Blocks: Make it easier to create text blocks

[jasmussen]

Following #1195, and expanding on what we discussed here: #1082 (comment), let's discuss how to make it easier to create text blocks.

Currently, if you are just writing, you are creating text blocks along the way just by pressing enter. But if you insert an image at the end of your blocks, suddenly you have to click Insert > Text, in order to continue typing. That's fiddly.

Should we give "text" blocks special treatment compared to other blocks in the inserter? Here's an idea for doing that. Here's a fresh post with a writing prompt:

The writing prompt above looks like a text block, but it's more like a text block placeholder. Here's what happens when you hover:

The placeholder is essentially a glorified shortcut to inserting text at the bottom of the block list.

Note: the dotted outline is an additional experiment for these mockups to always show a faint outline on blocks on hover, not just the left side.

Like the bottommost inserter, this text block placeholder would always sit at the end of the block list, ready for you to create more text:

As it stands, the above concept is only slightly different from what is in master, in that it always has sits at the bottom. But theoretically we could augment it in the future, to for example provide a neat oembed, or shortcode, or even commandline interface (see #834 ). That is — we could make it so it wasn't an actual text block on click, until we actually detect what's being written.

Any thoughts?

[jasmussen]

CC: @youknowriad

[youknowriad]

Looks good to me, maybe we should change the text of this placeholder if the post is empty.

[jasmussen]

Yes that's good. I know John Maeda had some thoughts on maybe having multiple writing prompts. I'll chat with him and hear his ideas.