It has been over a year since I published my displeasure with the Quote block. As a content producer, I frequently use and rely on this block but each time I use it, it becomes a battle that feels like David versus Goliath or me versus the block editor. Copying and pasting more than one paragraph into a block was impossible. Likewise, if the quoted text contained an ordered or unordered list, the block editor would turn everything into single paragraphs.
Recently, Gutenberg 13.8 was released and among the patch notes was the following text that caught my eyes.
After the recent Gallery block improvements, it’s time to re-introduce the Quote block. Thanks to robust nested blocks API, now you can shape the quotes to your heart’s content, which means that you can place any block inside the quotes
Since 2019, WordPress developers have been trying to figure out how to add support for nested blocks to the Quote block. In October of 2020, there was a renewed effort to revamp the Quote block which eventually led to the development of a Nested Blocks API. This API is what allows the Quote block to support different types of blocks and some of this work will translate into a revamped List block.
I downloaded and activated the Gutenberg plugin and gave the new Quote block a try. I can sum it up in two words. It’s wonderful. I can copy and paste multiple paragraphs of text into a quote. I can paste or create lists inside of a Quote. I can select multiple paragraphs that exist within the content and turn that into a Quote. These are all things that were either very difficult to accomplish or downright impossible before this change. I wish this is how the Quote block worked when the block editor was added to WordPress 5.0 in 2018.
What this means is that a major source of friction in the writing process is gone. I and many others can get back to writing instead of debugging. For me, the ultimate goal of the editor is to stay out of the way and allow me to write freely without creating hurdles that disrupt my flow. This is a welcomed change and I thank all of the developers and contributors who made it happen.
The changes to Quote blocks will likely be merged into WordPress core in the next major update. Until then, if you want to experience them now, you’ll need to install and activate the Gutenberg plugin.
