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Audit block transforms #63635
Description
Let's audit:
- Missing block transforms.
- Existing transforms that don't make sense or behave strangely.
Existing
- Multiple => Headings does not make sense?
- Multiple => Columns: does it make sense after a certain number? Which number?
- Does SINGLE paragraph => columns make sense?
- Should there be a quote transform for blocks nested in a quote?
There is no way to unquote, see also Restore Unquote button #51934.Quote → Paragraph unwraps now (Quote block: Add transform to paragraph #51809). Similarly there's no way to ungroup from the transforms menu.- Group transforms: we need consistency:
- quote => group: transforms (see also Grouping a single Quote block transforms it (instead of grouping it) #58042, fixed by Block editor: make the Group action wrap blocks with a group transform #80891)
- cover => group: groups
- group => cover: leaves group
- What is the right behaviour? Transform? Or group?
- Maybe we need two "transform" categories: transform and wrap.
- Does paragraph <> code make sense? Also maybe remove Preformatted?
- Should we remove the multi <> pull quote transform (see Pullquote: Deprecate the block in favor of Quote block #11610)
- Transforming Image & Text => Image loses text.
- Image & Text => video does not make sense?
- Heading => list does not make sense?
- List => heading does not make sense either.
Missing
Details block: Add transform from paragraph #55602Details accepts any block since Details block: add transform from any block type #63422.Verse <> PreformattedAdded in Block Library: Add missing transforms between Verse and Preformatted blocks #70101.- There's no transformations if you select list items (without the parent list block)
Cc @richtabor maybe you have a good sense of what else is missing.
Activity
cbirdsong commentedon Jul 16, 2024
I couldn't find an existing issue for this, but a paragraph block containing only an inline image should be able to be transformed into an image block.
ellatrix commentedon Jul 17, 2024
Sure, we can add that
richtabor commentedon Jul 17, 2024
General notes
I think it's strange to promote transforming to columns, unless I have multi-selected blocks. Otherwise I just place the current block in one column, which is not quite as meaningful (and perhaps disorienting).
I'm not bullish on transforming to "Group" from the transform panel. It's great in the block options, as it's an action I'm taking, rather than a true transforming of the current block. We're mixing the ideas a bit including transform to group in the transforms panel.
I don't think we need two groups. I'm not sure that wrapping to anything other than group is super helpful in the editing flow (other than the case of multi-select with columns).
Transform priority
The notion of transform priority is an important one. I know we have a few in there, but it would be great if we could set prioritized transforms—especially for generic content blocks—like the image block to prioritize gallery and cover for example (and review the current prioritized transforms).
Apart from the list you made, just making Columns multi-select only, and removing "Group" as an ever-present transform (relying on the block options group functionality makes the transform panel much more intentional. Then with just a few prioritized transforms for content and images, I think it'll be super solid.
richtabor commentedon Jul 17, 2024
Agreed
Yea, probably doesn't make much sense. Perhaps if you have multiple content blocks selected, you can transform to List.
I can see these being ok perhaps. It's likely confusing for many users to see "Peformatted" though
It's probably fine.
annezazu commentedon Aug 8, 2024
Putting out there to include a way to transform between List types if possible while I know this broader issue to allow more control ideally would need to be done: #51480
For now, there's not a way to transform between ordered and unordered items (you can select the parent list and change but still, it's an extra step):
transform.list.mov
Happy to open a specific issue for this but it felt on the edge to me.
ellatrix commentedon Aug 15, 2024
@annezazu Yes, it's a general problem with list item transforms. I was also trying to convert a list to paragraphs and couldn't after selecting multiple list items. I wonder how we could best solve this. Technically, the list items are selected, not the whole list, so no transforms match (even if we add them, you can't insert paragraphs into a list block).
Anyone who cares about list that is good to ping? I think @jasmussen cares about lists and transforms 🙂
jasmussen commentedon Aug 16, 2024
Well, specifically for lists, I'm not sure transforms is the best interface at all. It's a list block, it's not an ordered list block with a unordered list block to transform into.
To that end, I'd think this is rather a challenge with the block toolbar itself, which for the List specifically could benefit from showing some of the parent properties.
There's something we could try; it might need refinement, but it still seems made for this. For the Buttons block, we have a feature to absorb into the child block the controls for the parent block. Not here how the justification controls are available regardless of which "layer" I've chosen:
This is not yet applied to the list block:
But it seems worth trying. The only downside, the list block toolbar could get pretty long. Mockup:
Marc-pi commentedon Nov 7, 2024
a frequent need is to convert from paragraph (link) to Buttons #66846
EvanLTD commentedon Apr 20, 2025
Columns => Group is currently useless. It's available in the transform menu, but doesn't actually "transform" anything. It just wraps the existing columns block inside a brand new group (if that's what we wanted, we could already accomplish it via regular grouping functionality).
Logically, Columns => Group should remove all columns + column wrappers, leaving a simple group containing the inner content blocks.
mtias commentedon Dec 8, 2025
@ellatrix should this one be closed? Not sure if it's useful anymore
cbirdsong commentedon Dec 12, 2025
These are both definitely still issues.
I would also call out transforming Media + Text or Cover into an Image - any text content is just dropped:
CleanShot.2025-12-12.at.10.46.52.mp4
It looks like there have been a few PRs attempting to address that, but they haven't been merged: