Browse All Blocks sidebar missing close feature

[scottnelle]

When selecting a new block and choosing to browse all in 5.5 beta 2, a left-aligned sidebar opens and, if a right-aligned editor sidebar is open, it closes. This in itself is pretty unintuitive, but I assume there has already been a lively discussion around why the browse all blocks sidebar should not be positioned consistently with the other editor sidebars on the right. That to me feels much more intuitive and preserves the existing conventions of the editor.

Assuming that's off the table, the issue I'm filing is that there is no intuitive way to close the browse all blocks sidebar and restore the previous editor state. The only way I've found is to activate a right hand sidebar. Because the left hand sidebar breaks the conventions of the editor, there's no reason for a user to expect to have to toggle a right hand sidebar to interact with it. I'd like to see one or both of these things happen:

• The browse all sidebar closes when a block is inserted, restoring the previous state of the editor with regard to sidebars.
• A close button exists attached to the left hand sidebar, restoring the previous state of the editor with regard to sidebars.

[afercia]

Related issue on the block editor GitHub repository: ​https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/22858

[scottnelle]

Thanks, @afercia! Another side impact of this is that when you insert a new block, if it has settings in a plugin sidebar, those settings are not apparent because the Browse sidebar is open on the left and the usual sidebar is closed on the right.

[mapk]

Hey @scottnelle! Thanks for writing this up.

When selecting a new block and choosing to browse all in 5.5 beta 2, a left-aligned sidebar opens and, if a right-aligned editor sidebar is open, it closes.

This is completely dependent on the screen size. If the screen width is too small to show them both, it will hide the Settings when opening the Inserter. If your screen is wide enough, it will keep the Settings opened even when opening the Block Inserter panel. There was definitely some conversations about this here: ​https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/20951#issuecomment-613113458 and an issue with a proposed solution was opened here: ​https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/23968.

The only way I've found is to activate a right hand sidebar.

The Block Inserter + in the topbar works as a toggle. So clicking it again will close the panel. It's not all that intuitive, and an issue addressing that was created: ​https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/22871.

[scottnelle]

Replying to mapk:

Thanks for the added clarity!

[afercia]

This is reported upstream on ​https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/22871 where there's some ongoing discussion.