To select a page to edit you can either search or browse for the page on the All Pages screen in the WordPress admin area, or visit the page on the front end while signed in and select Edit Page in the admin bar.

All pages must have a page title, parent page, and content. Additional features such as display settings or a featured image are optional.

Elements of the Block Editor Interface

  1. The title block, always the first editable field on the page, sets the main title of the page.
  2. Buttons to Save Draft, Preview, and Publish are found in the Editor top bar region. Note: when published, these buttons change to Switch to draft, Preview, and Update. If you select Switch to Draft on a published page it will unpublish and disappear for site visitors. Be careful.
  3. The main content area for adding, editing, and manipulating blocks of page content. You can either start typing directly in the content area or add a block using the Add block button in the Editor top bar region or in the content area.
  4. The inspector settings sidebar menu controls the document settings and additional settings for some blocks.
    1. Under the Document tab you’ll find post status settings, display options, page attributes (such as page parent), featured image settings, and more.
    • Under the Block tab you’ll find additional settings for whatever block you currently have selected.

All pages must have at least three basic elements:

  • A page title. Something brief and descriptive.
  • A parent page. Top-level pages are restricted use.
  • Some amount of meaningful, unique content. No duplicating content on other page, no lists of links to other pages without other content.

Creating a Page with the Block Editor: In Brief

  1. Enter a title.
  2. Save your work. (Save often.)
  3. Enter page content as blocks.
  4. Place the page under the correct Page parent.
  5. Preview & Publish. (Preview, Preview, Preview.)

Steps for Adding or Editing a Page: In Detail

1. Enter a Title

The title block will always be pre-populated as the very first element of the block editor content area. Every page must have a title. Do not leave this blank. On the front end this displays the main page title and is the heading level 1 (h1) element on the page. This will also be the page’s URL “slug”, so it’s important to choose something descriptive but also concise.

2. Save Your Work

The buttons to save, preview, and publish the page can be found in the Editor top bar. WordPress will periodically autosave your work, but it is still good to get in the habit of periodically saving manually with the “Save Draft” button.

You should always select the Preview Changes button before publishing your changes. Previewing allows you to make sure everything looks right before updating for real.

3. Enter Your Page Content as Blocks

The second block in a new page will default to a paragraph block: start writing or use the plus-shaped Add block button to choose a different block.

Choosing Add block will open a searchable menu with all the available blocks organized by category. Select the one you want to insert it into the page.

Each block comes with its own formatting toolbar (by default attached to the block) with settings for things like alignment and bold or emphasized font styles.

Blocks may include additional settings in the block inspector settings (by default in the right sidebar). Caution: Some of these settings require advanced help. Refer to the usage guide for guidance.

You can reorder the blocks using the arrows next to each block, or select and drag the block mover icon. Pressing Enter/Return while a block is focused (selected) will usually add a new block after it. Remove a block from the More options menu in the block toolbar (an icon with three stacked dots).

You can also copy and paste content from other documents (like Word documents) but keep in mind the formatting may get mixed up. These other formats include a lot of embedded styles that are invisible until pasted into the WordPress content box. To guarantee the best results make sure you start with a properly formatted text document (using built-in headings).

Use the block editor’s built-in accessibility helpers to check your page:

  • Select the “Content structure” button (which looks like a circled letter “i”) in the top toolbar to check for headings errors.
  • Watch for color contrast warning messages when changing colors on paragraph and other block elements.

4. Place the page under the correct parent

Every HRS page except several reserved top-level pages must have another page as its parent.

To assign a page’s parent locate the Page Attributes panel in the Document tab of the inspector sidebar. Select the appropriate parent page from the Page Parent menu.

Why is this important? Pages in WordPress are organized hierarchically in relation to the main domain or “root” (usually the home page). You can picture this like a tree or an outline:

  • Home page (the root)
    • Top-level page
    • Top-level page (parent page)
      • A sub-page (child page)
      • A sub-page (child & parent page)
        • A sub-page (child page)

This hierarchy corresponds to the web address (URL) of every page. Take the Faculty Recruitment Toolkit page, for example. Its address is https://hrs.wsu.edu/managers/recruitment-toolkit/faculty-recruitment-toolkit/. It is a sub-page of the Recruitment Toolkit page (https://hrs.wsu.edu/managers/recruitment-toolkit/), which is itself a sub-page of the Managers page (https://hrs.wsu.edu/managers/), which is a top-level page.

On the HRS website the root domain is https://hrs.wsu.edu/. All pages at the top level come immediately after the root — pages like Managers (https://hrs.wsu.edu/managers/), Employees (https://hrs.wsu.edu/employees/), and HRS Contacts (https://hrs.wsu.edu/hrs-contacts/). Only reserved landing pages and cornerstone pages should be at the top level. All other pages must be assigned as sub-pages to another page.

5. Preview & Publish/Update

Before publishing the page, make sure to use the Preview tool to view what the page will look like when published. When you’re ready to make the new page (or changes to the existing page) public for all the world, select the Publish or Update button.

If you’d like to schedule it to be published some time in the future: select the Immediately link next to the Publish label in the Status and visibility panel of the document inspector settings. Enter a date and time, select OK, and then select Publish.