Some time ago WordPress introduced the block editor, giving much greater functionality than the old classic editor. This probably seemed a great idea to the geeks at WordPress HQ.
The problem is: it’s far harder to use than the classic editor, which is much like any old editor of the past couple of decades. Or at least it wasn’t a problem until they made the block editor the default, so you have to rummage around to find the classic editor, hidden away in the detail.
This makes blogging harder; why do that?
Now I have to admit to having used the block editor on web pages, when it gives some very nifty features to simply achieve complex things. But for my blog posts the classic editor is quite sufficient. You could almost make a general rule – classic editor for blog posts and simple pages, block editor for doing clever things.
But they didn’t, and foisted the block editor on everyone by default. Worse, they pretend it’s easy to use. It isn’t, as its unpopularity reflects.
Come on WordPress, let me default back to the classic editor on my blog. Get a grip, you started as a great blogging platform.
What do you other bloggers think?
I can't believe it! 
And I thought it was just me! Since that change I found it very difficult to reblog anything until a week or so ago when something changed and I can now repost some things easier?
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Well that’s interesting….I can’t reblog Barry’s posting on this topic, and I’m the one that’s been nitterly mmoaning about how difficult it is to actually bog anything without a lot of hassle. It’s now not letting me reblog it so am I a satisfied customer WordPress? Definitely not!
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I’m really glad to see this topic, Barry. I hope you get lots of feedback. I’ve read nothing but complaints about the block editor. For some reason – knock on wood – although I keep getting warnings from WP, it hasn’t become my default and I have studiously avoided clicking any of the “click here to try it” links. I did get an email from WP a few weeks ago saying that it was going to become the default editor soon and explaining how I can default back to the classic editor I’ve saved that email! I also use the “classic” Windows desktop and drive a manual shift car. I like to keep the control!! What are the main irritants with the block editor?
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Thanks, Jane. I don’t know how you’ve avoided the dreaded block editor becoming default, but I guess you’re living on borrowed time! The main irritant of the block editor is that it’s alien, different, and not intuitive. And you have to keep track of a load of blocks that you didn’t want for straight text.
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Yikes. I definitely have to dig out that WP email explaining how to reestablish the classic editor once the default changes for me!
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I thought i was the only person who found the block editor cumbersome. Classic is so easy….no need to click around searching for pull down choices….everything was right there on one simple screen. Thanks for reassuring others that we aren’t alone as individuals who find that sometimes the “new and improved” technology is anything but. I maintain a bookmark which takes me directly to “all posts”. After I create a new post by putting in a title, I save and then I hit that bookmark so I can easily choose “classic editor” to continue putting together my post in an easy to use format.
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Thanks for commenting, Loret. I like your ‘bookmark’ tip, which saves remembering the more devious route to getting to create posts with the classic editor.
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And it’s frustrating and time consuning trying to work out how to worked the b…. blocks too. All seems to be designed to thwart spontaneity & creativity in favour of those techies who like this sort of stuff. Not professional AT ALL for those of us who want to write, not fiddle about.
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It’s pretty interesting that while so many bloggers are complaining about the editor, the people at WordPress seem to not really care about it at all. I myself have begun using the Block editor (adapting to change and whatnot), but I find it inferior to the Classic, at least where text editing is concerned. Oh well, I guess I should just focus on the things I can change, so I’m now using Pages/Word to write before copy-pasting into the editor.
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Thanks for commenting, Stuart. I guess using Word is a good work-around, but it shouldn’t be like that – when it was nice and easy before.
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Reblogged this on Eyes in the back of my Head and commented:
As someone who has had the new WordPress Block Editor foisted upon her, this says it all, and more. WordPress – bring back the option of the Classic Editor. Some of us (many!) don’t like this new techie style, we don’t have the time or the inclination to go through a whole new learning curve which we didn’t ask for, so please
BRING BACK THE CLASSIC EDITOR
And thank you if any of you WordPress bigwigs & techies are reading this. Please – just do it.
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With my blog, I don’t use many of the features at all. I almost never reblog, and the last time I did, it was still under the classic editor. I have text and photos. For text, hitting the enter key to start a new paragraph automatically starts a new text block, so I actually didn’t notice the change for a while.
With photos, though… oh, my goodness. It does does NOT want to embed images. I usually resize my photos (to take up less storage space), upload them to my media, then add them to my posts as I write. What I found is that they just don’t want to load. I would keep trying over and over, and nothing. Sometimes, it’s faster to just upload the image directly from my computer, instead – then delete the duplicate from my media later – but that doesn’t always work, either. Lately, what I’ve ended up doing is making an image block, selecting the image from media, and when it doesn’t load, make another image block and doing it again. Then again. Then again. Over and over until one finally loads. Then I remove the ones that failed (by then, they usually have a notice telling me there wasn’t an alt attribute or something like that). Sometimes, I’ll remove a bunch of blocks before continuing. I think I’ve had to do it as many as a dozen times before a single image would finally load.
Some of my posts are very image heavy, so imagine doing this with 6 or more different images in a single post! It’s insane. It wastes time – and data. We have limited data on our internet and have to ration what we have to avoid exorbitant overage fees, so this messes us up on several levels!
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Thanks for commenting. Wow, what a tale of woe. I didn’t know the block editor was so bad!
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Thank you for saying this. I too find the block editor cumbersome and value the simplicity of the classic editor. I have no problem with having a more sophisticated editor available for those who want to use it; but it sucks to be obliged to use it by default on a ‘one size fits all’ basis.
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Yes you’re absolutely right, Harry. The problem is the default. There’d be no problem if you could just add blocks when you want them.
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