In this episode, we cover:
- Block navigation
- Locating the cursor inside a block
- Getting rid of weird blocks and plus signs
- Force the same blocks to behave the same way!
*Thank you to Diane of inmyownstyle.com for letting us use a page of hers as an example.
Block Navigation
New! Hover over the icon of the block inline menu, and you can see a pop-up icon. That pop-up icon is the parent block.
For example, if you have a column, inside a 3-column block, inside a group, inside a container – you can get quite lost! The easiest way to figure out what a block is – and where it is – is to hover over that top left icon – in the inline menu. This menu:
How to get rid of weird blocks and plus-signs
If you’re seeing oddly placed plus signs on your screen while you’re editing – you’re not alone!
And there is no inline menu when you click them! And therefore there is no ‘remove block’ menu item because there’s no menu! It can be beyond frustrating. Right-clicking doesn’t do anything. Placing the cursor in it or out of it, or using the block navigation – all of it doesn’t do a blankety-blank thing.
Here’s a hack for you! Click on that plus sign… add a paragraph block. Type 123 or whatever. THEN hover over the block icon to get to the parent block. Once you have selected the parent block, then use the 3-dots menu to ‘Remove Block’.
Forcing Similar Blocks to Behave the Same Way!
One of the weirdest thing is when you’ve inserted 2 column blocks – or any two blocks, and they are acting differently from each other!
What this means is that one of them is inside another block that is co-opting its styles. It could be that both of them are inside different blocks or different layers of blocks and that is causing the issue.
Use the same hack as above – hover over the block icon (inline menu on left) and click the popup icon (the parent block’s icon). Keep hovering and clicking on the parent until you get to the very outside of all the blocks that are housing your misbehaving columns. Now you can drag those columns outside of the blocks that are not necessary. Or you can put the 2nd set of columns within the extra blocks, if that is the style you prefer. But one way or another – get those blocks to behave by putting them within the same container blocks.
Have a site / page that is driving you crazy? Let me know and we can publish some more tips for everyone to learn from!
Beginner Checklist
If you’re starting out, you’ll love our comprehensive 52 point checklist for your website! Read through once, and then work on items one at a time as it comes up!
Cathy Mitchell
Single Mom, Lifelong Learner, Jesus Follower, Founder and CEO at WPBarista.