Father and daughter
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Well, without any warning whatsoever, on attempting to edit a post this morning I was propelled directly into WP’s new Block Editor. Have to say it came as something of a shock, and an unpleasant shock at that. I’ve spent time looking at this new editor and can see that its far too complex for my fairly basic needs, its certainly not for me.
But >>> good news! While in the Block Editor, I went the the “three dots” options icon on the extreme right of the toolbar and pressed it, and right at the bottom of the options displayed is an option to use the Classic Editor, WordPress’s original post editor, and I clicked onto this, apparently to no effect.
However, when I take my usual path into post creating/editing – which is My Sites >>> WP Admin >>> Posts >>> All Posts – each post in this list now has a Classic Editor editing option, which takes me straight into the really very simple, efficient and fast Classic Editor that we all know and love so well. In particular, I’m very happy to still have the ability to get into and edit the code underlying the posts. Now, I have no idea whether my seeing the Classic Editor option on my All Posts screen is due to my having made the selection described in the previous paragraph or not but >>> I can use the Classic Editor, easily, now.
So, to add a new post, I go to the All Posts option mentioned above and select Add New. This opens a new post in the Block Editor and I give this post some sort of title, however interim, and I then save a draft. I access this saved draft in the All Posts list and select the Classic Editor editing option – and I’m back on track!
Now, I have no idea if this is what I’m “supposed” to do but – it works (or at least appears to) and that’s all that matters >>> I can get back to creating posts in a very simple to use editor.
I say again that I’m by no means ANY sort of expert here, but if anyone is having problems accessing the Classic Editor, I’m very happy to try and help out.
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FATman Photos 
I will put my negative comment in also. I had a graphic design business for over 35 many years inSiliconValley. I had a self hosted business web site and put a self hosted WP blog on the same server, this was back about 2002 . I learned from the posts of “Little Potato” how to develop a WP site, and then learned how to use PHP and JS and went on to do it for others in my business.
When I retired in 2016 I thought I would just maintain the small server fee and keep my WP blog going, but the server was sold and the new owners tried to scam me so I dumped the whole thing and went to the free WP option,which was alright for me as I just wanted to do straight forward running copy and photos.
The new process takes me about 3-4 times as much time to do the same amount of content in a post. It might be fine for people who want to have more complex styling but just putting words and images without styling should be not the kind of problems I have.
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Steve, for me at least – and I suspect for many others too – YOUR FINAL PARAGRAPH SAYS IT ALL!!!
We live in an age of image and hype, and so often see the triumph of styling over content. But I’m like you. All I’m interested in is presenting my pictures on WordPress, and my thoughts / words too. I have no need of styling, my posts stand or fall on the quality of my pictures and words.
So here we have it. The Classic Editor does all we need, in an accessible, user friendly way – and, as you’ve quantified, significantly faster and more efficiently. Thank you indeed for this concise clarification. Adrian 🙂
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Block Editor reminds me of old Microsoft FrontPage (dating myself) … users never did get comfortable. WP.com has so many different types of users perhaps they feel this is better for the average client they have. Add a few easier, less clicks, to ‘Classic’ and all will be happy. Just sayin.
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Hate it too! It took me quite a while and a lot of stress to find at the top of the all posts list where I can add a new post from the pull down as classic editor – all other ways failed and I just happened to find this way of still using the old editor. All other supposed WP ways of reverting all ended up with them wanting me to pay them $376 (USD) for a year’s fee to have the ability to download plugins – not impressed but glad I could still use the old editor.
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Sheila, good to hear from you! Very glad you’ve found your way to the Classic Editor. Thanks! Adrian 🙂
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I just logged in and was thrown into Block Editor for the first time whilst trying to create a new post. I looked at your instructions above and clicked the 3 dots but there wasn’t an option to use the Classic Editor. I then went to ‘all posts’ within wp-admin and was able to go to an old post I had saved as a draft and click on the Classic Editor option. I’ll now delete that content and create a new post. What a faff.
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I’m not certain, but please re-read the 4th paragraph of this post. Open a post in the Block Editor, give it an interim (or final) title, save it as a draft in the Block Editor, close it and then access the draft in the All Posts list, and select the Classic Editor editing option. A
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I’ve discovered a different way of accessing the Classic Editor – read about it on the WP forum. Here’s a link to the blogger’s site where she describes how to access it – with a picture:
https://inmyrealife.wordpress.com/2020/10/02/im-not-a-happy-bunny/
I’ve managed to create a post with the block editor and am about to post. It really is extremely clunky to use 😦
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M, thanks very much for this, I’ve put it into my Favourites. She seems to think that people with old blogs can still use the Classic Editor – but your blog is around the same age as mine so that ought to include you. I’m impressed that you’ve created a post with the new editor. A
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Rereading that link you’ve given me, it seems important that as many bloggers as possible see it. If its ok with you, I think I’d like to put another Talking Images post featuring this link and encouraging others to read it – is that ok with you? You might also like to do the same on your blog, so that we reach the greatest number of bloggers. What do you think??? 🙂
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I’ve no problem with that at all, my friend; as many people we can reach all the better. I had added it to my post from earlier. 🙂
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I forgot to add; it does work on mine: yippee 🙂
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The Great Stuff reserves have run dry, so I’ll just have to bawl OH JOLLY HOCKEY STICKS!!!!!!!!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
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Oh, no! We’ll have to fuel up on more Great Stuff from the Great Stuff Station 🙂
Jolly Hockey Sticks is a good substitute though. I’m just going to bully off 😀
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🙂 🙂 🙂
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Excellent!!! Many thanks!!! Oh, and uh ……. GREAT STUFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
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The classic editor script is working again too. It’s IMO the best way to make all buttons refer to the classic editor (as long as they don’t remove it entirely). Here is a guide:
https://diaryofdennis.com/2015/03/24/how-to-force-a-redirect-to-the-classic-wordpress-com-editor-interface/
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Dennis, thank you very much for all your help, its very good to be in touch with you! I must rush now, but I’m just about to put out another post on these issues which contains an interesting link. Many thanks! Adrian
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Thanks Adrian, going the Draft route got me to the old Classic! I must be on a similar calendar as you, all was fine last time, and today, Bang! I was successful with the Draft / Classic path, but also played around a bit with the more direct route using the Classic Block, and was finally able to find how to access the media library. Fingers crossed until next week, since I typically post a week’s worth of daily posts on the weekend.
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Thanks, David, good to hear from you, and that things are going well! I have full access to the media library and so you ought to be ok – I hope so! To get myself going again after this upheaval, I set up a TEST post (which I had no intention of posting) and just messed around with it until I arrived at the “new way of doing things”. Adrian 🙂
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I was switched over some time ago Adrian and simply HATE it ( a word I rarely use) So have been using the classic. I simply copy the last post I made and make the necessary changes to it but yesterday when I did this, as usual, there was new format again and I had to adjust yet again … grrrrrr .
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Ps.. Lovely moment you’ve captured
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Thank you – she is 11 now. 🙂
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Is the workaround method that I’ve described in this post any use to you? Do you have the Classic Editor option when you open the All Posts table, as I describe? 🙂
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I do and seem to be permanently on the classic now but I find it easier just to copy the previous post , actually I have always done that.
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The ‘new’ editor is like some of the old HTML editors of yesterday. The average person hated them. I doubt they will completely remove the browser based one. However, there are plenty of other options for similar web sites. The community is what makes the difference. I might load WordPress on another vendor server if need be. I’ve run it that way in the past.
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Ted, you obviously know far more about these things than I do – eg loading WP onto another vendor server!!! What does that mean?
Think I might put out another post simply asking around for suggestions as to other blogging sites that disenchanted WP users might use if the need arises. It might be as well to have some suggestions + links in advance. Many thanks for your help, Ted! Adrian 🙂
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WordPress is a software, many third party hosting services offer it for a monthly fee. What you lose is easy access to the ‘Reader’ community. People are contacted via auto emails to view posts. Not 100% sure how it works since I never paid attention to Reader until recently.
The new ‘Block Editor’ is a lookalike copy of old web building products. Ones that are gone now, were not well received, yet here we are.
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Ted, that’s very interesting information, thank you very much! Adrian 🙂
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You don’t have to lose access to the community. I think that is a feature of the Jetpack plugin for self-hosted sites.
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That would be good. I had read yesterday Reader was reserved for WordPress.com users. Maybe it was an old article.
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I am not entirely sure without researching it again. But I remember the plugin comes with it.
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I’ll dig around later since I’m curious. Good to know if I ever did move.
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So… a paid subscription to Jetpack allows user from other WP hosts to have their ‘Tags’ display in reader. It’s through RSS. That makes sense. I found nothing on ‘followers though’. Another WP user can receive emails when new posts are available. But a standard ‘follower’ I don’t see being addressed.
If people were to move away from WP.com they had best be ‘nerds’ anyway. I have had multiple WP sites on outsides hosts and my own servers. I personally don’t want to spend my time with IT projects, I’m a photographer LOL. Been there, done that 🙂
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Ted, I wholeheartedly agree with your final paragraph – I’m not here for IT, I’m here for photography, and writing too. 🙂
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You have a good point there. I’m coming from that area too. I’ve installed and designed WP on outside hosting solutions for self-employed family members and acquaintances, under contract. I’ve also had my own self-hosted projects in the past. It makes sense in many cases. But it’s overkill for a “diary blog”, “photo blog”… or anything personal.
Anyway. If a certain point is reached, I wouldn’t be afraid to make the move. I have all the skillsets to build a self-hosted site from scratch, and the skillsets to move an entire site without losing domain juice.
There is a point where Automattic’s terrible changes become more annoying than actually maintaining or updating a self-hosted installation. Even in the case of a personal site.
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Thanks for this.
I will dig around a bit but the ‘three dots’ route didn’t reveal a ‘classic editor’ option for me! So maybe that route has already been blocked off in my case. I’ve looked through various settings and if the classic editor is available to me then it is buried deep in such a way as it is impossible to find.
The block editor is horrible and limiting and only reveals all it’s nasty quirks once you start to use it.
I started using it a couple of weeks ago, mainly because I couldn’t fight with trying to find the classic editor!
So far my experience is much slower than with the old editor and I cannot present my images in the same way. If I posted a few images I’d usually add spaces between them to give a bit of separation. I cannot figure out how to do this. It is infuriating but as I say I’m not wrestling with it too much because it gets in the way of any pleasure I have left in using WordPress.
The joy of using WordPress was that it was possible quite easily to present images in a nice way that suited my personal taste. Even if someone was using the same ‘theme’ as me, our blogs might look slightly different.
I can only imagine the block editor is something to do with people blogging from their phones or something that I don’t do. I cannot see a reason why WordPress have imposed this on everyone.
I remember when WordPress changed the ‘Reader’ view and it was blogs containing images that suffered most!
I will keep an eye on this blog post to see how others are getting on…
In the meantime I hope you can carry on blogging and I’ll send my best wishes that you have a great weekend,
Mr C 🙂
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I’m not sure that this will help, but have you tried going into the Block Editor and looking in the “three dots” menu there for the Classic Editor option?
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Thanks for this. I haven’t had any problems with the Classic Editor as yet but they are warning me to get used to the new block editor before they remove the classic version for everyone. I haven’t tried it to know whether I can use it or not – guess I’d better have a look.
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Well I first got wind of this from a chance glance at a WP blog post sometime back, and I’m sure it said that affected users would receive an email warning them of the editor change sometime in advance. However it hit me out of the blue this morning, and likely the same will apply to you.
I’m wondering if its been affecting more recent users first, such that us old ‘uns are being infected later??? You started at WP about the same time I did, 9 or 10 years back, so your “updating” could be imminent.
However, keep this post bookmarked or something, or tie a knot in your wellies of something >>> and you can of course always contact me on the blog or by email if you’re in difficulties. A 🙂
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I just clicked on the alternative ‘add new post’ and briefly saw the awfulness of it; good grief. I’ve come over all nauseous and dizzy. Yes – I started around 9 years ago – coming up to 10 years fairly soon. Maybe they won’t find me in the wilds of Wales; shhh – don’t tell ’em Pike 🙂 🙂
I have bookmarked this post. Will be in touch if there are problems. Thanks!
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I haven’t seen anyone mentioning that they like Gutenberg. I don’t either. Yes, you found the last workaround but I fear they will remove it entirely at some point so that not even a link to the old editor will help anymore. They just don’t listen to the community. At the moment I always look for the latest workaround (they constantly remove links to the classic editor or change them) too and inform people about it so that they still can have joy with blogging.
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Dennis, very good to hear from you! And to hear of your efforts to keep the really very useful WP Classic Editor in use.
I think you are exactly right about WP simply not listening to its community.
Changing to another blogging platform is not desirable but also not insurmountable and if things become too difficult with WP this is something I shall have to do. Thanks again – and keep up the good work! Adrian 🙂
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Right. I can certainly adapt but not to things that are badly designed from the ground up. I’m ok with more complexity as I’ve used professional tools that are far more complex than this. But it’s a huge difference if something is complex and well designed, or complex and badly designed. And forcing me to use it won’t work. I won’t adapt to things with bad usability, I simply will find alternatives at some point too. I’m glad we still have some time to find out what we will do when things become too difficult here. Because as you said, moving blog content is not a desirable change, but will eventually be our only option.
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