If writing a WordPress post in the block editor makes you hesitant because it takes you a long time to write, you’ll appreciate two shortcuts to speed up your writing.
Shortcut 1: Choosing a Block
When you first start typing in the block editor, the Paragraph block is the default.
But did you know you can type / (diagonal slash) to display a list of common blocks to choose from?
Scroll through the list to select the block you want and start writing!
Shortcut 2: Linking to an Internal Page or Post
My typical process to add links is to highlight text and use the Link icon from the toolbar that displays above the highlighted text to paste the URL.
Which works well when you’re linking to an external site.
However, there’s a faster method when you want to link to one of your own site’s posts or pages.
Type [[ (two left square brackets) to display a list of posts you can choose to link to.
Select the post you want and it will be automatically inserted into your writing.
A few things to be aware of:
- From what I can tell, using the two brackets will bring up the 10 most recently published posts/pages
- You can customize the list by adding text after the [[ to display posts/pages with that text in the title. For example, typing [[TEDxDetroit displays all my TEDxDetroit posts.
- The linked text will be the title of the page/post
When I first used [[ , I was a bit concerned since I have over 1,600 posts on the site. Will it be fast?
Yes, it was!
Here’s my example for our November 2022 Metro Detroit WordPress meetup announcement:
If you’re looking for a southeast Michigan WordPress meetup group, join our meetup group this month for Metro Detroit WordPress November 2022: Creating a UX Portfolio Site.
Wrapping Up
For me, writing a WordPress post in the block editor is a lot faster when I use shortcuts like the diagonal slash and two square brackets.
Hopefully it will be for you, too!
Have you found other shortcuts to use in the block editor? Share them in the comments.
The diagonal slash is the bomb, and I use it most often. Sadly, the WordPress editor is quite cumbersome when compared to other text editors, so I do my writing on a local text editor and copy-paste into WordPress. Anyway, thanks for sharing!
Hi Stuart,
Thank you for your comment. Yes, the diagonal slash is useful!
I understand why you find the editor cumbersome; it took me a while before I changed to the block editor. You’re not alone. I know many people who write in a local text editor and copy/pastes into WordPress.