Using the Site Editor, you can design everything on your site using blocks, from the header right down to the footer. This guide will show you around the editor.
In this guide
To visit the Site Editor, follow these steps:
- Start from your site’s dashboard.
- Locate Appearance on the left side.
- Click on Editor.
If you do not see Editor here, your theme does not support the Site Editor. We recommend switching to a supported theme to make use of the latest editing features in WordPress.
When you arrive in the Site Editor, you will find:
- A panel of options on the left, described below.
- Your website’s homepage on the right, as determined by the homepage you have selected in Reading Settings.
- If you click anywhere on your site on the right side, it will open the editor and close the left sidebar:
The left sidebar provides the following options:
- Navigation: Manage your site’s navigation menus.
- Styles: Customize colors, fonts, and other design aspects of your site.
- Pages: Edit the content of individual pages of your site.
- Templates: Edit the structural layout of your site’s content.
- Patterns: Edit smaller parts of your templates (such as the header and footer) and patterns you’ve created.
Your homepage will be displayed to the right of these options. Click anywhere in this area to close the left sidebar and open your homepage in the editor.
At the top of the Site Editor are a number of options, explained below:
- Open Navigation: Click once on your site icon (or the default icon if you haven’t set one yet) to return to the left sidebar options described in the previous section. Click it again to return to your dashboard.
- Toggle Block Inserter: Click this to add a new block.
- Tools: Choose between editing a block and selecting a block. Choose the Select tool to select individual blocks. Once a block is selected, press the Enter key on your keyboard to return to editing.
- Undo: Reverse the most recent action taken.
- Redo: Un-reverse an action you reversed using the Undo button.
- List View: View a list of all of the blocks that are on the page. List View is useful for seeing your page’s structure and editing, moving, and removing blocks.
- Command Center: This shows the name of the template you are editing. Click this to search through your site’s templates.
- View: Display a preview of your site’s appearance with the changes applied.
- View Page: Open the page in a new tab.
- Save: Save your changes. Learn more about saving.
- Styles: Customize the colors, fonts, and more. Learn more about Styles.
- Settings: Display or hide the settings sidebar on the right.
- Help Center: Search our helpful guides or contact support on eligible plans.
- More Options: Opens additional settings and tools.
When you click the “Save” button to save changes you’ve made in the Site Editor, it will note the places you’ve made changes to. You can choose to save all or just some of them. Note that some changes (like changes to the Header and Footer templates) will apply to all pages of your site that use those templates and not just the page you were working on.
You’ll find the settings sidebar on the side of your screen.
If you do not have the sidebar on the right, click the Settings icon in the top right corner to bring up the settings. This icon looks like a square with two uneven columns:
At the top, you will find the name of the template used. Click the ellipses (three dots) to the right of the template name to reset the template to the theme’s default, undoing any customizations you made.
If any previous versions of the template exist, you’ll find a “revisions” link. This link is useful for reverting previous changes without resetting the template completely. Learn more about template revisions.
Under the “Content” section, you’ll find template parts (commonly the header and footer), which you can click to update those site-wide elements.
Click on the “Block” tab to view the settings for the specific block you have selected.
Use Styles in the Site Editor to choose color palettes, fonts, layouts, and more design aspects that affect your site as a whole. Learn how to use Styles.
Here are more helpful resources and tutorials to learn more about all aspects of site editing:
