Enhanced Block Management – Enhance Block Swapping – Intuitive Drag-and-Drop for Left/Right Reordering

[orionp13]

The current block movement system in Gutenberg relies on up and down arrows or a basic drag-and-drop mechanism, which can be restrictive and unintuitive. A more visual and flexible approach, similar to how Elementor or Beaver Builder handles block positioning, would greatly enhance the user experience.

Introducing a more dynamic drag-and-drop system would allow users to easily reposition blocks within the same container, moving them freely from left to right, and also enabling smooth movement between different containers. This would provide a more natural way to structure content, making it easier to create visually appealing layouts without friction.

The system should offer real-time visual feedback, displaying clear drop zones to indicate where a block can be placed. Additionally, an intuitive grid-based alignment feature could help snap blocks into position seamlessly. This improvement would make Gutenberg a more powerful and flexible tool for page building, reducing reliance on third-party solutions while keeping the simplicity of the native block editor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p22ysBa2Ce8

[hanneslsm]

The linked youtube video is explaining how the navigator in Elementor works which is basically the same as the List view in the block editor: https://wordpress.org/documentation/article/list-view/

Moving left and right is possible in the row block, in the grid block and the columns block.
The drop zones as soon as you drag a block appear.

Could you clarify what exactly you wish should be improved?

[orionp13]

What I’d like to improve is the ability to swap blocks within the same row effortlessly—for example, moving an image from the right to the left and text from the left to the right. Currently, this isn’t as seamless as it is in Elementor, where such changes can be made with a simple drag-and-drop action.

It would be great if Gutenberg allowed for this kind of smooth reordering within a row, without requiring workarounds like manually adjusting settings or recreating the structure. Enhancing the drag-and-drop functionality to make horizontal block swaps as intuitive as they are in Elementor would significantly improve the user experience.

Looking forward to your thoughts on this!

Vidéo :

bug.wordpress.switch.block.mp4