The WordPress Block Editor provides several helpful methods for finding your way around the editor and ensuring you are interacting with the right block. These include the post breadcrumbs in the footer, the parent block icon in the block control bar, and the document overview.
Post Breadcrumbs
A quick way to establish exactly where you are in the block editor, is to view the post Breadcrumbs in the footer of the editor page. The breadcrumbs show the block where the cursor is located and which is the currently selected block.
You can easily see which block you are interacting with and, if necessary, click on a parent block to edit it instead.
Parent Block
Alternatively, for blocks which are nested inside other blocks (a list item, for example), you can click on the parent block’s icon in the block control bar, to select the parent block.
Document Overview
When your page contains a few more sophisticated blocks, such as Group blocks with nested blocks inside, it can sometimes be a little tricky to find and select the exact block you want to edit. The document list view (or document overview) provides an easy way to navigate within the editor.
Just click on the document overview icon in the top menu bar.
The document list view provides an easy way to view all of the blocks currently in your document and easily select a specific block, whether that is one of the containing blocks, or a block nested inside.
Blocks can easily be moved around the document, just by dragging to a different location. Drag a paragraph into or out of a group, drag an image into a column. If the block won’t “land” in the new destination, that’s probably because it isn’t valid eg trying to move a paragraph directly into a buttons block.
Click the document overview icon again or click the close button (x) to hide this window when you no longer need it.
Find the Right Block to Edit
Once the right block is selected, you can confidently edit its content, or access its settings in the settings sidebar, if desired.
More Information
For our introduction to the block editor, see Beginning with the Block Editor and Block Editor – Text and Formatting.