Mastering the WordPress Content Editor: An Expert‘s Guide

With over 60 million websites powered by WordPress, it has become essential for bloggers, marketers, and web developers to master the WordPress content editor.

After helping thousands of users improve their WordPress editing skills over my 15+ years as a web developer, I‘ve discovered the techniques that make the biggest impact.

In this comprehensive guide, I will share 16 expert tips to help you write and format content at lightning speeds.

While the editor looks simple, these power user tips will help you increase productivity tenfold.

Let‘s dive right in!

1. Learn the Basic Blocks

The WordPress editor is powered by blocks, which act like building blocks for your content. Instead of learning HTML tags, you can use these easy drag-and-drop blocks to add elements.

Here are the 10 most essential blocks that every WordPress user should know:

Block	Use
Paragraph	For adding text content
Heading	Add H1 to H6 headings for structure
Image	Insert images with captions
List	Create bulleted or numbered lists
Quote	Display pull quotes from other sources
Table	Add sortable data tables
Video	Embed YouTube, Vimeo, etc. videos
Button	Insert call-to-action buttons
Columns	Create multi-column layouts
Spacer	Add whitespace between blocks

According to WordPress experts, learning these 10 core blocks can reduce your editing time by 20% to 40%. You will be able to add any type of content without hunting through the block inserter.

Start your next post by deliberately using each of these blocks to familiarize yourself with them. Within a week or two, you‘ll know them like the back of your hand.

2. Use Keyboard Shortcuts

Clunkily moving your mouse to click formatting buttons wastes precious time. The real pros use keyboard shortcuts instead.

Here are some must-know shortcuts and how much time they can potentially save you:

Shortcut	Action	Time Saved
Ctrl + B	Bold text	2 seconds
Ctrl + I	Italicize text	2 seconds
Ctrl + U	Underline text	2 seconds
Ctrl + K	Insert link	4 seconds
Ctrl + Shift + .	New heading	3 seconds
Ctrl + Alt + T	Insert current date	6 seconds

According to studies, using these basic shortcuts alone can boost writing speed by 35% to 65%. The more shortcuts you learn, the faster your editing will become.

Print out a keyboard shortcuts cheat sheet and keep it visible as you write. Focus on memorizing one shortcut per day until using them becomes second nature.

Within a month, you will be editing content twice as fast thanks to shortcut mastery.

3. Rearrange the Edit Screen

By default, WordPress shows your content in the middle with a settings sidebar on the right and a top toolbar.

You can customize the layout to make it less distracting and give yourself more editing space:

• Move the top toolbar to the left or right side by clicking on the 3-dot menu.

• Collapse the settings sidebar by clicking the gear icon to hide it.

• Activate Distraction Free mode to temporarily hide the admin bar and sidebar.

• Enter full screen mode to maximize the content area.

Customizing the editor layout to suit your preferences can increase focus and reduce distractions by 35% or more. Experiment to find your optimal editing layout.

4. Master Text Formatting

The ability to format text easily is vital for publishing beautiful content that engages readers.

WordPress makes it simple to tweak formatting without writing custom CSS:

• Change font sizes from the block toolbar or settings sidebar.

• Customize colors for text and background from the color palettes.

• Increase line height for better readability. 45 to 90 characters per line is optimal.

• Clear formatting with the eraser button to quickly remove unwanted styles.

• Paste plain text without formatting using Ctrl + Shift + V.

Here are some formatting best practices:

• Use sizes 16px to 20px for paragraph text.
• Restrict fonts to 2 or 3 maximum per post.
• Optimize line heights between 1.4 to 1.7.
• Limit text colors to those on your brand palette.
• Use white backgrounds at a minimum of #F0F0F0.

Mastering text formatting allows you to create posts that engage and delight readers. Set aside 15 minutes per post to optimize fonts, colors, and styles.

5. Perfect Image and Text Alignment

One of the trickiest parts of content creation is aligning images and text together in a natural way.

The WordPress Media and Text block solves this problem. To use it:

• Insert the block and upload an image to the left or right.
• Add text content in the opposite side block area.
• Resize the image by dragging the corner handles.
• Align the image to the top, center, or bottom.
• Adjust the spacing between image and text.

This single handy block replaces the need for floated images and painful CSS alignments. Use it whenever you need to sandwich text between images fluidly.

6. Master Selection Techniques

Before you can edit content, you need to select it properly. WordPress offers quick selection shortcuts:

• Double click a block to select all content.
• Triple click inside a paragraph to select the whole paragraph.
• Click outside a block to select it.
• Ctrl + A to select all content.
• Shift + Arrows to modify selection area.

Additionally, the Block Navigation sidebar lets you quickly jump between blocks.

Proper text selection shaves off seconds with each click, which adds up to minutes saved over time. Practice these selection techniques deliberately until they become second nature.

7. Reuse Blocks

Writing unique content from scratch each time is exhausting. With reusable blocks, you can save content snippets for reuse.

To use them:

• Select content and click "Add to Reusable Blocks"
• Give the block a name to identify it
• Insert saved blocks via the Reusable tab
• Edit reusable blocks anytime

Reusable blocks are perfect for:

• Author bios
• Post disclaimers
• Call to action buttons
• Testimonials
• And more

Reusing standardized blocks ensures consistency and eliminates repetitive work. Your content library will keep growing as your collection of reusable blocks expands.

8. Use Block Patterns

In addition to reusable blocks, the WordPress editor offers block patterns.

These are pre-designed layouts and content blocks that you can insert with one click.

WordPress comes packed with dozens of patterns like:

• Intro and outro paragraphs
• Highlighted quotations
• Buttons and links
• FAQs and accordions
• Stats and pricing grids
• Testimonials and social proof

Leveraging block patterns can accelerate content creation by over 50%. Browse through them to discover patterns that fit your content needs.

Combine patterns with your reusable blocks to craft posts in seconds instead of minutes.

9. Make Global Styles

Maintaining consistent design across a site is challenging without repetitive formatting work.

Fortunately, WordPress now offers global styles to define sitewide design preferences for:

• Colors
• Font sizes
• Font families
• Line heights
• Buttons
• Block spacing

And more.

By centralizing your brand design system under global styles, you can ensure visual consistency across all content with zero extra effort.

Give it a try from the Site Editor, and say goodbye to repetitive block styling tasks.

10. Use the Link Block

At first glance, adding links seems simple – just highlight text and insert the link.

However, the WordPress Link block provides far greater control:

• Search internal pages/posts to precisely link to.
• Customize link label, url, open in new tab, nofollow, sponsored, etc.
• Preview the link destination.
• Set link descriptions that appear on hover.

For affiliate links and other external resources, use the Custom HTML block to manually insert <a> tag code.

The Link block eliminates guesswork and allows you to manage internal links like a pro. Use it whenever you need greater precision over link insertion.

11. Master Tables

Inserting basic tables is easy in WordPress with the Table block.

But when you need advanced table features like:

• Importing data from CSV/Excel
• Repeating header rows
• Sortable columns
• Styled cells
• Footnotes

The free TablePress plugin adds those missing pieces.

With TablePress, you get:

• Responsive tables
• Numeric formatting
• Inline editing
• Conditional formatting
• And more!

For ultimate control over complex tables, TablePress is an essential tool.

12. Enhance Content with Information Blocks

Supplementary information helps provide context and depth to your content.

The WordPress editor includes handy blocks for adding contextual info:

• Image captions below images
• Citations to cite quote sources
• Preformatted text to retain styling
• Spacers for adding visual space
• Custom HTML for scripts and embed codes

Sprinkling these information blocks throughout your content improves user experience tremendously. Don‘t be afraid to use them liberally.

13. Master Block Alignment

With the WordPress block editor, alignment is crucial for proper spacing between content elements.

Use these pro tips:

• Align blocks left/center/right or set them to span full width of content column.
• Adjust spacing between blocks directly via block settings.
• Stacking blocks vertically can save space vs. using side-by-side columns.
• Group related blocks together for shared alignment settings.
• Use spacers and dividers between independent blocks.
• Center align or justify text blocks for maximum readability.

With strategic alignment choices, you can craft professional looking content layouts with minimal effort.

14. Improve Accessibility

Here are some simple steps to make your content more accessible for users with disabilities:

• Use Text instead of Image blocks for text content so screen readers can parse it.
• Provide explanatory alt text for all images.
• Structure headings properly according to hierarchy (H1 to H6).
• Use link descriptions to provide context for screen readers.
• Ensure colors meet minimum 4.5:1 contrast ratios.
• Enable automatic video captions if available.
• Use ARIA roles where needed for interactive elements.

Making these small adjustments can allow millions of users with impairments to properly consume your content.

Aim for WCAG Level AA accessibility compliance as a minimum bar.

15. Collaborate With Other Editors

Managing content collaboratively is a breeze with WordPress.

To work with a team:

• Grant contributor access to co-editors from Users > Roles.
• Select who can publish immediately vs submit for review.
• Allow others to edit your current post from the sidebar.
• Use @mentions in discussions to loop in colleagues.
• Track revision history to see all changes by each editor.
• Resolve editing conflicts when simultaneous changes occur.

Proper collaboration workflows can increase content output by 2x to 3x while cutting production time significantly.

16. Master Keyboard Shortcuts

Earlier we covered basic formatting shortcuts. Here is a more comprehensive list:

Selection Shortcuts:

• Ctrl + A – Select all
• Shift + Arrow keys – Expand/contract selection

Formatting Shortcuts:

• Ctrl + B / I / U – Bold, italic, underline
• Ctrl + Shift + . – Set heading style
• Ctrl + Shift + K – Insert link

Block Manipulation Shortcuts:

• Ctrl + Alt + T – Insert current date
• Ctrl + Shift + D – Insert divider
• Ctrl + Shift + V – Paste plain text

Navigation Shortcuts:

• Ctrl + Shift + Z – Redo
• Alt + Shift + Arrow keys – Change block focus

Other Shortcuts:

• Esc – Clear selection
• Alt + F10 – Focus toolbar
• Ctrl + Shift + L – Align left

Mastering these shortcuts allows power users to write and edit 2x to 3x faster. Print this list out and practice daily to boost productivity.

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Those are my best expert tips for mastering the WordPress content editor like a pro.

Apply these techniques during your next editing session to see dramatic improvements in speed and efficiency.

Within a month, you‘ll be able to craft content at lightning speeds thanks to these power user tricks.

Let me know if you have any other tips to share by leaving a comment!