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

All posts must have a title, some content, a HRS Unit, and a feature image. Additional features such as display settings and tags are optional.

Elements of the Block Editor Interface

  1. The title block, always the first editable field in the editor, sets the main title of the post.
  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 post 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 posts must have at least four basic elements:

  • A title. Something brief and descriptive.
  • Some amount of meaningful, unique content.
  • An HRS Unit and Category. These taxonomies help organize post content.
  • A feature image. The feature image should relate meaningfully to the content.

Creating a Post with the Block Editor: In Brief

  1. Enter a title.
  2. Save your work. (Save often.)
  3. Enter post content as blocks.
  4. Assign the post an appropriate category and HRS Unit.
  5. Add a featured image.
  6. Preview & Publish. (Preview, Preview, Preview.)

Steps for Adding or Editing a Post: 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 post must have a title. Do not leave this blank. On the front end this displays the main title and is the heading level 1 (h1) element on the page. This will also be the post’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 Post Content as Blocks

The second block in a new post 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 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. Assign the Post an Appropriate Category and HRS Unit

One of the great things about Posts in WordPress is that they’re “dynamic” — they have a permanent web address (a permalink) but they can also be displayed by other pages as parts of collections based on metadata such as date, author, and taxonomy. Two primary taxonomies for HRS posts are Category and HRS Unit. Every post must be assigned to at least one (and no more than two or three) Categories and one or two HRS Units.

  • Categories: Are the high-level, central topics the entire post relates to. Examples include: New Employee Resources, Wellness, Inclement Weather, Policies, or Recruitment. Every post must have at least one category, and may have two or three. These categories will allow users to display all posts in the same category to quickly see related information.
  • HRS Units: Correspond to the originating unit of the post or the unit most representative of the post content.

5. Add a Featured Image

Every post on the HRS website must have a featured image for uniform display in post feeds or collections. Select an image that is high quality, at least 600 pixels wide, and closely related to the post content.

  1. Open the Document tab in the settings sidebar and expand the Featured Image panel.
  2. Select Set featured image and upload or select the image you prepared.

Optionally, if you don’t want the image to appear on the post’s page itself but do want it in feeds, you can open the Display Options panel and toggle the Hide Feature Image on Page option to on.

6. Preview & Publish/Update

Before publishing the post, make sure to use the Preview tool to view what it will look like when published. When you’re ready to make the new post (or changes to the existing post) 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.