Day: June 23, 2020

Did you see the “Columns” block?

[I should say at the start, you’ll need to view the post on my site to appreciate this.]

Well, first of all, did you see the quiz I post yesterday? It went something like this:

1.blah blah blah

In fact, to get there, I had to select a Table block and edit it manually. If I’d have just created a table from the editor, and used it as is, I’d have got:

1.blah blah blah

See how it mangles the widths?

So I sent a message to WordPress and asked if there was any way to do this visually, without faffing around with the underlying code. Turns out, there is a block called the Columns block instead. This allows me to create my columns, entirely within the visual editor. Set the widths, and all.

I thought I’d mention it for two reasons. First, this appears to be quite a powerful block. After you’ve said how many columns you want, you can not only set their widths, but you can also fill then with whatever other blocks you like. I mean, I was only interested in writing a bit of text, but you could put images, or lists, or (I guess) loads of other things, if the fancy takes you.

Second, this is the one time I have to go beyond the block editor and fiddle with the underlying code.

I’ve seen/used these blocks where you can display media and text side-by-side, but it’s clear to me now that that is just a special case of a Columns block. So, this is what my quiz would’ve looked like if I’d have used the Columns block.

1.

blah, blah, blah

or

The quick brown fox

  • blah
  • blah
  • blah
2020-12-25T00:00:36

  days

  hours  minutes  seconds

until

Christmas

and all done visually!

Tick Tock Tuesday (23 June 2020) – Simon and Garfunkel

I thought I’d create a new challenge. It is a challenge primarily for me, because I’m new to this platform, and because you don’t really know me yet, nor I you. As my name suggests, I am recovering from a stroke, and I like to push myself in all kinds of little ways… including getting to know the Wonderful World of WordPress. Although this is something I will be doing, I invite you, if this idea takes your fancy, to play along with me and share with me some of your own selections.

My plan is: each Tuesday, until I run dry, I shall post some piece of art with which I have some connection – which has helped to mould me, which makes me tick. Okay, a piece of art is a bit vague – it might be a piece of music, a movie, a book, a painting, or ???? – so my phrasiology is deliberate. It might be anything – I will play this post by ear, so I’m not sure what I’ll think of each week. And, I’ll keep posting on the theme weekly until I run out of ideas.

My rules? Well, I’m not big on rules! My choice will be something with which I feel a connection. That’ll be the important thing, just having some kind of fleeting affection for something probably won’t be enough, unless I’m using my choice as an example of something bigger.

It will be one choice per week – I’m aware that long posts can be quite onerous to read, and I’m in no hurry to complete this so if I have two ideas, I’ll probably hold the second until the next week.

In that same vein, I’ve created this block as a Reusable Block, which I intend repeating for every post on this theme. The block ends with a full-width separator, so if you want to skip ahead each week it doesn’t really matter.

I probably won’t post any lyrics, or any kind of analysis – if you like my choice, the information will be out there for you. But I will try to briefly explain why I feel a connection to my choice, just to try and enhance readers’ understanding of what makes me tick.

I will tag my posts TTT and I will go looking for other posts with that tag. If you’d like to join in, please do the same, or comment, or pingback to this post, and feel free to reproduce my graphic. Lastly, I look forward to reading about what makes you tick.

At this point, I have to say that I am now pretty much out of inspirational ideas – I think I can come up with just four more, to take me through to late July. After that, I’m not sure.

However one pair who had a big influence on my early teenage years was Simon and Garfunkel. I still enjoy them now, and I have already posted in this series on Paul Simon. But today wanted to talk about the duo. I know from the number of times they have featured on Song Lyric Sunday, how well others of you rate them, too.

I am too young to remember the first time around. I listened to them at least fifteen years after the songs were first released, but no matter – I still listened to them so much, I could sing along, taking their LPs out of the library. And as an adult, with buying power, I ended up collecting it all on CD.

So today I just wanted to pay tribute to Simon and Garfunkel.