Grids outside of a container and visible formatting lines

GenerateBlocks
#1

Hi, I have a couple of questions.

First off, I’m very happy with GenerateBlocks. After a bit of acclimation, I’m finding it very fast to use and it produces pages that are fast. I had to repair about 50 pages I had built using WPBakery after uninstalling WPBakery (they were slowing the site down too much), and I was able to make the pages look more or less the same as the originals very quickly.

Question 1: Is it possible to make the formatting lines visible all the time? By “lines” I mean the lines that show up when you select a container or grid. I realize that they are shown when the container or grid section is selected, but is there an option to make them all visible all the time? I’ve used the tool that looks like a directory structure to figure out what’s in what, but I still sometimes get confused when things won’t move where I want them to and have trouble figuring out why. I think seeing all the container lines at the same time might help.

Question 2: I’ve read a couple of times that the first step should be adding a container. I’m wondering why? As I mentioned, I’ve been remaking a bunch of pages. For some of the pages with really heavy formatting I’d cut and paste into Notepad, manually strip everything but the text and picture names, delete all of the page content, then paste the stripped text from Notepad.

On some pages I just started adding grids between blocks and it seemed to produce the desired results (usually a picture next to some text). I’m just wondering why it’s recommended to put everything into a container at the start.

Here’s a page I remade without first making a container and then adding grids to the container. It’s a mix of standard WordPress blocks and GenerateBlock grids.

Am I asking for trouble doing it this way?

Thanks for your time!

Paul

PS. Dumb question, but how do I leave a review on the WordPress plug-in area? I see the reviews, but I don’t see a link or button to leave a review. I’m probably just overlooking a very obvious solution, but for whatever reason it’s eluding me.

#2

Hi there,

Glad you’re enjoying it!

  1. I feel like I’ve seen a plugin that can do this, but I’m drawing a blank and my searches are coming up empty. Perhaps someone else can chime in if they know. I’ll keep an eye out and report back if I find it.

  2. This really depends on your design. I like to start with a Container block if there’s a chance I’m going to want to style the area. For example, if I want to add margin/padding/colors. It’s not essential, especially if you know you’re not going to want to style the area. Even then, you can always move your blocks into a Container, it’s just kind of difficult to do so in Gutenberg right now.

If you’re logged into WordPress.org, you can leave a review here: [GenerateBlocks] Reviews | WordPress.org

Thank you! :slight_smile:

#3

Hi,

This plugin will outline blocks when deselected. Has a few customization options.

1 Like
#4

Thanks Paul!

I just installed it and it does exactly what I was hoping for. I was able to immediately spot the issue on a page I was having trouble with. Perfect. Thanks!