Feedback Thread for the Block Editor
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@mabel
Thank you for your support, I needed it.
Re- your second comment may I suggest a small amendment? Hit enter once for a new paragraph WITHOUT A BLANK LINE (which is needed but unavailable today), twice for a blank line and three times for two white lines.
It would also need to accept all the HTML tags that the classic editor accepts for font size, alignment, RTL (which I use a lot and which requires div) colours and background colours, line break, bold, italics etc. as at present, even if you yourself do not need them all. This is not asking too much.
I still prefer my solution, but regard this as nearly as good and admittedly with more chance of acceptance. -
I did not author the “second comment” – the only reason to focus on that quote from a fellow member on page 11 was to demonstrate to valsrealife that staff are actually welcoming suggestions re the issue on hand in this thread thus you would not need to post in “Ideas”.
(I had meant to include the comment number as a link, in my first comment, but the link vanished so I was forced to post the quote in a second comment box.) -
@mabelamber and @halilac, I don’t think @valsrealife had meant to suggest @halilac ‘s question wasn’t about the block editor, rather that creating a new thread and adding the tag ‘modlook’ would get staff attention quicker, as this is clearly what @halilac wants.
As @supernovia stated at the start of this feedback thread, staff will not be able to reply to every single comment — and not immediately. There are now reaching 250 comments in this thread — reading through even a small chunk of them might take a while. It’s also important to note that, as it’s a weekend at the moment, things are a bit slower. (The WordPress staff do a lot for us; they deserve a break at some point!)
I realise, @halilac, that this isn’t the first time you’ve asked this question (I believe the first time was https://wordpress.com/forums/topic/feedback-thread-for-the-block-editor/page/6/#post-3505885 or the comment just below that), but the first time you did ask, many comments had also been posted since the last staff reply; perhaps staff had a lot of feedback and questions they needed to answer.
However, creating your own thread, and tagging for staff attention with modlook, may get their attention quicker. Staff go through threads tagged with modlook every day (replying to the older comments first, but it looks like there aren’t actually that many at the moment). I also did this for a block-related question, as @supernovia had suggested, the day before yesterday, and my problem has already been resolved. -
I was also responding to this bit in valsrealife comment:
Also, if you have ideas of how to make the site better, then the Support forum is not the place for it. Instead, post your ideas to the Ideas Forum, which is here etc.:
Which I questioned, since all suggestions at this stage are focused SOLELY on the new Block Editor.
(By now there are quite some comments about comments, the perfect recipe for huge confusion ;-) )
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I wasn’t suggesting that @halilac would need to post in the Ideas forum; only that, as I said, staff will not see and reply to every single comment on this thread, but creating a new one and tagging it with modlook would most likely get a response, either here (because the new thread alerted them to @halilac ‘s comment on this thread) or on the new thread.
I *believe* @valsrealife had meant that, if anyone were to create a new thread about this topic, it would be best placed in Ideas, not Support. (Of course, this is just speculation; obviously I cannot be certain of the intent behind someone else’s comment.)
Either way, I reckon staff will reply to the suggestion now, simply because this will most likely alert them when they next come to read this thread.And yes there are :) (I’m very sorry! I’ve added links to the comment in case it’s helpful!)
This was @halilac’s original post about keeping the Block Editor as an option, not the default (I got the link wrong in my earlier comment):
https://wordpress.com/forums/topic/feedback-thread-for-the-block-editor/page/6/#post-3505919
Which was later added to:
https://wordpress.com/forums/topic/feedback-thread-for-the-block-editor/page/8/#post-3507779
And the latest comment about that (including a question about HTML and comments):
https://wordpress.com/forums/topic/feedback-thread-for-the-block-editor/page/12/#post-3509961
(Sorry again!) -
@writer0001, quote:
I wasn’t suggesting that @halilac would need to post in the Ideas forum;
I know you weren’t. Someone else (valsrealife) suggested that.
https://wordpress.com/forums/topic/feedback-thread-for-the-block-editor/page/12/#post-3509979 -
Thank you @writer0001 You are correct, I meant that by creating a new thread elsewhere in Support, and adding a modlook tag, @halilac could get staff attention more quickly. (By the way, anyone can add a Modlook tag, it doesn’t have to be the OP (Original Poster). You’re also correct in that there are fewer staff present here at weekends. At one time there were no staff present at weekends at all. The majority of responses are from volunteers. There’s also the time difference to bear in mind, both staff and volunteers are all over the world and the person who can best answer a specific support question may not be online, may not even have woken up yet!
@mabelamber Yes, I agree with you: this thread is about the block editor, I’m not disputing that, however part of the query and idea that @halilac posted was about making the Classic editor the default with the block editor as an option. That is definitely not what this thread is about, hence my suggestion that he posts a new thread and adds the modlook tag, so that he can get better attention to what he’s asking. @supernovia’s original post said this: “we want to make our block editor into something you’ll love. If you have specific feedback that we could use to make the block experience better for you, this is the thread for it.” Which means this whole thread is about making our experience of the Block Editor better, not replacing it with one of the older editors.Supernovia also said that the Classic editor is still available. Which it is, because I still use it on two of my blogs and have changed another back from the block editor to the Classic Editor.
As well as that, it’s possible to use the Classic block which is very similar to the fully-fledged Classic editor. The easiest way to type in it is to use shift and Enter (together) once for a new line, and twice for a new paragraph: that way it doesn’t trigger a new block. And you can use the Classic block in the same way as the Classic Editor to put images, etc, in your post.
I do wonder if a lot of people are getting confused by the three post editors, though. The first one – which is now referred to as the Classic Editor and which can be accessed via adding /wp-admin to the end of your blog or site’s URL – existed as the default editor from 2005 when WordPress.com started. In 2015, it was replaced as the default editor by what was known as the Calypso dashboard’s Editor (now it’s being referred to by staff and many others, as the ‘old editor’!) And this year (soon, probably, though it didn’t meet its 1st June deadline, apparently because it had bugs that needed dealing with), the Calypso editor is being replaced by the Block editor which will become the default editor. When it becomes the default editor, all that means is that for blogs and sites that were created before the end of last year, the Classic editor will still be available to use. However, people who’ve created their blogs and sites since the end of last year will not be able to switch over to using it as they won’t have had it in the first place; it’s not built in to new blogs as they mean the Block Editor to be the default editor.
And to define ‘default’, let’s compare it to a modern, digital washing machine which, when turned on for the first time uses its (default) factory settings. You can change its programs per wash or per cycle, and it won’t lose those while you’re using them, but when you turn it off and then on again, it reverts back to its default program. This is NOT to say that the change to the Block Editor or a switch to the Classic Editor won’t hold, I’m just describing the difference between default settings and user-selected settings. It’s the way you write a post that is changing, it won’t affect the content of the post (or the existing content of your blog or site: only you can do that). The jeans you put in the washing machine on a 40 degree cycle with liquid detergent come out as the same jeans even if you put them in on a 30 degree cycle with powder! So it is with your post and page content. The controls you use, won’t change what you post, it’s just that they are different controls.
Hopefully that’s helped define things a little better. I’m not trying to be combative here, please don’t read into my responses anything other than a desire to help. Just like most people in this thread, I also dislike the block editor and would like to see it go away, but we all know that’s not going to happen. As far as I know, it was first created by Automattic (the company that owns WordPress.com and the WordPress software) for people on WordPress.org who self-host. Most of those have commercial or business websites. Then it was brought here to WordPress.com which, although this site also uses the WordPress software, is different. So the staff here have a lot to do to try to adapt it for us, and most of us who are personal bloggers or people with very focussed-topic sites, are not the majority of their users.
Oh and on a personal note: I’ve blogged here on WordPress.com in various blogs since 2009, when I was – albeit with a different username, which is why you won’t see many support responses under my current profile – a volunteer on these forums for three or four years. So I do know what works and what doesn’t in trying to get attention to various problems. That does not mean you have to take my advice or act on my suggestions: what you do is up to you.
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@valsrealive, quote:
In 2015, it was replaced as the default editor by what was known as the Calypso dashboard’s Editor (now it’s being referred to by staff and many others, as the ‘old editor’!)
So I take it that would be the “Beep Beep Boop” editor, no?
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Probably, I was taking a break from blogging then and didn’t use that expression, but when I returned the Calypso editor was the default (which I didn’t like any more than I like the blocks!!)
How the heck did it get called that? Was it that bad when it arrived? (I guess it must’ve been!)
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Here’s the WordPress.com news blog’s announcement of that editor, back in 2015:
and here’s an old article from elsewhere about it (and the rationale behind introducing it at the time):
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@valsrealife, quote:
“How the heck did it get called that? Was it that bad when it arrived? (I guess it must’ve been!)”
After you had logged in, and you opened the editor, there were these blue bubbles and those three words floating upwards, saying just that “Beep Beep Boop” – I was totally horrified, and immediately pressed the button which brought me back to safety, the Classic Editor….
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@valsrealife Those are interesting articles. I have been blogging in WordPress since 2009, so I guess I went through that transition without noticing much. If they wanted to move from coding in php to Javascript, they had good reasons to change, but the editors couldn’t have been that different in functionality or I would have noticed. With the block editor you notice the first time you hit enter that something is way different and it just goes downhill from there.
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The Calypso editor is the default, but we have at the moment, apart from him, two more, the old and the blocks. Unfortunately, the confusion in the nomenclature is occurring because some of the staff started to call Calypso “classic”, but classic is the oldest editor, in the administrative area (which is reproduced in the “classic block”). The editor who is leaving is the Calypso.
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I hadn’t experienced any trouble avoiding either the Calypso editor or the Block Editor on my old accounts. But I wanted to better understand what new account holders were experiencing, so today I created a new account. On the new site in my new account all editor links open to the Block Editor, both via WP-Admin and My Site, and I find none of the following options that were present on my older accounts:
1. The “Switch to Classic” option at the bottom of Settings in the Block Editor.
2. A toggle betweeen “Block Editor” and “Classic Editor” at All Posts and All Pages in WP-Admin, which can be disabled (eliminated) by choosing to “Switch to Classic” option at the bottom of Settings in the Block Editor.
3. “Classic Editor” links under individual posts and pages, All Posts and All Pages, in WP-Admin, which can be disabled (eliminated) by choosing to “Switch to Classic” option at the bottom of Settings in the Block Editor.
All Edit links go the Block Editor (front and backend), and I find no switch option anywhere.
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If you created a new account, your site will also have been created with one of the new Varia child themes, which were all specifically created for the block editor. If you have one of those themes active on a site, the option to switch to classic is not available, as those themes don’t work with the classic editor.
To discuss this further, please create a new thread or make a post on the volunteers blog. The intent for this sticky thread is for feedback on the block editor.
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@vals
the Classic editor will still be available to use. However, people who’ve created their blogs and sites since the end of last year will not be able to switch over to using it as they won’t have had it in the first place
and @musicdoc
All Edit links go the Block Editor (front and backend), and I find no switch option anywhere.
If new users cannot get the classic editor, it means that the promise earlier that the classic editor will continue for the foreseeable future, that there are no plans to remove it, is at least misleading as it is only a half-truth.
Also, does this apply only to new accounts, or also to new sites in existing accounts? -
Kokkieh’s remark
The intent for this sticky thread is for feedback on the block editor.
Musicdoc’s comment to which he replied IS feedback on the block editor, concerning the absence there of a switch to the classical.
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@halilac – And kokkieh’s reply to musicdoc1 was clear on the reason for that absence. :)
Regardless, I feel we’ve gone off topic to the stated reason and purpose for this forum thread which was to collect feedback on the block editor. Please read @supernovia’s initial post https://wordpress.com/forums/topic/feedback-thread-for-the-block-editor/#post-3497668
I’ll quote it here to save time.
The Block Editor came to WordPress three years ago. Since then, we’ve worked hard to make it a smooth, powerful editing experience. But while many of our customers at WordPress.com use it exclusively, if you’re reading this thread you’re likely one who liked our older editor better.
Maintaining multiple editors is no small task. The block editor will be the standard going forward, though you can still use the classic WordPress editor if you’d like. But we want to make our block editor into something you’ll love. If you have specific feedback that we could use to make the block experience better for you, this is the thread for it.
Staff will not reply to every comment, and we will not be able to implement every idea. But we will be taking notes for future iterations.
So let us know:
– What’s your typical process?
– What is getting in the way?
– If you could adjust one feature, what would it be?If you really want to use the classic editor, it is still available. We also have tips for transitioning from the Classic Editor to Blocks, and FAQs.
As always, thank you for abiding by our community standards. Please take time to review them here.
If you need support for a problem you’ve encountered while using the Block Editor (try it out on a test site if you prefer), open a separate thread at https://wordpress.com/help/contact or at https://wordpress.com/forums?new=1 and add the MODLOOK tag.
In your thread, please include the address of the site you are working on and give details about:
1. what steps you took
2. what happened as a result
3. what you expected to happen.Screenshots are always helpful. https://wordpress.com/support/make-a-screenshot/
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@justjenifer & others
People who use and/or read this site are those interested in the block editor and all about it and its shortcomings.
If all sorts of other threads are started on the same topic, where do we find them?
The main page for the fora (or forums) only gives a reference to those started in the past few hours.
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