Stay in the selected Sidebar (Inspector) tab when you switch blocks (for example the Styles tab)

[aurooba]

What problem does this address?

A lot of the times, when you are making rapid changes in the Block Editor, you are working on the same thing, for example, updating the background colour for all the groups in a certain section (a common scenario for me), and it feels cumbersome that every time you switch blocks, you have to then also switch over to the Styles tab again.

What is your proposed solution?

It would be nice if it would remember if you were in the Styles tab or the Settings tab and remain there as you rapidly go between blocks.

Related issues

• Inconsistent closing of settings panels #18418
• Block settings should stay visible for blocks of that type once have been activated even if no changes are made #48306

[bacoords]

👍

[JosVelasco]

Applying the same style to the sibling blocks with a click could also be cool.

[skorasaurus]

related #18418 (although this ticket is for which tab should be open, not whether the tab is expanded.)

[skorasaurus]

Applying the same style to the sibling blocks with a click could also be cool.

@JosVelasco If I understand correctly, this is already possible, through the copy styles in the block settings menu;

[JosVelasco]

@skorasaurus true! I was thinking about a more automatic approach, but copy styles are one of my favorite recent features.

[aurooba]

@JosVelasco I think the automatic approach could have a lot of unintended side effects, and changing block styles without explicit user consent would be very jarring. I could perhaps see an application where there's a button/dropdown that lets you copy/implement the styles of a certain block, but since block labels aren't a thing, that wouldn't be feasible. So I'm not sure that would make sense.

[aurooba]

related #18418 (although this ticket is for which tab should be open, not whether the tab is expanded.)

Definitely related! That issue is essentially the same request I'm making, except that one targets panels, and my request is for the tabs that house those panels (in many cases).

[james-s-k]

I also find it very tedious to have to keep switching back to the styles tab when a new block is selected. If the previously open tab was stored somewhere in memory and the next block you click on has the same tab open, that would be a huge UX improvement IMO.

[mrfoxtalbot]

Thank you for opening this @aurooba. Would you say this is related to #48306 ?

[aurooba]

@mrfoxtalbot its definitely within the same realm of ensuring the editor is reacting to the user in a helpful manner. I agree with you in that issue that it'd be nice if a panel that was revealed was then revealed anywhere it's available.

Both issues tackle different aspects of the same category of refinement, for sure. :)

[aurooba]

Noting that Stackable's new UI already handles this, so we are seeing this come to third party block library plugins already, which is a sign of its usefulness.

AND it should be noted that this is a pretty common feature available in third party design tools that extend WordPress (block editor or otherwise).

[hanneslsm]

Can we please get some traction in this issue? What's needed to move this forward?

[bacoords]

Just wanted to add context for anyone here that there was a draft PR but progress seems to have stalled after potential A11y concerns were surfaced.

#55836

[andronocean]

When using the block editor for substantial design work (FSE or complex page layouts) this becomes incredibly frustrating, as does the problem described in #41544. Really need a fix!