[bimsonz]

Design proposal

Proposal: proposals/columns-block-editing.md

Core's columns block is written by the WordPress importer and rendered by Columns, but the editor can't edit it. This plan makes it editable, as Louis Escher's nesting block RFC in #2049 asks, using the block core already has instead of a new type.

I've run a version of this on boulderbrighton.dev since August for its header, footer and page layouts. The implementation is written on current main, and I'll open it once this plan is settled.

Today an imported columns block opens as a card that can't be edited:

Editing columns side by side doesn't work at laptop widths. With three or four columns each one is a narrow strip, and a page of a few rows runs to several screens:

So in the editor a columns block is a map of its layout. Each box is a column at its relative width, showing its first heading and the kinds of block it holds:

Clicking a box opens that column underneath at the full width of the editor, where its blocks are edited as usual. Done, or carrying on elsewhere in the page, closes it:

On the site the same page renders as columns:

Proposal type

• Feature plan
• RFC
• Amendment, supersession, or withdrawal

Related work

Discussion: #2049

#2248 was my earlier PR, built on Louis's prototype. It was closed for an unsigned CLA, and the implementation will come as a new PR. #1967 made the gallery block editable the same way. Of the open design PRs, #4168 leaves Portable Text blocks out of scope, #4196 changes the table's own controls, not where a table can go, and #4240 changes how media usage reads custom blocks, where this plan only makes that walk reach blocks inside a column.

Readiness

• The proposal identifies its author and, for an RFC, its champion and Maintainer sponsor
• The proposal describes observable behavior, compatibility, failure handling, and verification in proportion to its risk
• Conflicting accepted or pending proposals are reconciled in this pull request
• This pull request contains no implementation code
• The proposal status is accepted (check only when ready to merge)

AI assistance

• This proposal used AI assistance - model/tool: Claude Code (Claude Opus 5.5)

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