Pathfinding

[mtias]

This is an umbrella issue for improving the access points to various editing contexts.

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WordPress has generally maintained a clear split between content and templates. Historically, templates were outside the reach of regular users so most of its usability problems were confined to where template and content clashes the most — notably the "homepage" which exists in several possible states in WordPress as a template (home, front-page), setting (static home page), and content (when using static homepage).

This also meant that representing pages like "blog", "archives", or "search" wasn't viable in the interface because nothing was actually editable, instead existing as indirect settings in places like Settings > Reading or the permalink structure. Even though templates representing dynamic pages occupy a concrete path in the site structure they were not visible as such when a user navigated their pages or built navigation menus.

The introduction of the site editor and block themes is a significant opportunity to address some of these shortcomings at a more fundamental level, but it requires looking beyond the editor and into other admin views (like the list of pages and post types) to help connect the dots. For example, we could explore showing the "Blog" as a dynamic page with "Archive", "Date", "Categories", "Tags" as virtual subpages linking to the contextual template editing place in the site editor. This would allow reaching the right template without having to go first through the editor entry point, including more clearly representing what is acting as the homepage. The sidebar inspector for the template ought to also include settings present in Reading (like number of posts, etc).

Related to this, there are a few issues logged to explore surfacing template editing attached to individual pages or posts.

• When a block theme is active, provide a link to edit the page template from the pages list #41716
• When a block theme is active, provide a link to edit the post template from the posts list #41714
• When a block theme is active, provide a link to edit the category template from the category list #41715
• Enabling Gutenberg in WP categories #17099

[jameskoster]

Possibly one to consider here: #45099

[jffng]

including more clearly representing what is acting as the homepage

Here's an issue to consider #45644, though the suggestion now feels a bit backwards from the approach you describe here, which "requires looking beyond the editor and into other admin views".