("Photo by … on Unsplash", linked to the photographer) is shown under the picture and can't be changed. The editor says "Credit required by the photo provider." Replacing the photo replaces the credit too.

An empty picture spot (for example one the writing assistant left for you) shows Choose image and Remove, and sometimes a note of what the picture should show.

Dragging or pasting pictures. Each picture uploads straight to your media library without opening the library window. One picture becomes a picture block; several become a gallery. A gallery holds up to 12 pictures: if you drop more, the first 12 are used and the editor tells you how many were left out. If a picture can't be uploaded, the editor names it and adds the rest. Several pictures dropped inside a callout, a list or a quote go in as a gallery right after it, and one picture dropped in a list or a quote goes right after it too. One picture dropped on an empty picture spot fills that spot. Write a description on each dropped or pasted picture: it starts empty.

Point at a block to show its handle in the left margin. Drag the handle to move the block, or select it for Move up, Move down, Duplicate and Delete. With the cursor in a block you can use the keyboard instead:

The handle's menu lists the same keys. A block inside a callout or toggle moves within it.

• Text copied from Word, Excel or PowerPoint pastes as text, not as a picture of the text.

• A table becomes one line per row, with a dot (·) between the cells. The editor has no tables.

• A picture you copied on its own, or a screenshot, uploads as a picture.

• Pasting into a heading gives plain text on one line.

If something in the editor can't be saved (for example, a message that is far too long), a note under the writing box says what to fix, and saving waits until you fix it. Nothing older is saved in its place. On a website page, the bar at the top shows "Not saved." with the same note, and Save draft and Publish wait too.

Anything you type while the editor is still loading is kept and moves into the editor when it opens.