I never really understood why organizations take a perfectly good product and eff it up. For example the old Word Press editor. It worked fine. If I wanted to write “visually” I’d just pick the “Visual” tab in the editor. If I preferred typing in straight text and manually adjusting markup I’d select the “Text” tab. If I wanted to add a picture, it was really easy. All I had to do was put the cursor where I wanted the picture, click the “Add Media” button, and select my image. A very simple, 2 step process.
The new editor SUCKS…
Now it’s different. First I have to type my text into a paragraph “block.” If I decided later to add an image, I have to add an image “block.” Since “blocks” are added at the bottom of the edit window, I then have to position my newly added image “block” above the paragraph I want it inserted into, then tell the image block where to position itself in the paragraph and “OH GEE WHIZ it’s like MAGIC how the text of the paragraph magically wraps itself around the image. Except it’s not magic, it sucks. Why? Because what used to take only 2 steps now takes 4 – and the marketing geniuses at WP tout this as a “feature.” Yeah, right… So what about adding headings between paragraphs?
Yeah, what about adding a heading? In the old editor, it was really easy. Just put my cursor where I wanted the heading, type it, highlight it, click a drop down, and pick the format I wanted for that text (header and style or paragraph) and BAM!!! My new header positioned just where I want it. No fuss, no hassle. In the new editor though, same problem as adding pictures. I have to add my header block at the bottom of the post, then manually re-position it to where I want it. STUPID!!! So what about line breaks?
Line breaks…
Is it even possible to add a simple line break in the new editor? With the old editor, inserting a line break was easy – just make sure you’re in Text mode (by clicking the “Text” tab in the editor), put the cursor where you want the line break, hit “Enter” on your keyboard, and VIOLA!!! The editor would auto-magically put in a line break for you. It worked the same way in Visual mode, except you’d get a new paragraph instead of a line break. The new editor is different. You can still edit in raw text (now they call it “Code” instead of “Text”), but typing a return (or enter) character gets you nothing – you have to manually enter the </br> tag where you want it. I guess it’s OK if you know HTML (even though it’s an extra step you DIDN’T HAVE TO DO in the old editor), but if you don’t know HTML you’re screwed. Well, at least if you want a line break and not a new paragraph.
Other gripes, esp. Text (Code) editing…
In the old editor, switching between text and visual editing was easy – just click on the Visual or Text tab at the top of the editing field. In the new editor, you have to select the “more tools and options” icon in the top right, then pick what editing mode you want. Just another thing that used to be an easy, intuitive ONE STEP process that now requires two steps.
My other gripe about the new Text… sorry, “Code” editing mode is you lose EVERYTHING that makes adding elements easy. In the old editor – even in text mode – you could highlight text and format it by clicking a button above the editing field. In the new editor – NO. You have to be in block-head mode if you want to have the text formatting tools available. If it was easier to switch between modes (like it was in the old editor) it wouldn’t be as big a deal. As it stands, it’s just another DOWN-grade being touted as an upgrade.
Peace out (with manually added line break),
porcupine