By default, Blocks Edit has two formatting options for text: bold and italic. There's no font options, no custom colors, no text alignment, no bullets, etc. This is intentional, as we err on the side of sticking to a design's guidelines by limiting the ways that someone can potentially deviate from them.

This means that in order to allow for additional options, they have to be a part of the template setup in Blocks Edit. Here's how to include formatting options in your editable template that allows for more control over your design.

Content components

Components in Blocks Edit can be placed among content, including among paragraphs and other HTML text elements. So they can be as specific as a bullet list, or a blockquote.

For bullets, allow for different formats to use in different places. For blockquotes, what citation format do you need to follow? Should there be an image? This all can be fully customized by adding your own content component to use throughout text.

Variants

Along each of your components, or even within them, you can add alternate design options that we call variants. Within your template, next to a component or area that you want to offer alternate options for, you add what those alternatives would be and group them together. The user will then see numbers above the component or region that they can switch between.

So, for text alignment, you can limit it being overused for centered text, or decide not to have a right alignment option at all! Having a bunch of color options via a color picker of some kind is always a recipe for disaster. Variants let's you decide on areas where color alternatives make sense, and specify the appropriate colors to use.

There is no one size fits all for text formatting options. Using custom content components and variants allows you to do more with your design, while limiting options that affect it in a way that doesn't fit with intended design patterns.

For all the details on setting up your template's text formatting options, check out the docs.