Why We Replaced Our Block Editor With Editing Right on the Page

The first version of C Building had two ways to make a website. You could describe your business and let AI generate it, or you could build it from ready-made modules: pick a header, a gallery, a pricing table, drag them into order, then edit their content and style.

That module-based editor, a block editor, is a well-proven idea. Many website tools use one. In August 2026 we replaced it anyway. Today you edit a C Building site directly on the page, the way it will look to your customers. This post explains why.

What a block editor is good at

Blocks are predictable. Every module has a known shape and a known set of settings, so it is hard to break a page. For someone starting from nothing, choosing from a menu of sections can feel reassuring.

We kept seeing the other side of that trade, though.

Where blocks got in the way

Everything had to fit the modules. A block editor can only offer the sections someone designed in advance. When a business wanted something slightly different, the answer was often "that isn't a block".

You edited a form, not your website. Changing a block usually meant opening its settings and filling in fields, then looking at the page to see what happened. People had to translate between the form and the result.

The AI and the person worked on different things. An AI website builder produces a whole designed page, not a stack of preset modules. Squeezing that into blocks meant either limiting what the AI could make, or giving people an editor that could not reach everything the AI made.

The last point decided it. The core idea of C Building is that after AI builds your site, you keep editing it two ways: by telling the AI what to change, or by changing it yourself. Both only work well if they act on the same thing.

Editing on the page

So we made the page itself the editor. In C Building's editor today:

• The canvas in the middle shows your live website.
• Click any text, image or section to select it and change its content or style right there. Right-click for more actions.
• Panels for layers, pages and images sit on the left; a style panel appears when something is selected.
• The chat panel lets you ask the AI for changes in everyday words, on the same page.

Because the AI edits the same rendered page you click on, you can switch between the two at any moment: ask the AI to redesign a section, then click in and fix the one word it got wrong. You are never locked into the AI as the only way to change your own site.

What we gave up, and what we kept

Moving off blocks meant giving up some of their guard rails. We brought the most important one back in a different form: a safety net. Every change can be undone from the version history, and nothing reaches your live site until you publish the update. The freedom to click anything is easier to use when you know you can always go back.

Templates did not disappear either. If you prefer to start from an existing design instead of a description, you can still pick a website template, and it doesn't use any AI credits.

Why we built it this way

Isn't a block editor easier for beginners?

It is easier to understand at first. But beginners don't think in blocks; they think "that price is wrong" or "this photo should be the other one". Clicking the thing you want to change matches how people already think about their website.

Can I still build a site without AI?

Yes. Start from a template or a blank site, and edit it on the page. The AI is there when you want it, not required.

What if I click something and break the layout?

Restore an earlier version from the version history. Your published site stays the same until you publish again.

Wrapping up

The block editor was a sensible start. Editing on the page is a better fit for what C Building is for: a website that AI builds and that you keep changing yourself, in whichever way suits the change. More on that idea in why we built C Building.