Block Based Widgets Overview
WP 5.8 introduced Block-based Widgets. However, they do not work on all themes.
See this overview for how your current widgets will appear in the new layout, and how to return to your standard widget area, if you want to do so.
Genesis – BBW turned off by default
Since the Genesis 3.3.5 release, the new Block-based widget area is turned off by default.
See this tutorial for the code needed to turn it on.
Blocks Not Supported
As of now, blocks that are associated with Full Site Editing are not supported in the new block-based widget editor, such as Site Logo, Site Title, etc.
Reusable Blocks are also not supported in the widget editor at this time either.
Access Your Widget Area
There are 2 ways to access your widgets, and they do work a little differently with the new layout.
Preferred Way
Go to Appearance > Widgets.
This is the method shown in the course tutorials.
Secondary Way
Go to Customizer > Widgets.
Due to the small size of the Customizer sidebar, it can be hard to edit your widgets if they include multiple steps.
After you add a new block, you will need to click on the More ellipsis and choose the “Show more settings” option.
This option is not covered in the course tutorials.
Existing Widgets
All of the native WP widgets will be in Group blocks with other blocks nested inside. See the Add New Widget tutorial for details.
All of your existing widgets that do not have native block support will be in the new Legacy Widget block.
They will perform normally and you can easily edit them as you did before.
See the Legacy Widget tutorial for details.
You can choose to use the Legacy Widget block for any new widgets too, or use any Gutenberg block that you have installed, either from:
- the native WP blocks
- plugins that have Gutenberg block support
- your specialty block plugins, like Ultimate Addons for Gutenberg
Return to the Classic Widget Area Layout
If you are positive that you don’t want to use the new block-based widgets, you can return to the original layout by using the Classic Widgets plugin.
But, seriously consider giving the new block-based widget layout a try unless it just does not work well with your theme.