Formatting the body of an article - Verba

Everything between the article header and the footer blocks is ordinary WordPress content, styled by the theme. Below is what to expect from each standard block, and which of Verba's own blocks belong inside a piece of writing rather than on a landing page.

#Headings

Use headings as an outline. The article title is the h1, so your first level inside the text is Heading 2, then Heading 3 under it.

The automatic table of contents is built from your headings, and so is the outline a search engine reads. Skipping from Heading 2 to Heading 4 to make text smaller breaks both. If you want smaller text, change the size, not the level.

#Quotes

Quote

The default. An indented passage with an optional attribution line. Use it for something somebody said or wrote.

Quote, plain style

The same block with the Plain style applied from the block sidebar. It drops the decoration and keeps the text, for a quotation that should sit quietly in the flow.

Pullquote

A line lifted out of the surrounding text and repeated for emphasis. The text in it should already appear in the article.

#Images

Verba sizes and crops images for you, and the lightbox is a core WordPress feature you switch on per image in the block sidebar. Do two things by hand every time:

Write alt text. It's what a screen reader announces and what shows if the file fails to load. Describe what the image shows, in a sentence, and leave it empty only when the image is purely decorative.

Write a caption when the image needs one. Captions are read far more often than body text, so a caption that repeats the sentence above it wastes the most-read line on the page.

For which file to upload and why an image looks soft or wrongly cropped, see Why your images look blurry, cropped, or wrong.

#Galleries

The Gallery block lays images out in columns, and Verba styles the grid at whatever column count you pick. A gallery of two or three images reads as a comparison; past about eight it reads as an archive, and a separate page usually serves it better.

#Tables

The Table block is styled with a header row and scrolls sideways on narrow screens, so a wide table never pushes the page sideways. The Stripes style in the block sidebar shades every other row.

Keep tables to tabular data. A table used for layout falls apart on a phone, and a reader on a phone is most of your audience.

#Code

Fenced code uses the Code block, which keeps whitespace and doesn't wrap. Preformatted text uses the Preformatted block. Both sit on their own surface so they read as separate from the prose.

#Separators

The Separator block has three styles: the default short rule, Wide line, and Dots. They mark a change of subject inside a long piece. Two separators in one screen means the section should probably be a heading instead.

#Drop caps

WordPress can enlarge the first letter of a paragraph, from the Typography panel in the block sidebar. Verba styles it. Use it on the opening paragraph only.

With Pro, Drop cap at VerbaTheme OptionsSingle PostGeneral, group Appearance, does this for the first paragraph of every post, on the advanced post layout.

#Block styles the theme adds

Two extra styles appear in the block sidebar. Verba Outline on a Button gives it a transparent fill and a border. Stack below laptop on Columns stacks them on tablets as well as phones, for a split whose narrow side runs out of room.

#Verba blocks that belong inside an article

Verba's own blocks come with the Pro plugin. The free theme styles every standard WordPress block above and adds no blocks of its own.

Most of Verba's blocks build page sections. These are the ones written for the middle of an article:

Quote

A designed quotation with its own attribution, avatar, and surface. More deliberate than the core Quote block, for the passage you want the reader to stop at.

Before / After

Two images with a slider between them. For anything the reader should compare in place rather than by scrolling.

Video Box

A video with a poster frame, so an embed doesn't load its player until somebody asks for it.

Image Hotspots

Points placed on an image, each opening a note. For diagrams, product shots, and anything you'd otherwise explain with "top left".

Singular Post

One post, rendered as a card, inside your text. The way to reference another article without dropping a bare link.

Quick Links

A compact list of links as a block, for a set of references at the end of a section.

Label

A small pill of text. For an inline marker such as Updated or Sponsored.

Button

A single call to action. Fine in an article, but one, and not next to the share buttons.

What each block's settings do is in Registered blocks.

#What not to do

Don't paste styled HTML from a word processor. It brings inline colors and fonts that survive the paste and then ignore your theme, including every future change to it. Paste as plain text, then format in the editor.

Don't set colors and font sizes on individual paragraphs. The style kit sets type and color for the whole site at once, and a paragraph carrying its own values stops following it.

Last updated 1 Oct 2026